Friday, August 05, 2011

Which would you rather pay for...

Over at Cruisers forum there is a thread entitled "$105/Hour Too Much for Boatwork ?" and as things go over at CF the question is never answered but everyone has an opinion or a snarky comment...

What do I think? Well, to steal a quote from one of my favorite films... $105 is too fucking high!




Since the job in question deals with rigging, a few books and DVD's will provide 90% of the knowledge you need to do your own rigging and you'll have to provide the remaining 10% which is simply common sense...

Brion Toss (AKA Mr Knot) is something of a one stop shop for things of an educational nature pertaining to rigging. His writing is both entertaining, clear and he keeps everything simple while still showing a lot of enthusiasm for the work at hand (which I might add is contagious).

"The Complete Rigger's Apprentice" is a must have on your boat's bookshelf, as is "The Rigging Handbook" which, between the two, will give you the needful information to work on your rig or rig it from scratch if the need arises.

I'd also throw in his "Inspecting Your Rig" and "Tuning Your Rig" DVDs as needful resources. They are both excellent and I keep finding them of value every time I watch them. For those unused to working aloft, Mr Toss also has a DVD dedicated to "Going Aloft" which I wish I'd had a chance to watch way back when as it would have saved me a lot of work and no small amount of pain over the years.

It just occurred to me that if you were to buy all of the Brion Toss titles mentioned you'd spend less than that rigger was asking for a single hours' labor and travel expenses... Kind of makes you think!

Listening to John Sebastian

So it goes...