Things that go bump and a thought... Halloween.

Halloween has always been something of a special holiday for me... Part of the reason, I think, was the gateway effect of being the first of the whole string of Halloween/Thanksgiving/Xmas/Hanukkah/New Years... Of course, the fact that there was a whole lot of candy involved was key, but I think for the most part, is was the fact that all the TV stations ran a lot of old and not so great movies... I have always had a soft spot for Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein!

Living on a boat and sailing in the Caribbean brings another factor to Halloween these days for me it is the day that I breathe a long sigh of relief and know that while a hurricane is still a possible it is much less likely and that huge stress level gets clicked down to "2" from being at "9"... No bad thing!

Sadly the pervasive climate of fear somehow makes the whole Halloween thing something of a non starter these days for kids... Most of that fear being like the rest of the fear that is part and parcel of living in 2009... Bogus. We are all doing ourselves a disservice being afraid of boogie men that simply do not exist except to advance various folk's agendas... Fitting in a weird way that a holiday based on dealing with fear is being outlawed in places due to fear (and fear with no real basis).

So tonight I will make something special for dinner, listen to some tunes to get into the mood and get out a DVD of things that go bump in the night and be just that little bit sad that I am not someplace where the doorbell rings and kids come to trick or treat...

Buffy and Willow ready and waiting...

Preparing for the Zombie Apocalypse...part 2

Several Boat Bits readers more up on Zombie lore than I happen to be (one does wonder about these folks!) have recently pointed out the following...

1. While Zombies may not be able to swim they can walk on the bottom very easily and are more than able to climb anchor rode...

2. That certain Mega-silliness yacht owners display all sorts of Zombie attributes and that a weather eye should be cast in their direction... and do not the words Maltese Falcon and Zombie Mobile go together like soup and sandwich?

3. There is a good chance that Zombies may actually be able to sail and kick some serious ass in the process... It is a well known fact in certain sailing circles that the diet of some rock star sailors of the "They Think they are rock stars ilk" is... How shall we say it... "Questionable". So in might make sense to give boats involved with the likes of Dennis Connors and Peter Holmberg aboard a very wide berth!

4. Power boaters, in general, are all suspect being soulless creatures in any thinking persons book... Lucky for us they are all pretty much brainless as well!

Now, where is my machete?

The list calls out...

It's a nice if windy day today... The list calls!

The point of lists is not to be their slave but simply do them as needful. Today it is a couple of mini bulkheads in the forepeak so I can shoehorn in a few more books. Doing a new floorboard for the dinghy and installing the new stereo!

The trick is to enjoy the process! Ratty certainly had it right....

"There is nothing--absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats."

Can't have too many flashlights...

I've always been of the "You can't have too many flashlights on a boat" camp... Too many is just enough!

On "So It Goes" I keep trying to find a better flashlight of the LED variety but keep running into problems. All of the expensive flashlights don't seem to perform as well as the less expensive flashlights I have bought of late which has made me wonder no small amount...

Those pseudo police wonders that begin with "M" if anything are the worst flashlights on the boat and as they are also the most expensive... Well, it makes you think! I have one of those multi-cell wonders that are supposed to shine brightly as well as being able to hit people over the head with... Truth be told the sucker does not shine at all but I have hit myself on the head with it a time or two in frustration over spending so much money for something that works so badly.

Dorcy, on the other hand, makes a really nice cheap flashlight that just works... We have had three so far and they just work and work even the one in the dinghy which is more often than not wet. For less than $10 you have say YOWZA!

Which is why I am seriously interested in the $25ish flashlight Dorcy now has on offer as reports from friends is that it is not only compact but very very bright! If it holds up half as long as the under $10 dollar Dorcy, it's a winner!

Contest notes...

Well, to be truthful, the deluge of "I have a Cunning plan" entries are not exactly the stuff of wonderment and... well, cunning!

You folks can do better!

So just as a little bit of an enticement/taste maybe I should mention that BEBI electronics will be providing one of their awesome LED lights, Glowfast will have something useful for a winner, as will TruPlug and Hawaii Fishing Lures ...

Be cunning!

A good book and a great website... Bingham and Boatyard Pirates!

I get asked a lot about needful books on Boat building and suchlike but for interior joinery there really is only one book that needs to be on everyone's shelf and that is Fred Bingham's "Boat Joinery & Cabinetmaking Simplified"

It's the real deal!

Speaking of the work of Fred Bingham... I recently came across a great website, Boatyard Pirates by a couple who are doing up one of Fred's Allegra designs (maybe one of the best pocket cruisers ever designed).

It's a great site with a lot of interesting stuff and it is refreshing to find someone else with the mother of all "lists"... Check it out!

Soupy Sales...

I am who I am because of a lot of things... The music of John Stewart, Brian Wilson and the Beatles, the writing of Erskine Childers, Robert Heinlein and so many others... So many others in fact that it sometimes takes ones passing to sit back for a moment and say to myself... Yes he was important!

Soupy Sales... 1926-2009



Lefsetz says it a lot better than I can...

Another voice... Electric propulsion Guest blogger

Bob asked me to write a guest column for Boat Bits about electric propulsion for cruisers. How could I refuse such an honor? On reflection I remembered his remarks about nay-sayers to his electric motor posts and suddenly felt like a flak jacket. So it goes..... (Oh how I have been waiting to use that line!)

The Admiral and I started the cruising life aboard our Freedom 32 last February - departing from Mobile, AL. Although much study had warned us that extensive motoring would be necessary, we scoffed knowing that we were sailors! My recently installed electric motor would provide the occasional assist required and be quickly re-charged by my large solar panel.

Day one nixed that plan when, in the middle of Mobile Bay, the wind died for the first time in weeks. We had completed 11 miles of a planned 44 miles to our first cruising anchorage. Admiral De Anne said "OK, now we see what YOUR electric motor can do". I turned it on, powered up to 20amps (50 amps is max) and started the Honda 2000i generator. I plugged the generator into our shorepower receptical and turned on the battery charger. We motored 33 miles into the ICW (intercoastal waterway) and to our first anchorage in Ingram's Bayou AL.

Since that first day we covered 595 miles before stopping for hurricane season in Fort Myers FL. We sailed 352 miles and powered the rest. We have had those days when the original idea of motoring into, and out of anchorages or slips with sailing in between have come to fruition, but Mother Nature doesn't always give you wind nor NOAA predict it from the right direction.

During this first season our electric motor has performed flawlessly. We have met other cruisers along the way that are unable to say the same for their diesel engines. But the gentle reader may ask "what if something goes wrong with the motor?" - why then, I take my spare motor out of the locker and replace it in about 15 minutes. I also carry a spare drive belt and throttle.

I will be the first to admit that covering long distances at hull speed is not the forte of an electric motor. At least not the battery powered ones. If you have appointments to keep and schedules to follow this is not for you; however if you are under those constraints perhaps a sailboat should not be your first choice in boating.

Electric is less expensive and it is more reliable than diesel. Your nose and ears will notice a difference. You will clean you bilge one more time - then occasionally dust it. A new hobby will be needed to fill all those diesel maintenance and repair hours.

Electric propulsion for cruising boats has arrived.

Merrick, when not guest blogging, can be found on his own blog... He and De Anne are currently working their way down to the Caribbean towards Trinidad on their Freedom "Rising Star"

One list we don't need...

One blog I have been enjoying is Zero To Cruising and today's post is all about doing the Winterizing checklist gig and for those who are in places where the whole winterizing checklist actually makes sense should give it a read! Being in the tropics I would be all smug about not needing such a list but down here in Paradise we have our own list problems...

Since we have been working on our own set of lists in getting the boat and ourselves ready to head back across the Atlantic all of a sudden we have become the slaves of lists ourselves. Lists of needful charts, lists of gear for the boat, lists relating to cat passports, lists for repainting the deck and upgrading the non-skid and list of clothes to get... It gets crazy!

For the record I have not worn long pants in a couple of years or so... I know I have a couple of pair of jeans somewhere but only God and the cats knows where they might be and no one is talking! Same goes for socks... I mean, I know I have socks somewhere but so far where they might be is some kind of a mystery and shoes... I need shoes!

I need a "real world/civilization Teva's don't cut it" list!

The Sea Kayak alternative...

I've ranted in the past about how I am not overly happy with various dinghies of the inflatable variety... Expensive, heavy, bulky and wet seems to be the norm and you'd think that inflatable technology would have been a bit more advanced... Talk about the evolutionary state of fishing with clubs!

The big problem is most inflatable dinghies rely on brute force to get by with and the advent of cheap HP in the form of outboards pretty much froze the inflatable dinghy evolution in its tracks. After all why design a better more efficient dinghy when you can simply hang a 25HP motor on the transom... Who needs efficient?

I won't even begin to go into the dinghy butt equation...

It has always surprised me though that more cruisers have not adopted kayaks and canoes as an answer to the dinghy problem... Easy to paddle and with surprising load carrying ability both have serious appeal except for the size problem as having a fourteen foot kayak on deck is somewhat problematic. Of course, you do see a lot of the tupperware kayak variety which are a somewhat bastard child of the kayak/canoe form which mostly just sit on charter boats and succumb to UV as they don't paddle very well and are too heavy for most folks to want to mess with.

So why not an inflatable kayak? Why not indeed!

I have my eye on a few kayaks... I'll go further into one in a later post (the Hobie Mirage inflatable) but for the moment you might want to take a look at two more "normal" offerings...

The Aire Sea Tiger is an inflatable sea kayak that stows small and only weighs about sixty pounds but has a lot of capacity and unlike a lot of the sit on top tupperware boats can be easily paddled by a single paddler. Having a rudder of course makes it much easier for newbies to get the hang of paddling... Not cheap at around $2400 it starts looking a lot less expensive when you start comparing it to products from Avon and Caribe!

Cheaper and maybe more sailboat friendly is the inflatable sit on top kayak by Advanced Elements the StraitEdge 2 which is both a bit lighter and a lot less expensive while performing better than those tupperware logs. Price is around the $750ish mark.

The thing with either of these boats is they stow small enough to find a place in a cockpit locker out of the way and more importantly out of the sun when not needed, don't use fuel and in yacht terms actually quite inexpensive... What's not to like?

More costs of cruising...

Lin and Larry have a very interesting story about some cruisers who needed a new fuel pump...

Now I'll admit that it is important (but not always crucial) to have all systems up and running but there is one element of this story that I find troubling.

What's with $1179.60 for a fuel pump? We will forget for the moment the silly costs of shipping said pump to the folks who need it but that $1179.60 makes me wonder! I mean that is one expensive fuel pump... One wonders if it comes with Ruby accents, Gold plating and a lifetime supply of KY jelly?

To put it into perspective, I can replace my entire motor for less than $1179.60 (for those with a need to know $500 is the cost of a NEW motor)... Fact is, there is no single component in my Electric propulsion system that costs as much as $1179.60! Just to rub it in, if I have a problem there is a very good chance that I can go to a local motor starter guy and get the whole motor rebuilt for at most a couple of hundred bucks.

$1179.60... YOWZA!

Now, we as boat folk tend to take it for granted that things of a marine nature cost more than they should. It is no secret that we are as much a part of the problem as the greedheads who charge silly prices as WE pay said silly prices and enable them!

Now I'll go out on a limb here, but one way to save a lot of money in this sail away and cruise gig is not to pay silly money for things we need... YOU CAN DO IT!

Fair is fair... More musical instruments for sailboats

It has been pointed out to me that not everyone plays guitar and that there are a surprising number of bass players out there! Funny thing, is that a straw poll shows a much higher number of bass players sail than in the normal population... One does wonder why!

I do feel their pain! Basses and bass guitars are just that little bit bigger so they don't quite fit...ANYWHERE! So unless you want to have a stand up bass in davits, well it does get somewhat problematic!

Guild guitars came out years ago with a very neat little "sort of" bass guitar, "sort of" standup affair called the Ashbory bass. It did not last too long as Guild was going through a bad patch and just did not do any serious promotion of what is a very neat instrument. Small, fretless with silicone rubber band strings and more akin to a stand-bass its toy like appearance made most people pass it by...

Guild wound up being acquired by mega guitar builder Fender who really did not seem to know what to do with a lot of the excellent electric guitars in the Guild catalog. So they more or less shuffled them into a side brand of the also acquired DeArmond name and apparently forgot about them (DeArmond being one of the all time great builders of pick ups). So you can still buy the Ashbory which is just about the perfect bass for a sailboat without resorting to davits!

Next we will look at the concept of Hammond B3's and pocket cruisers!

On the costs of cruising... Sort of

One thing I keep hearing is that the associated costs of cruising keep going up and while you cannot argue that some costs are going up it is not as dark a picture as some would have you believe...

There are any number of ways to save money while sailing without cutting back on the quality of your life and lifestyle. it just takes some thought and industry!

The biggest change you can make in your outgoing expenses is to simply track what you are spending... After a couple months of WTF moments as you peruse what you spent and where the money goes it becomes easy to cut back.

Another way is to learn from others! A really good place to start would be the various blogs that are doing the eating on $30 a week thing...

Some time ago a friend pointed me to a blog called Running With Tweezers as they were in the process of doing a series on no small political import... Namely eating a diet that related to what a too large portion of the USA lives on (the average for people on public assistance spend between $21 and $24 a week on food)... Hence the Eat on $30 project.

It was a good series. So good in fact that many other bloggers are running with it as well and "Running With Tweezers" and numerous others are doing it again, read about it!

On the costs of cruising...

Way back, when we quit our jobs and set off to sail away in the general direction of Africa and points west, we were at a serious disadvantage as we simply did not have a clue as to what the whole cruising gig cost.

Part of the problem, of course, is that folks tend to be coy about things related to money... No one wants you to think they have to actually budget or pinch pennies (though we all do) so you get a lot of advice of the "cruising costs what it costs" sort! Which is, of course, accurate yet useless...

Now, I happen to be Mr Serious Cheap Seats... I get great satisfaction out of getting a deal and paying less. What's more I am PROUD of it! You will never catch me apologizing for getting a good deal on something or paying less! In my world view, people who pay silly prices for things and don't understand value are not bright people. Now don't confuse getting good value "cheap" with being "cheap"... There is a world of difference!

So for those readers who are not of snobbish and pretentious ilk and want to save a few bucks... Welcome to my world!

The internet is some kind of wonderful thing and I sure wish it had been around all those years ago when we headed "out west" and now that we seem to be about to point the boat east towards Europe, there are all sorts of ways that the internet is our friend!

The first being is that everyone keeps telling us that the Med and Europe are TOO expensive. So much so, that we were actually beginning to believe it. Luckily, where money is concerned, I never believe anyone without checking first. Lo and behold the Med, if you look at grocery prices, marina costs and haul out costs, is actually CHEAPER than the Caribbean! Right across the board stuff is cheaper with the notable exception of spirits! So while there is no $4 rum (I admit this one fact is somewhat problematic) and quality wines are a bit higher, the fact that I'd be paying 33% less or so for groceries goes a long way to making things affordable.

Looking at marinas and haul out situations in the Med, I'm seeing the same thing... Listed rates are certainly cheaper than here in the Caribbean and our personal experience with doing the boat gig in Europe before is listed rates are just a guideline. More often than not a smile and a bit of horse trading will secure an even better rate. I should also add that once you get to a place and interface with locals they will often steer you to better deals  as well!

So the big lesson here is simply do some homework... It might surprise you!

On speaking Icelandic... A cat design I like!

Over the last few years I have spent what seems like a lot of time talking to various yacht designers about the "next" boat. On the whole they are helpful and seem to be more than willing to do the design of my dreams but at some point it seems we begin to speak in different languages. Maybe I speak Icelandic?

Apparently while I am suggesting that I want an open bridge deck catamaran their Babelfish translator comes up with "I really really want a bridge deck cabin" When I say I want a moderate rig that is not too much longer than the LOA of the boat they apparently hear "I want a carbon fiber five spreader rig...The taller the better!"  and the phrase "affordable/sensible" somehow becomes "silly expensive/hightech"!

And, so it does go...

Now the Sig 45 by LeBreton is a boat I can actually show people! An open bridge deck cat that makes sense! Decent accommodation in the hulls only. Of course it is far too pricey and in my mind an easily driven hull really does not need such a tall mast and big sail area but at least it is a start!

Sadly I have pretty much given up on the whole multihull thing as the problematic aspects of being too wide for the canals of Europe but if someone ran with this sort of idea a bit more who knows?

Preparing for the Zombie apocalypse... Is your boat ready?

Doing a blog on boat stuff leads you to all sorts of interesting places you'd never think of...

Case in point: a couple of weeks ago I started noticing that Boat Bits was getting a lot of visits from the Zombie Squad forum... The "We make dead things deader" folk.

Zombie Squad?

Yes, Zombie Squad! Apparently it is a forum devoted to survivalist types awaiting and preparing for the future zombie apocalypse.

Sure, why not? As forums go, it is kind of interesting (they even do good works and charity stuff!) but I don't expect much in the way of trouble on the zombie front for us sailing folk and boat dwellers...

Everyone knows that Zombies can't swim!

I'm more worried about threats of the Vampiric variety... I for one, remember very well what happened when Dracula took that little sea cruise on his way to merry olde England!

Of course, the whole secret to this boat gig is what they told me just before they drummed me out of the Cub Scouts... Be prepared! A simple message we can all live by and whether it is dealing with holes in hulls or Zombie apocalypse and things that go bump in the night, it is important to be ready!

For those of a like mind, may I offer up the TruPlug... A replacement for those old wooden plugs we all carry around... Truth be told, this is really a very good idea and while being made of foam cannot be sharpened like the wood plugs to do double duty as a Mr Pointy stake for vampirac excess but they do seem to be the bee's knees at keeping water out of the boat!

On the other hand, I should also point out that there are some excellent deals on Vampire killing kits from time to time. De rigueur for travelers in the 1800's and just maybe not such a bad idea these days... After all, take a long hard look at the last VP of the U.S.of A... Things Do go bump in the night!

Geek city... The chart edition

Since we are going to be sailing over to the Med in the not too distant future, the "LIST" seems to continue to grow and includes some geeky stuff that is not the normal day to day projects that is the norm on "So It Goes"...

Charts are high on the list, and with the costs these days not a fun one. So I keep looking for deals of various sorts but not so many these days and I will be happy when the exodus of sailors coming from Europe arrive as hopefully we will be able to buy and trade the needful chart coverage. Failing that Belingham Chart Printers provides good quality copies of charts and we sailed the Med to the Caribbean using xeroxed charts before, but even so, the prices even on copies is painful!

Which brings us to the geeky stuff (don't worry I won't go all Panbo on you) and electronic charts. A chip containing the Med and Black sea charts is not so bad as the "street" price is just less than $290 (compared to the the same coverage in 2/3 sized xeroxed charts from Bellingham Chart Printers at nearly $2000!)

Of course you still need paper charts...

One interesting source or idea for a back up chart system is the charts available for the iPhone as the Navionics chart coverage for the Med costs less than $12. WTF? Of course, you need an iPhone and as I am phone-phobic and don't really want to own a phone (Globalstar does not count as it never works long enough to actually be problematic!) as people might call me and I'd have to talk to them...

Of course, what I'd really like to use is the iPod Touch but the Touch does not have GPS which is where the geek thing comes in... Apparently there is a hack that allows you to add GPS to a Touch and while maybe a bit clunky having an external GPS via BlueTooth, it is an option! This would also, I believe, allow most of the neat sailing applications (like SailMaster) for the iPhone to be used on the Touch... Cool!  I suppose the iPhone makes more sense for most folk but I do like having a Touch option!

On less being more... The tiny house movement

I'm not bragging but I am fairly good at seeing developing trends. If I have a problem it is that I tend to get on whatever wave I'm riding a little before it seems acceptable or doable in an easy fashion... Electric propulsion being a good example, We are maybe two or three years away from electric propulsion being fully accepted and the "Bee's knees", yet I have been doing the electric propulsion thing for nearly six years. Before that is was catamarans and ULDB sharpies...

Being a bit ahead of the crowd is not something I advise as a general rule as its stressful and breaking trail is never an easy thing, nor is being laughed at or ridiculed. That said, I would not have it any other way as I enjoy doing what seems right.

Another trend, already well entrenched, is the "Tiny House" movement, people building and living in little houses that are based on what they need, not what they want... For us boat folk, it is interesting to look on as the Tiny House brigade finds out what people on boats have known for ages. Which is not to say that these intrepid folk can not teach those of us on boats a thing or two. They are coming to the whole living in a tiny space from a new direction with fresh eyes and I expect to garner some great ideas from this direction.

For people living in little boxes, they as a group are surprisingly "out of the box"... A GOOD thing!

Cross fertilization is a needful thing and watching the Tiny House folk mine the small trailer tech is an interesting development as all of a sudden the tiny house blogs I read are looking at little teardrop trailers and VW vans. They are hungry for ideas, and truth be told, I don't even think they have reached the main course yet!

For those interested in the Tiny House thing a great place to get started is the Tiny House Blog

Columbus and the impossible factor...

It's Columbus day...

It is refreshing to keep in mind that old Chris did not have any charts of where he was going.

He did not have Radar, GPS, AIS, Sonar, Radio or an EPIRB.

He did not even have a sextant...

Glad he did not listen to all the folks who said it was all impossible!

I have a cunning plan...

So here is the nitty gritty on the "I have a cunning plan" Boat Bits contest...

It's simple!

You send us (to the email link at the bottom of the page) a "cunning plan" that made your boat better, improved life onboard, made your boat more Eco-friendly or a way to better sail further on less money.

We are not interested in stuff that has already been published somewhere else or the "same old same" idea reworked for the zillionth time. The clue here is something both cunning and new... The more out of the box the better!

It is something that actually has to be in use...

On January 15th our selection committee will look over the best of the ideas and award prizes...

Pretty simple!

We already have some neat prizes and we keep getting more so by prize time we expect some really good stuff!

Seriously important stuff... The merde department

There is often uproar about the state of the GPS satellites but no one ever gives much thought to the various weather satellites which are equally important for those of us who sail as well as EVERYONE else!

The QuikSCAT satellite is nearing failure and needs to be upgraded. Of course those who are running things decide what better time to cut funds to NOAA...

Check out Jeff Master's Blog and read it and do what he says... Let your Senators know that cutting funding for the NOAA and voting for Amendment #2666 is a seriously bad idea. The vote is scheduled for this coming Tuesday... So do it NOW!


It is important!

VHF, DSC and Navagear...

I'm old enough to remember the editorials being spouted in some sailing magazines about how the introduction of affordable VHF radios was the thin edge of the wedge that would destroy seamanship as we know it... All these years later I'll admit that there is a decided lack of seamanship in a lot of quarters but VHF is not the cause and I'll more than likely rant about that state of affairs one of these days... But today we are talking about VHF!

I'll admit that my eyes tend to glaze over when folks talk about improvements in electronic gear, that in my mind, already works. VHF does work and for the most part I am not overly impressed that next year's line of VHF features may include an automatic toaster, a muzak feature or come in designer Paisley. None of those are reasons for me to replace a perfectly good VHF radio.

I'll admit that the whole DSC thing was of no real interest and most of the folks who seemed excited are ones who make my eyes glaze over...

Not so with Navagear. They have a most excellent discussion on DSC that both makes sense and actually explains why I might actually want to upgrade my VHF... Amazing what happens when people actually write about stuff rather than regurgitate press releases which sadly is what most marine writing is these days...

Self-steering project...The Pardey approach

Another possible solution to the new self-steering gear for "So It Goes" is based on the one used so successfully by Lin and Larry Pardey on their boats...

The vane pivots on the back stay which is a very elegant solution to the whole "yet more crap"  on the transom scenario. Like everything from the Pardey mold it is simple. So simple in fact, that many have trouble that something so simple actually works.

It does...

The vane is being built these days by Freehand Steering but I warn you that the sticker shock may be too much for those with weak hearts... They do make an excellent gear and the cost these days of bronze casting and suchlike has much to do with the high cost ($7500) but a windvane steering you could hand down to future generations is some kind of wonderful.

Of course, me being Mr Cheapseats, I have noticed many DIY Pardey-style steering clones that seemed to work well for those of us in the low rent district!

In my case, since I want to go with an auxiliary rudder system, whatever the cost I'd still have to build it myself as the Pardey system is much more evolved to work with a transom hung rudder.

Cunning plans and Boat Bits...

We are just in the process of putting the finishing touches on the Boat Bits "I have a cunning plan" contest!

The question of the day of course is whether your "cunning plan" is cunning enough?

More soon come...

More on the Self-steering project...

So...

Looking over the files on cool self-steering solutions I came across this vane retrofitted to an RVG gear and I like it! I wish I had had the opportunity to chat with the owner of the boat but we never did catch them onboard.

Anyway you look at it, this is a very nice vane.... and I am pretty sure that this is the general direction I'll be working on.


On our old RVG, I never had any complaints with the amount of rudder area but did feel that the trim tab could have performed a bit better with a more refined foil shape.

So the next job on the list is looking at the trim tab foil...

Bikes, boats, books and some reflection concerning Travis McGee...

Just before I hit that 40 year landmark of life on earth we made a decision to do a Travis McGee and take some retirement while we were at an age where it makes some kind of sense... Retirement on the installment plan if you will.

At the time, it was not a decision that made sense to most people as we had a very good life in Paris, my wife had a job for life in the diplomatic service and as one of the few Steadicam operators in Europe I could look forward to something very hard to find in the film business... job security and interesting projects. Leaving that to go sailing for "a few years" was not something people understood... Most still don't get it.

We'd been members of the SSCA at the time and had noticed an alarming trend in the SSCA newsletters of people who had waited to go cruising, waited till the kids were out of school and set up, waited till they had the perfect boat and then at the very beginning of their voyage would succumb to some ailment or disease. Reading those obituaries in the SSCA newsletter was one of the reasons we decided to go then rather than later.

Some say hind sight is 20/20... Me, I'm not so sure, but I do know that if I was in the same place again I'd do it all again.

Which brings me to "Miles From Nowhere" by Barbara Savage first published in 1983, an excellent book about a couple who decided to ride their bikes around the world and did it. After two years and 25,000 miles Larry and Barbra returned to the "real" world where sadly, Barbra Savage was involved in a cycling accident and died before publication in 1983.

Both a good as well as a must read for anyone setting out to do something now rather than later.

The Mountaineers have an ongoing award The Barbara Savage Miles from Nowhere Memorial Award

As long as I am mentioning a book on biking I should point out that I am waiting for my copy of David Byrnes (Talking Heads) new book on his cycling exploits and thoughts on  subjects varied and knowing Byrne's work, interesting...

"Bicycle Diaries"

Boatbuilding tools... The quest continues

Way back when I was building the very first Loose Moose, a Wharram Tiki 31 catamaran, the building site I was on had no electricity and while waiting to get a generator I simply lost patience and cut out all of the bulkheads and hull panels with a hand saw... The fact is it only took a couple of days and in hindsight if I'd had power for my tools most likely I'd only have saved a day. Power tools are neat but not always needful.

When we built the second Loose Moose I pretty much used a Skil circular saw and a cheap Black and Decker jig saw. For a table saw, I used a cheap table insert that turned my B&D Workmate into a table saw of sorts... All told, I think my investment in tools in those days was less than $200 but they got the job done.

With the last Loose Moose I was lucky in that the hanger I built it in had some decent stationary tools but  most of the work was still done with a simple circular saw, jig saw, power hand planer and router all of which fit into a smallish bag. Truth is you don't need much in the way of tools to build boats...

The one tool I do wish I had onboard "So It Goes" is a small table saw of some sort.  I want to build new hatches (the Lewmars do what Lewmars do so well...LEAK) and it would be so much easier if I was able to have a table saw... That old cheap Black and Decker insert for the Workmate would be just fine but as far as I can see, they don't make them anymore...

Which is why I was so interested in this newish tool kit by Power8 which is a jigsaw, circular saw and drill in a cool case that does double duty as a table saw, drill press and so on. What a NEAT idea!

For someone on a boat who needs some tools and does not have any, this is a pretty good solution and might be a great way to start out. On the other hand, for those of us with a lot of tools already, it's a bit more problematic. I already have trouble with space for tools and I can't see replacing my DeWalts anytime soon. The other thing about the Power8 is that  while not being too expensive ($365) as tools go these days, it is quite expensive when you realize that you can get a much better contracters saw like this Skil for around $100... Though where are you going to have room for even a contracters saw on a voyaging boat? So the Power8 does make quite a bit of sense but it is a compromise.

The point, I guess, is that tools are neat and they help but you can still get the job done with simple hand tools, simple power tools or whatever you have on hand... But I'll let you in on a little secret that I'm not sure I can live without the DeWalt Jig saw... It's that good!

Open source and free Yago 31... Taking the high road in yacht design

A film maker friend and I have been discussing the relative merits and whatnot of things copyright and how difficult it is to make a living in a world where people can get your work for free by simply downloading it...

For certain, doing design and making films is a hard act at best and made a whole lot more difficult if a certain sector of folks feel that they can get what they want for free.

That said "free" does have its place and a very good use of it can be found in the Yago Project.

It used to be the way of the world that the way a new yacht designer would come to people's attention is for him/her to choose some designer and go all old west on him/her. In other words, calling them out in public and attacking their work so people will look at their's. While in my personal opinion this process sucks it has worked for many. I'll just say this... Guys who NEED to pull others down to raise themselves don't have much to offer.

The Yago 31 is a very neat steel origami design that is free from the Yago Project... It is a well thought out design and will get you where you want to go. It's cheap to build and again the plans are FREE. Which to my way of thinking is a much better way to promote yourself as a yacht designer than to say... Call out another designer, trash his work and behave like an asshole. Then again it works for some...

There is a Yago 36 which is not free but certainly affordable and has that little bit more elbow room to make paying for the plans not such a bad idea if you need that extra room.

Of course, I am not a steel guy, and more than likely my building a steel boat is as likely as my next vacation being X-Country skiing in Hades... but if I were going to be building an origami boat in steel, I most certainly would be building a Yago!

On kicking some serious butt with LED's...

One of the ongoing discussions that comes up far too often about boats and suchlike is the whole "guns and cruising" thing.

Just to make sure no one gets the wrong idea here... I think guns on boats is a seriously dumb idea!

But... There is a need to want to protect you and yours. It's primal and I understand  but I also realize having guns on board a boat is a recipe for making things worse, not better.

Over the years I have spent a lot of time and thought on various cunning and not-so-cunning plans to keep bad folks off the boat and to get the upper hand if they do. I should also be truthful and tell you that after all these years I have come up with pretty much zip. So I basically just work on the premise that I need to keep my ear to the ground and avoid places and situations where I might have a problem. So far so good!

But the idea of a non-lethal form of defense is no bad thing and I do keep my eyes open. Recently on one of my electronics geek reads, I came across a sorta/kinda neat project over at Adafruit... The Bedazzler!

Apparently the US Gov and Homeland security wanted to develop a non-lethal weapon that would make folks barf and otherwise spoil their day. They came up with a flashlight that apparently walked the talk and like everything from Government it cost some serious money but what is a million here or there if you have taxpayers footing the bill?

Anyway, clever techie folk realized that they could build the same thing for less than $250. Now I have no idea if it works but it is very cool and as I can think of any number of worse ways to spend time than an electronic project that might do double duty as a real interesting party game... I might even actually give it a try as if it does not work on the barf angle, it might make a very cool disco light!

On paying dues and Junk rigs...

Here at Boat Bits we get a lot of people looking for Junk rig stuff... And for a lot of reasons the Junk rig makes all kinds of sense. IT IS A GOOD RIG!

That said, I have a feeling that a lot of the reasons people are attracted to the Junk rig is not for its advantages or strengths but more for a perceived idea that Junks are somehow easier than Western sailing rigs to sail (This also applies to catamarans) and that one does not have to pay your dues to sail off into the sunset, really both the same thing when you think about it.

I'll try and make this clear... Where learning to sail is concerned, there is no free lunch. Sailing is not rocket science and almost anyone with a double digit IQ can learn to sail in a couple of days. But, like everything worth doing there is a learning curve and you have to pay some dues. Life is like that... Deal with it.

Of course, that is not what some of you want to hear... For those who are covering their ears and muttering "NAH NAH NAH NAH" May I offer a word you might want to adopt as your new mantra...

"TRAWLER"

On the other hand, if you are willing to make the effort to learn to sail the rig, the Junk can be an awesome way to go.

A really good place to go for junk rig info  is 'Jonques de Plaisance' which is something of a hub for Junk rig and I can't think of a better place to start.