For those in the know, the Defender yearly sale is always a good time to load up on the needful, and being a cheapseats sailor I don't buy any major purchases until I check the Defender sale...
This saves a lot of money for a variety of reasons and has little to do with the sale price.
On one hand, it allows me to schedule my gear purchases to the end of March so when I get an urge to buy a new VHF with AIS instead of going right out and buying it, I have to wait till the end of March. This is a great impulse control tool. Since I've scheduled my purchase I'm able to keep an eye out for deals while I'm waiting but unless someone is giving it away, I'm pretty sure it won't be cheaper than the sale so I hold off.
Another advantage of putting major purchases off by up to a year is a lot can happen in the months that you find yourself waiting... Those rapturous initial reviews (cobbled from press releases) in the yachting press which hail the new bit of gear you lust after as a "game changer", "revolutionary", and "sexy" are now a hazy memory and being replaced with real word-of-mouth reviews by folks who may not be quite so enraptured with yet another same old same product with various issues of a funky sort and crappy after sales service... Reality, if you will.
Also, as time goes on you realize that the VHF you have works just fine as does the AIS receiver you have and thoughts of "do I really need to spend $279 on something to replace something that works?" filter in to the equation.
So, in my case the list grows and shrinks over the course of a year until you find yourself sitting looking at the Defender site and doing your order (I did mine yesterday) and find the list of 'must gets' has dwindled to a bit of rope (Amsteel) and a killer deal on a handheld VHF. The VHF/AIS unit, new liferaft, the radar and stereo all deemed so important months ago, no longer needed or surplus to requirements... So, if you look at it in the long view, the Defender sale saved me nearly four thousand dollars.
As a rigger, I have had a couple of close calls going up a mast when power assisted. Once an owner of a boat I was working on used his windlass to haul me up the mast at what seemed like supersonic speed and it got worse when I arrived at the top, battered and bruised, only to find that the windlass would not turn off and as a result was doing its level best to pull me back down through the mast on the inside.
As I recall it was not a lot of fun... and have never allowed myself to be at the mercy of an electric or hydraulic system (or owner for that matter) while working on a rig since.
Just about every malfunction or problem I've come across over the years involving powered winches and windlasses have been caused by switches or motors shorting in open position where it is impossible to shut them off from the winch/windlass. So if you really must have a powered winch (and ignore the fact that needing one is God's way of saying you need a smaller/simpler boat) you should really sort out some sort of emergency cut off switch within easy reach of the winch or windlass.
Willow (the wonder cat) tends to make the daily blog a bit problematic as she considers the morning writing-blog-and-drink-copious-amounts-of-coffee time as something of a It's-time-to-play-with-STRING! time...
Like all addicts, Willow simply cannot get enough of her personal drug of choice (that being left over little pieces of STRING!) and as much as we have tried she simply has no interest in 12-step programs or alternate (more blog friendly) addictions. Face it, this blogging from paradise is not all sunsets and dolphin sighting...
What I was going to talk about was how handy E-Z Lok threaded inserts were for various boat building and wood butchery projects and how pleased I was about finding them on Amazon for thirteen-bucks and change for ten instead of spending $7 a pop at the local discount marine store...
Seriously, these pyratical chandlers really do give a whole new meaning to the word "BUDGET".
Going into more detail though would impinge on the "STRING!" game and I have given up trying to explain the process of "Just say no" to a strung out cat in the midst of serious string binge...
Back in the days when we had not succumbed to the lure of an outboard for the dinghy, folks would often ask us why we anchored so far out in spite of having extreme shoal draft of around fourteen inches...
Partly, the answer involved the fact that I simply enjoyed rowing and being on the outside of the anchorage allowed me a longish row as part of my daily regime. Plus, since I was CRUISING the fact that getting into the dinghy dock took ten minutes versus 90 seconds hardly seemed like a problematic affair. A slower pace of life being part of the plan... ya know?
Then again, anchoring at the outside edge of the pack meant that we had a little more privacy, a little less chance of someone dragging into us, and a little more time if it was us doing the dragging ting...
It would also be fair to point out that anchoring further out meant that every other boat in the anchorage became instantly more attractive to brigands and villains with pilferage on their minds and heinous deeds in their hearts... Having grown up with no shortage of brigands and villains in my younger years, an early lesson was that most will avoid anything even remotely like work and many would consider a long swim a akin to drudgery.
Method to my madness, if you will...
Which is not to say that distance is our only protection from the brigand/villain mayhem that is all too prevalent in too many places these days... Keeping a low profile is part of it, and we are more than happy to leave it to others to be the rich Americans (spelled prey) in an anchorage.
Situational awareness is also a needful skill and well worth working on. If our "Spidey sense" does its thing you might be surprised just how fast we can up-anchor and be somewhere else...
Of course, we keep a watch when needful and our night watch crew likes nothing better than to kick some serious ass from time to time...
Way back when we were looking for a design to build for the boat that would become Loose Moose (a Phil Bolger Jessie Cooper) I spent a lot of time looking at the various designs of Maurice Griffiths...
Maurice Griffiths was a very interesting fellow and strong proponent for shoal draft cruising boats. His books "Little Ships and Shoal Waters", "Swatchways and Little Ships" as well as his various writings in Yachting Monthly (where he was editor) were a big influence on my thought process where yacht design is concerned.
The two Griffiths designs we considered building were the Eventides (24 & 26 feet) and the Waterwitch... The Waterwitch for me was the most fascinating as its barge origins and the various versions taught me just how adaptable a given hull form could be in terms of interior use. The Eventides on the other hand seemed to have been, at least for awhile, the volks-boat in the UK as it seemed you could not drop a hook in an anchorage where there was not at least one Eventide sitting at anchor.
Part of the reason for the Eventide's popularity is the Yachting Monthly connection but the lions share is that as far back as I can remember there has always been a very active Eventide Owner's group. Having a support group makes things just so much easier... Sadly these days, more often than not, groups that form around given areas of boating tend to inhibit folks doing things rather then be proactive and help. A lot could be learned by many if they took the time to use the Eventide Owner's Group as a model.
The first is how, as much as we try, there always seems to be a joker in the mix and that the best we can do is always to try and have a work-around waiting in the wings. In this case someone won't fill your bottles because of how old they are but if they were in date it might be the fact that the filling station was closed for a holiday or in the Caribbean simply that there was no propane available on the island until the next cargo boat arrives... There is always something waiting in the wings to make life interesting.
The other day when I was researching solid fuel stoves and heaters I noticed that Navigator Stove Works had a really neat drop in alcohol burner for their stoves that made all kinds of sense...
It especially makes sense for those who have a solid fuel stove and are going to be spending some time in the tropics where you may not want to turn your interior into a super sauna... Plus it is a back up system, which is no bad thing. That said, the cost of the drop in burner has a certain "ouch" factor at $215 each!
Our passage stove for years has been a SeaSwing that uses a propane bottle but as the price for the one pound bottles keeps climbing (at the store yesterday I noticed they were $7.98 a bottle) to silly prices, the thought that swapping over to an alcohol stove to use in it starts making all kinds of sense.
Of course, alcohol stoves don't put out as much heat as propane or kerosene stoves do, but if I run out of propane on an island where none exists I can still have my morning coffee even if I have to burn rum to do it...
At least on this island rum is a lot cheaper than those one pound propane bottles!
There was actually some method to my madness as I really wanted to try the "cheap-seats" version and compare the two plus I wanted to see how the various blades for the tool stood up to the Fein versions and make sure they were all interchangeable... and yes, saving a whole bunch of money in the process was part of the game plan.
So now that I've been using the clone for a year I've had a pretty good chance to use and compare and my review of the Harbor Freight version is... It's OK.
OK means it's serviceable, powerful and does all the stuff the Fein tool does nearly as well as the Fein, but that said, it is not the Fein. What keeps it from being as good as the Fein tool is the noise level (it's louder), a bit less oomph and that Harbor Freight "feel"... but the question of spending $40 for the clone or buying the Fein, a bit better tool, for $180... Well, that's up to you, but they both do the job.
On the plus side, the various blades and accessories for the Harbor Freight tool cost a fraction of what the Fein versions do and after a year of use I can say that they are just as good or better and this, take my word for it, is a wonderful thing!
Of course, these days, everyone is building an oscillating multi-function tool and hopefully this will result in better accessories and lower prices. Lucky for us is that all of the companies with their hat in the ring have decided to keep the accessories to a "sorta/kinda" standard mount which means you can pretty much pick and choose...
Life, as they say, is good!
Speaking of good, Dremel (yep they make an oscillating multi-function tool as well) have just come out with a very, very cool accessory that seriously rocks. Their Yoke Cutting Kit opens all sorts of creative doors and makes your Fein/Harbor Freight/Dremel/Bosch an altogether new tool that would make so many boat related jobs facile!
A lot of readers of Boat Bits are also into bikes (as in b-i-c-y-c-l-e-s) and I get a lot of email discussing the whole bikes on boats madness and various cunning plans on making it an integral part of the cruising experience...
Just saying.
I've also noticed that any number of the bike companies I deal with as a customer have been rushing to do something for the folks in Japan. On the other hand, not so much in the various marine trades who seem to be holding a "silent vigil"... Might be something to keep in mind.
Which brings us to SOMA a bike company I quite like as they always have neat widgets and an appreciation for gear that seems to mirror my own. SOMA is doing something...
We at Soma have been deeply saddened, like many of you, by the disaster and impending long recovery facing the people of Japan.
From March 26th through April 26th, the SomaFab Shop is supporting recovery efforts in Japan by donating 10% of net profits of all Japanese brand/Japanese-made product purchased by you.
This includes all Dia-Compe, Nitto, Sugino, MKS, Crane & Osaka Bells, Honjo fenders,Tanaka fenders, Kashimax, Soyo and Strong grips, Palmy locks, Izumi and DID chains as well as US-branded products made in Japan – including all Soma tires, Rivendell tires, and IRD Techno-Glide headsets and bottom brackets.
Our donation will benefit the citizens of Soma, a town in the Fukushima Prefecture, which was ravaged by the tsunami. Though we didn't take our name from this city, how can we not have some affection for a city with your same name. The people there are trying their best to house refugees from the area that was evacuated due to the nuclear crisis.
So if you happen to need some bike gear, you know who to buy it from for the next month.
You get up, fix the coffee, sit down to check your email and scan the news when that errant bit of information leaps out at you... Bad news.
Whenever someone writes and asks which book to read to get into boatbuilding or repair I always suggest the various "Instant Boatbuilding" titles because they make it all simple with no excess baggage. That was "Dynamite" Payson's gift to many of us... Boatbuilding without the baggage.
Dynamite's partnership with Phil Bolger is the stuff of legend but without Dynamite, Phil Bolger would be just a small footnote in the grand scheme of things and not the infamous designer that just about everyone has an opinion of (both good and bad). Without Payson's writing and promotion of his designs Phil would never have risen to a greater public awareness.
Of course, without Phil Bolger's brilliant designs, Dynamite Payson would, more than likely, have been just another guy up in Maine pulling lobsters and building boats... Not a boatbuilding guru and mentor to thousands.
Sometimes things come together just right...
We would never have discovered Phil Bolger's work if not for buying a copy of "Build The New Instant Boats" and building a Nymph. If not for the book and the Nymph, we never would have bought plans for the Micro or built our Jessie Cooper "Loose Moose", and, of course, that led to our getting Phil to design Loose Moose 2 for us...
... and this morning I heard that Dynamite Payson passed away.
I’m a consultant for an online boater exam company that is currently looking to improve its online presence. I came across your site boatbits.blogspot.com, which is quite relevant to ours, and i’m interested in having a mention within an existing article that would link back to our website, or any other possibility.
If this can be arranged, we are prepared to compensate. Please let me know if you’re interested, and we can work out the details.
Now, this is not the first time we have received this sort of offer and it has not escaped our notice that some other blogs, online journals, and what passes for the yachting press have standards that are flexible enough to mention various companies and products within articles for pay but it ain't going to happen on Boat Bits.
If we mention a product or service, it is because we feel the product/service has merit and deserves to be brought to folk's attention, or that in point of fact it needs to be pointed out that the product or service is something to be avoided or a rip-off.
Which is not to say we are against advertising, as it is what makes all this possible, but we don't let advertising affect what we write and there is a big difference between an ad and paid content and that is a line we will never cross.
So if you are in a marine business or service and you want to see yourself mentioned in a Boat Bits post, the best way to do it is simply to produce an awesome product/service at an affordable real world price and more than likely we will find it and write about it. You could also send us a press release or write us and tell us about your product/service but if you do, don't expect us to take your word as gospel. We will appreciate the head's up and if your product or service looks to have merit, we will actually look into it and report on whether we like or hate it.
We might add that we have been told in the past that we have excessively high standards...
Being that I just had two donuts and am only mid-caffeinated, I really am not ready to get too much into bloggish wonkdom...
So what better time to point out a pet peeve of mine which is where people define a given boat or design as blue water or something less capable.
Now I get that some boats are better for cruising or living aboard than others, some are faster or slower, some carry a load better and some don't... But what I don't get is that some folks think a boat is safe to coastal cruise or island hop but not to cross an ocean. In my basic boat thinking it's a whole lot more simple: a boat is either safe or unsafe.
Now, maybe it's just me, but I have no desire at all to go off for a daysail on a boat that is not safe and able to keep me afloat and sailing in whatever conditions I might find myself in. Imagine if folks gave advice regarding cars like they do with cruising boats.
The Chevy is an OK car but I wouldn't drive cross country in it. Best to keep to just going to the store and suchlike but on the highway you'd die... Now, on the other hand, that Lexus is a real highway machine...
Fact is, I tend to cringe whenever someone even brings up the phrase "Blue water" in a boat description these days where it concerns safe cruising. I'll be the first to admit that there are many boats I would prefer not to sail a blue water passage on, and yes it is true that not all boats are built as well as they should be, but the bottom line is that if a boat is not safe enough to do a blue water passage it is also not safe enough to do coastal cruising either.
We may have some issues for those readers that are using Explorer as a browser and we will be looking into it after I grind some fiberglass, lay out the cleats for the new galley work surface, sand the mast, scrape some barnacles, look for a lobster, play "string" with Willow, fill a ding in my surfboard, build a new Lion Fish spear, morph my lobster snare into a mark two version, extend my bowsprit six inches, make some new lures...
I often feel just a little out of step with a lot of cruising folk as what they perceive as being problems and suchlike I take in stride, while things I see as seriously problematic they simply don't get...
For instance, wannabee cruisers often write and ask how can they survive without their favorite mayonnaise, will they be able to find a rigger to pay silly money to in the back of beyond Caribbean, and how to find the perfect (insert whatever product here) because they require the perfect (insert whatever here again). Truth is, most of the questions we get at Boat Bits are not about sailing or skills involved in sailing/repairing/building boats but instead questions involved with "how can I continue my consumer existence with minimal withdrawal".
Which I simply don't get... I have never had a thirst to go out and spend money and one of the things that attracted me to cruising was that it took me away from the madness ashore and recreational spending...
Which is not to say that I don't miss things from time to time and if there is one downside to cruising as I see it is that I miss movies and the cruising grounds, for the most part are something of desert where cinema is concerned.
Movies of the real sort where you buy a ticket and watch a film, which is not to be confused with watching something on a DVD or (even worse) seeing a film on an iPhone/iPod or YouTube... It's not the same in the way that looking at a postcard of the Mona Lisa is not the same as seeing the painting.
I've been waiting over a year for the new Luc Besson film to come out and more than likely the only way I'd be able to see it down here in the Caribbean is to try and catch it Martinique or Puerto Rico in the few days it might actually play, then again I doubt the timing would actually work out so I will have to wait another six months to be able to get the DVD and see a pale shadow filmic postcard...
I caught Obama's speech in Brazil yesterday and marveled at just how good a speaker he is... I believed (well, just for a moment or two)! You really do have to admit though that our commander-in-chief, once he's ready to move on from the POTUS gig, has a real future selling used cars, aluminum siding or even (dare I say it) next-gen anchors!
I mention this because while I was watching the speech and shopping, "So It Goes" was sitting at anchor a couple of miles away and I had total confidence in our Brittany-style anchor...
Several readers have written asking about our ground tackle and why I've not jumped on the next-gen anchor bus. So, just to get it out of the way, here's the answer and a little background.
Some years back we lost Loose Moose 2 to a lightning hit in St Thomas, or to be more precise, a set of circumstances that began with a lightning hit. LM2 was uninsured and we lost most of our worldly possessions and our home of many years in one fell swoop... Talk about serious bummers!
I mention this, simply to point out that we understand better than most that losing your boat is more than an inconvenience or hassle. It is heartbreaking and took us years to recover from our loss and it is not something we ever care to repeat.
Which brings us back around to anchors as they are the closest thing to real insurance on your boat. For most of us, it is responsible 24/7 for keeping the boat and those aboard safe. This is why we've thought long and hard about what sort of ground tackle that will keep us safe. Trust me, if there was a perfect anchor we'd be the first to buy it no matter what the cost.
We've used the Brittany/FOB sort for many years and have found that they work well in most every situation and bottom type we have found ourselves in. This sort of anchor has worked very well for us and since they do, we simply do not see the need to adopt a new untried (by us) system into play simply because someone tells us that our old-gen is not as good.
I'll also throw in the fact that we have seen any number of monohulls, multihulls, and powerboats drag by us (or into to us) over the last few years with various next-gen anchors while we held fast. To be fair, I should also add that we have seen no shortage of boats with old-gen anchors drag by as well. For us the bottom line is since we have confidence in our current ground tackle I do not feel a burning need to go out and change anchor systems anytime soon.
But, when all is said and done, the reason I have not jumped on the next-gen bus is that I can leave my boat for several hours to go shopping knowing that when I get back to the boat I can pretty much expect my boat to be where I left it.
Not wanting to drop kick my computer across the bay, I made waffles instead... Yes, they were very good as I am one with my waffle iron... I like making waffles and it is something of a Sunday tradition aboard "So It Goes" and brings with it a certain sense of calm to an otherwise seriously flawed and fucked up world.
Fact is, the whole world would be a lot better off if folks had waffles every once in awhile as opposed to lobbing Tomahawk missiles at each other, then again, that would involve a whole different mindset. I'm sure our folks in office could give a special not-rich-enough-for-waffles bailout to those unlucky and deprived folks who only make an even 7 million a year...
But what to do with those folks who go on and on about the cost of cruising? I just don't see waffles being much of a help, except, just maybe, to point out that waffle mix seems to be available everywhere we have ever cruised and always seems fairly cheap so even the most cheapseats cruiser can afford waffles when needful...
Not too awful long ago, a reader to this blog wrote and asked my thoughts on such things as hydraulic-driven furling systems and electric winches for sheets and suchlike.
My view on such things is that they really do not belong on a cruising boat that is trying to cruise on a blue-collar budget or actually needful, and I said as much in my reply. Not too long after I got response where the person in question pointed out that most folks he knew were not as "macho" as I was and my advice sucked...
Anyone who actually knows me will tell you that macho is most certainly not a word to be used in conjunction with yours truly. They might suggest more appropriate words such as lazy, slothful, shiftless... and, as much as I hate to admit it, they would be right.
Being lazy I have something of a deep distrust for gear that can fail and as a result make me have to work more than I deem needful (i.e. not a whole lot).As a certified dumpster diving, cheap-seats sort of guy, the fact that such systems also cost a lot makes them something of a no go zone.
But, since I am lazy, I have a great respect for the fact that physics can be your friend in the form of blocks, winches, and suchlike which makes sailing a boat... easy.
But... If a winch is a good thing, is not an electric or hydraulic winch better? Well, if you equate more expensive as better (and I won't bother to go into how screwed up that thinking is...) yes. On the other hand, if you simply want to pull on a line without raising a sweat, not so much...
The thing is, a properly sized winch (and almost all boats these days have oversized winches) for your boat is capable of doing all its various jobs without raising a sweat and more than likely, if you are raising a sweat you are either doing something wrong or breaking something. (You'd be surprised how much deck gear I have seen pulled out of decks, backing plates and all because someone kept winching the wrong line). So consider sweat as your body telling you to stop and think about what you are doing. So why do you need something that can exert even more force?
The other negative that I see with power-assisted systems on boats is that it becomes seductive to go bigger than you are physically able to handle whether in boat size, ground tackle or sails and when the system fails you are simply stuck...
Katy Burke wrote a great book some years back which addresses the whole subject a lot better than I can and 'The Handbook for Non-Macho Sailors" is well worth a read if you can get your hands on a copy.
At the time of it's publication, as I recall, it pissed off quite a few people who (obviously) missed the whole point of the book and seemed to resent its simplistic emphasis of basic physics and mechanical advantage instead of being a guide to buying stuff... My kind of book!
As the quest for a new primary dinghy for "So It Goes" continues, I find that as "out of the box" as I pride myself being, I still suffer from "box-vision" more often than I care to admit...
For instance...
Part of my thinking process recognizes that the ubiquitous RIB that passes for a standard dinghy these days is a long way from being an optimum choice but still I find myself continuing to include a RIB in my thought process, simply because everyone else does.
RIB's have all of the disadvantages of a rigid dinghy, as well as all of the disadvantages of an inflatable dinghy and, in the matrix of the two types, keeps bloody few of either's advantages.
Face it, your basic RIB has some issues... RIBs are actually heavier and take up as much or more space than a hard dinghy, they are inefficient in terms of power use to the point that most are simply impossible to row, and should I mention that they are EXPENSIVE? I won't even bother to talk about various repair & upkeep issues, and the dreaded dinghy butt.
The more I look at the problems associated with RIBs the more I know that they are sorta/kinda the worst way to go...
The problem is that being the de facto standard, everyone assumes they are the right choice and that any other choice becomes a sort of heresy.
I noticed that someone is selling a used Hobie Mirage locally for $1600 (about $1000 off the new price) and when I saw the ad my first reaction was "It's expensive". Having thought about it for a while, it is actually a whole lot better deal than any of the RIBs or inflatables around so in bang-for-the-buck terms, the two-person kayak with the Mirage drives is actually something of a killer deal... So why the "It's expensive" vibe?
We don't see kayaks being a real boat but more of a "toy", so as a result don't see a "toy" being able to pull its weight in the workaday world that is the lot of the cruising dinghy. Add in the fact that for us to see a kayak's potential we have to be able to look outside that box and admit that the best possible dinghy may not look exactly like what we think it should.
The Hobies are really a bad example, as they are just one avenue of many kayak designs that are out there... The kayak world is something of a hotbed of new ideas, niche markets and real competition which means you'll find your buying dollar goes a lot further than in the RIB world.
Outside of misconceptions about what a dinghy should look like, we have the very real issue of how in the hell do you store something nearly fifteen feet in length on a 34-foot boat? Which is why I'm not buying that Hobie for $1600...
So, I keep coming back to this conundrum and hoping that someone (a Boat Bits reader perhaps) will come up with some cunning plan regarding a more sensible dinghy/kayak that makes sense in a way we have all missed because most of us are too far inside the box to see outside of it.
Over all, I'm not one to be impressed with anchors of the next gen ilk, finding most to be simply re-inventing the wheel and an apparent excuse for bad behaviour on forums and suchlike...
But you have to admit the Squid anchor is kinda cool and makes as much or more sense than many...
On the other hand, if this is the new next-gen anchor it means that all those next-gen folks are now last-gen...
One of our favorite charter boats Anahita (a Dynamique 62) is going to be crossing the Atlantic this April toward their summer cruising grounds in the Med and environs.
The first leg will depart from St Thomas, St Martin or Antigua and end in Gibraltar with a three day stop in the Azores on the way.
The trip duration is thirty days (give or take) and costs $5000 all inclusive (except bar) per person and there are spaces for two available...
The second leg departs Gibraltar towards Budva, Montenegro and is an 11 day (or so) blue water no-stop cruise for $3000...
For someone who wants to experience blue-water sailing this is an excellent opportunity to gain some serious sea miles with an excellent boat and captain.
Jimmy Carter spoke to the nation and suggested that we, just maybe, needed to rethink how we did things in terms of energy use. Drive a little slower, turn the thermostat down a kiss and wear a sweater when you got a little chilly.
A pivotal moment in history...
History is full of such moments and it's no surprise with hindsight being 20/20 that we don't always get them right.
Over the next couple of years a lot of us on boats are going to be doing a lot of thinking in hindsight about being on the wrong side of the need/want conundrum. Fact is, we're kind of lucky as we actually have a window of opportunity to adjust and evolve our choices to better be in sync with the world and what's coming...
... and, yeah, we should have opted for the sweater.
Yesterday while we were having lunch before shopping we watched the CNN European feed. The shots in Japan of people in long lines for water and empty markets underlined the fact that taking any needful commodity for granted could be problematic in the interesting times we find ourselves in.
Orlov's decision to keep a year's supply of fuel on his Hogfish is easier than for most folks as he has already pared down to a pretty minimal usage and his year's supply would hardly make a dent in some cruisers dinghy energy budget, much less their diesel needs.
On the other hand, we have noticed Dmitry is not alone as in the last couple of years, the "outboard of choice" has evolved from the ubiquitous 15HP to the more sedate and fuel friendly 5Hp for daily use. I might also add that the standard RIB is no longer quite the standard it once was and as a result rollups or hard rowable dinghies are making a real comeback.
Partial nuclear meltdowns and horrific after earthquake/tsunami images seem to be the order of the day...The fact that the earthquake was so powerful that it moved the island nation of Japan eight feet and moved the axis of the entire world, keeps repeating in my mind.
When I need to drag myself into a positive space, John Stewart has always been the music of choice as he better than anyone always seemed able to focus on the positive and in a world where the word "hero" has been stolen and become simply the patter of political shills he reminds us that there is more to it than wearing a flag on your lapel.
I'm pretty sure that if Mr Stewart was still with us he'd be in Wisconsin and doing what he could for those folks needful in Japan as well... To say that John Stewart is missed is simply too small words for the void that is left without him.
Tim (AKA "Crab trap dude") over at Navagear has some thoughts on my post regarding solid fuel stoves and, as it happens, he makes a good point or two... He always does!
Tim, however, is a younger and less cynical man than I am and apparently still believes in the tooth fairy, honest politicians, and "marine quality". He actually likes the marine industry and seems to think that if we all clap just that little bit harder, Tinkerbelle will rally and live and the marine industry will actually make something that works in a marine environment enough to actually justify its piratical pricing.
Not too long ago, I bought a power plug to replace a marine plug that had become a mass of shorting corrosion... Fact is, the only thing that was still working on the plug was the $29.95 price tag still stuck to its bright yellow, though slightly melted plastic casing. When I took it apart I noticed that not only were the various parts dissimilar metals, but it seemed some effort had to be taken as every single component was a different metal... Going to ACE hardware for a replacement plug for $2.95 and comparing the two it became obvious that the ACE cheapie plug was going to be a lot longer lasting than the "marine" plug since it used one metal. While it is obvious it would rust in time, just keepkeep an eye on it, or better yet give it a shot of Boeshield every once in a while to keep it happy and rust free.
The thing is, the reason we are willing to pay for "marine quality" is we want the peace of mind that someone took a little care to make a better product so we can sleep soundly knowing that the gear on our boat is going to be trouble free and not put our lives at risk in the quest for higher profits...
I used to be involved with a chandler/consignment shop that mostly catered to the charter boats and cruisers in St Thomas... Folks brought us stuff that broke or failed on a regular basis as well as problematic gear that simply did not work well that they'd like to get off the boat and have it become someone else's problem. Sort of a good training in the myth of marine quality if you will... It also allowed me to deal with companies that built crappy equipment on a regular basis and learn that in most cases the companies involved just did not care.
Which is a roundabout way of getting back to the Stovetec stove and why it may very well be a better choice than a thousand dollar or more marine alternative... It's not an install and forget item, so you need to adapt it to the rigors of being on a boat yourself. As it is not "marine" you'll know that it may very well take a little maintenance from time to time. Sure with the Stovetec or similar stove you would have to cobble together a chimney arrangement and throw in a flower pot or suchlike for a heat radiator to make it a heater but in the process you would also get up close and personal with how it all works and have some foreknowledge of any possible trouble areas to keep an eye on.
Whether we buy marine or decide to do differently, we still have a responsibility to make sure the stuff we install on our boats does the job and does not put us at risk. These days, most people think that buying "marine" is some sort of insurance that a part or product has a certain quality or function. It has been my experience that we can no longer accept that on faith... Whether marine or non-marine, you simply have to treat everything with a certain suspicion... The bottom line is that where profits are concerned there are simply no morals and it is the prudent mariner who keeps that in mind.
Maybe it's just that we just attract folks with a different view of anchoring methodology but is was hardly a surprise that I had to get up from my watching the tsunami coverage on CNN to go up to my bow in preparation to fend off a boat that had just laid or dragged their anchor into a let's bump "So It Goes" situation...
Anyone who spends most of their time at anchor quickly learn that the actual location of their anchor is seldom in the most obvious place. You don't always pivot on the anchor but some intermediate point in your chain and as that point can shift on an hourly basis due to wind strength and direction... Well, it gets complicated. Mostly at any given moment we know the anchor is "out there" in a forty-five degree cone off the bow. Well, except when it's not...
This is one reason it makes more sense to anchor behind a boat in an anchorage rather than in front or to the side but even so, anchoring behind a boat is no surety that everything is as it should be. A large wind shift may have all the boats pointing in the same direction but it takes time for the various boats to move their chains to the new orientation, and in such a case anchoring behind someone might actually mean you're dropping your anchor right on top of theirs.
Confused yet?
The easiest way to avoid anchor induced mayhem is to simply anchor as far as possible from anyone. I might add this is no bad thing in a social context as you don't have to listen to them bicker in their cockpit (or them hear you), spend a night listening to their genset, or Captain Beefheart's "Trout Mask Replica" at 3AM...
No matter where I anchor, I make a point of doing a quick dive to make sure my ground tackle is not in danger of fouling a wreck or some-such, crossed someone's chain, and that all is as it should be.
With the cost of oil and gas on the rise again, the idea of having a solid fuel stove/heater onboard to back up the propane system would seem like no bad idea...
Part of the problem with solid fuel heaters and stoves on boats is that, for the most part, they are more decorative than functional and somewhat pricey... Dickinson and SIG both make a bulkhead heater that is OK and produces some needful heat but falls short on the stove side but will keep a coffee cup warm...
Which brings us to the Shipmate small cast iron sort that you can really use as a stove as well as produce a hellacious amount of dry heat which is no bad thing on a boat. One of my best memories was sitting on a Benford Dory in Paris with six inches of snow on the deck drinking hot cocoa, eating skillet bread, and being warm... The boats Shipmate "Skippy" doing its thing...
The downside of the "Skippy" and other cast iron stove/heaters is that they have a rather large footprint and can be problematic space wise on a small boat as well as being a seriously heavy hit on the pocket book.
But they sure look "shippy" and inspire all sorts of confidence... Don't they?
I've mentioned before that maybe the best option would be to build a "rocket" stove and cobble together some sort of "shippy" means of mounting it within a boat along the lines of a bulkhead or floor mounted heater.
The Stovetec solid fuel stoves developed for the third world seem to be just the thing and, truth be told, not entirely un-shippy looking when you take a moment to look at it...
Being a rocket type stove it will produce much more heat using less fuel and that makes all kinds of sense on a boat where solid fuel storage is somewhat problematic. Better yet, it is inexpensive and buying one helps a good cause... Kinda works for me!
It has been pointed out to me that Raymarine is no longer a division of Raytheon having been bought out by management backed by the HgCapital group and recently acquired by FLIR Systems...
My bad!
Which in a way is a good thing as they apparently are not using prison labor to build products so they get bonus points for that. Not so good as they still have some serious issues with quality control and after sales service so still remain on my gear I don't want on my boat list.
So it goes...
Getting back to the Raytheon story though is that there are many products and services being marketed in the USA using prison labor and very few of the companies involved have this information available to the public. Everything from missile systems to telemarketing is being outsourced to near slave labor wages being paid to inmates in the relentless quest for bigger profits.
I'm not a big fan of the Raymarine family of marine instruments as I've never found them to be all that reliable and after sales warranty service about as enjoyable as a root canal... On the other, hand various NASA (the British budget electronics folk) and Brookes and Gatehouse instruments have performed flawlessly.
I've often wondered why...
So it was with some interest that I noticed the Raytheon name (Raytheon used to be the parent company of what is now Raymarine) come up in an article about prison labor building parts for Patriot missiles and paying as little as 23 cents an hour.
Robert Reich in his book "Aftershock" uses the term "next economy" in the subtitle and it's the key phrase when dealing with what's going on...
The problem is that everywhere you turn everybody is trying to deal with things in the same old same way when, in point of fact, it's not the same old same world anymore. Sadly when you confront new problems and situations with old thinking you have a pretty good recipe for disaster.
The same goes for the whole cruising and sailing on a budget gig. If you take a lot of the old/current consumer yachting strategies as gospel you may find yourself between a rock and a hard place.
Here at Boat Bits central, I often get email with advice on various posts especially of the money saving sort... The problem is about half of them just don't make any sense. The most common one is the advice that for a low budget cruiser to cruise on a tight budget they should go out and buy an expensive boat and equip it with very expensive gear to avoid the possible need to repair items along the way...
It's obvious that the writers of such advice don't quite twig that a budget actually includes all expenses devoted to an enterprise and not just the monthly outlay once you actually go sailing. Even if it were the monthly outlay, if you were to compare a super well equipped Hallberg-Rassy 34 and a cheapseats CAL 34 monthly operating budget the HR 34 would still be the more expensive boat to cruise... I'm not knocking Hallberg-Rassy's by the way (they are seriously fine boats) I'm simply pointing out that having one won't save you any money.
The idea that you can save money by spending money simply does not compute these days, and most certainly not in the "next economy" we find ourselves about to enter where thinking up clever means of dealing with problems and budgets is a lot more useful than throwing money at them... Welcome to the future!
So if you want to send advice on how to spend less, we're all ears...
“It was the Law of the Sea, they said. Civilization ends at the waterline. Beyond that, we all enter the food chain, and not always right at the top.”
- Hunter S. Thompson
I'm not one of those guys who subscribe to the whole macho man against sea head-space and I prefer my days at sea to be sedate and untroubled by mind-numbing terror or assorted mayhem. That said, shit, as they say, does happen.
The trick is simply to do the best you can to make sure that stupid mistakes are not a part of the scenario and be able to deal with those stupid mistakes when you make them. People very rarely get into trouble at sea without there being a stupid mistake somewhere in the equation... Fact is, stupid mistakes are something of the bottom line in the sort of nautical mayhem we all hope to avoid.
Don't believe me?
Take the last sea story that someone told you where someone damaged/lost a boat, got hurt, or died, give it the Joe Friday treatment (just the facts Ma'am) and you will find a mistake or series of mistakes that led to whatever mayhem ensued.
We all make mistakes... A couple of years back we found ourselves dragging across Simpson Bay Lagoon in a category 3 hurricane, it was all about mistakes and flawed judgment... Mea culpa. I could list all of the various mistakes I made in that event but this is a blog and I'd need a very long novel format (think The Dome) to list and explain them all...
None of us like to admit we make mistakes, so around boats you hear a lot of excuses when things come to grief: it was someone else's fault, the weather report was wrong, I had right of way... The list goes on and on and on!
But the thing is, to fix a mistake or avoid one, you have to acknowledge that they exist...
Contrary to what those in power would like you to believe so that you'll give up your pension, cut your wages, and settle for the life your great-grandparents had, America is not broke. Not by a long shot. The country is awash in wealth and cash. It's just that it's not in your hands. It has been transferred, in the greatest heist in history, from the workers and consumers to the banks and the portfolios of the uber-rich.
Today just 400 Americans have more wealth than half of all Americans combined.
And I can see why. For us to admit that we have let a small group of men abscond with and hoard the bulk of the wealth that runs our economy, would mean that we'd have to accept the humiliating acknowledgment that we have indeed surrendered our precious Democracy to the moneyed elite. Wall Street, the banks and the Fortune 500 now run this Republic -- and, until this past month, the rest of us have felt completely helpless, unable to find a way to do anything about it.
I have nothing more than a high school degree. But back when I was in school, every student had to take one semester of economics in order to graduate. And here's what I learned: Money doesn't grow on trees. It grows when we make things. It grows when we have good jobs with good wages that we use to buy the things we need and thus create more jobs. It grows when we provide an outstanding educational system that then grows a new generation of inventers, entrepreneurs, artists, scientists and thinkers who come up with the next great idea for the planet. And that new idea creates new jobs and that creates revenue for the state. But if those who have the most money don't pay their fair share of taxes, the state can't function. The schools can't produce the best and the brightest who will go on to create those jobs. If the wealthy get to keep most of their money, we have seen what they will do with it: recklessly gamble it on crazy Wall Street schemes and crash our economy. The crash they created cost us millions of jobs. That too caused a reduction in revenue. And the population ended up suffering because they reduced their taxes, reduced our jobs and took wealth out of the system, removing it from circulation.
The nation is not broke, my friends. Wisconsin is not broke. It's part of the Big Lie. It's one of the three biggest lies of the decade: America/Wisconsin is broke, Iraq has WMD, the Packers can't win the Super Bowl without Brett Favre.
The truth is, there's lots of money to go around. LOTS. It's just that those in charge have diverted that wealth into a deep well that sits on their well-guarded estates. They know they have committed crimes to make this happen and they know that someday you may want to see some of that money that used to be yours. So they have bought and paid for hundreds of politicians across the country to do their bidding for them. But just in case that doesn't work, they've got their gated communities, and the luxury jet is always fully fueled, the engines running, waiting for that day they hope never comes. To help prevent that day when the people demand their country back, the wealthy have done two very smart things:
1. They control the message. By owning most of the media they have expertly convinced many Americans of few means to buy their version of the American Dream and to vote for their politicians. Their version of the Dream says that you, too, might be rich some day – this is America, where anything can happen if you just apply yourself! They have conveniently provided you with believable examples to show you how a poor boy can become a rich man, how the child of a single mother in Hawaii can become president, how a guy with a high school education can become a successful filmmaker. They will play these stories for you over and over again all day long so that the last thing you will want to do is upset the apple cart -- because you -- yes, you, too! -- might be rich/president/an Oscar-winner some day! The message is clear: keep you head down, your nose to the grindstone, don't rock the boat and be sure to vote for the party that protects the rich man that you might be some day.
2. They have created a poison pill that they know you will never want to take. It is their version of mutually assured destruction. And when they threatened to release this weapon of mass economic annihilation in September of 2008, we blinked. As the economy and the stock market went into a tailspin, and the banks were caught conducting a worldwide Ponzi scheme, Wall Street issued this threat: Either hand over trillions of dollars from the American taxpayers or we will crash this economy straight into the ground. Fork it over or it's Goodbye savings accounts. Goodbye pensions. Goodbye United States Treasury. Goodbye jobs and homes and future. It was friggin' awesome and it scared the shit out of everyone. "Here! Take our money! We don't care. We'll even print more for you! Just take it! But, please, leave our lives alone, PLEASE!"
The executives in the board rooms and hedge funds could not contain their laughter, their glee, and within three months they were writing each other huge bonus checks and marveling at how perfectly they had played a nation full of suckers. Millions lost their jobs anyway, and millions lost their homes. But there was no revolt (see #1).
Until now. On Wisconsin! Never has a Michigander been more happy to share a big, great lake with you! You have aroused the sleeping giant know as the working people of the United States of America. Right now the earth is shaking and the ground is shifting under the feet of those who are in charge. Your message has inspired people in all 50 states and that message is: WE HAVE HAD IT! We reject anyone tells us America is broke and broken. It's just the opposite! We are rich with talent and ideas and hard work and, yes, love. Love and compassion toward those who have, through no fault of their own, ended up as the least among us. But they still crave what we all crave: Our country back! Our democracy back! Our good name back! The United States of America. NOT the Corporate States of America. The United States of America!
So how do we get this? Well, we do it with a little bit of Egypt here, a little bit of Madison there. And let us pause for a moment and remember that it was a poor man with a fruit stand in Tunisia who gave his life so that the world might focus its attention on how a government run by billionaires for billionaires is an affront to freedom and morality and humanity.
Thank you, Wisconsin. You have made people realize this was our last best chance to grab the final thread of what was left of who we are as Americans. For three weeks you have stood in the cold, slept on the floor, skipped out of town to Illinois -- whatever it took, you have done it, and one thing is for certain: Madison is only the beginning. The smug rich have overplayed their hand. They couldn't have just been content with the money they raided from the treasury. They couldn't be satiated by simply removing millions of jobs and shipping them overseas to exploit the poor elsewhere. No, they had to have more – something more than all the riches in the world. They had to have our soul. They had to strip us of our dignity. They had to shut us up and shut us down so that we could not even sit at a table with them and bargain about simple things like classroom size or bulletproof vests for everyone on the police force or letting a pilot just get a few extra hours sleep so he or she can do their job -- their $19,000 a year job. That's how much some rookie pilots on commuter airlines make, maybe even the rookie pilots flying people here to Madison. But he's stopped trying to get better pay. All he asks is that he doesn't have to sleep in his car between shifts at O'Hare airport. That's how despicably low we have sunk. The wealthy couldn't be content with just paying this man $19,000 a year. They wanted to take away his sleep. They wanted to demean and dehumanize him. After all, he's just another slob.
And that, my friends, is Corporate America's fatal mistake. But trying to destroy us they have given birth to a movement -- a movement that is becoming a massive, nonviolent revolt across the country. We all knew there had to be a breaking point some day, and that point is upon us. Many people in the media don't understand this. They say they were caught off guard about Egypt, never saw it coming. Now they act surprised and flummoxed about why so many hundreds of thousands have come to Madison over the last three weeks during brutal winter weather. "Why are they all standing out there in the cold? I mean there was that election in November and that was supposed to be that!
"There's something happening here, and you don't know what it is, do you ...?"
America ain't broke! The only thing that's broke is the moral compass of the rulers. And we aim to fix that compass and steer the ship ourselves from now on. Never forget, as long as that Constitution of ours still stands, it's one person, one vote, and it's the thing the rich hate most about America -- because even though they seem to hold all the money and all the cards, they begrudgingly know this one unshakeable basic fact: There are more of us than there are of them!
Madison, do not retreat. We are with you. We will win together.
We are doing all that we can for our brothers and sisters in Wisconsin... Right?
I stole today's title from the Funkadelic tune... George Clinton certainly had a way with words and I can't really think of a better mantra for aspiring cruisers to make their own.
Most folk's problems are not about the perfect boat, the best ground tackle, the ultimate cruising plan, or suchlike... It is all about doing a little thinking and simply doing it. Once you are moving forward your ASS will most certainly follow... Ya think?
As the folks in Wisconsin can attest to, there are people who have a whole different game plan laid out for our future and it is not that pretty at all (I stole that line from Warren...). My spidey sense tells me that folks dead set on eroding our freedoms are not going to be all kinds of warm and cuddly for folks with an alternative lifestyle or worldview and who just happen to want to sail around on boats... just saying.
For instance, while I was reading how the "tan man" wanted to steal some social security from folks who have been paying into the system all their lives, I notice that the Morgan that had anchored way too close to a mooring has hooked the mooring. No matter how hard they try they are not going to get the anchor up without:
Resorting to getting wet and diving on the mooring to unhook their anchor, or
Going with the brute force approach and wind up with a couple of sand screws on their deck
... It is somewhat distracting!
I could, of course, offer my services and get wet for them as the crew in question seem well on in years but I have a second cup of coffee and some breakfast to cook so if they are still here... Maybe.
But... Maybe not, as getting wet and having to untangle their anchor from some fire coral encrusted mooring tackle is just the sort of lesson that might actually give them a eureka moment that anchoring too near moorings and suchlike is not always a good idea...
We see an awful lot of tyro anchoring these days and it's some kind of scary. Once upon a time when you left your boat you could assume that when you came back if another boat had anchored near you they would be... well near you, not on top of you or banging into your bowsprit.
Face it, we all expect this sort of thing from bareboats as they don't really care... It's not their boat and if they get up close and personal with another anchored boat that involves damaged gelcoat and mayhem it's not their gel coat... But, you'd expect folks sailing their own boats to take a little more care in the anchoring game if only to protect their investment...
Then again, maybe it is simply easier for some people to spend money, fix things, and sail from near disaster to disaster instead of learning a few simple basics...
The other day I had one of those errant thoughts... "Hmmm... it's 2011 and I'm pretty sure my flares expire sometime this year, better check them..."
Yeah, you know how it goes!
So today, after I have my coffee on the foredeck, what do I see but the local powers that be doing an inspection on a boat in the anchorage more than likely going to hit us next. Bummer.
So we got inspected and when I pulled out my box of flares what do I find but flares that expired in 2009... Oops. The fact is, I know I bought flares in 2009 but only god and Buffy the cat knows where they are and at the moment neither of them is telling... Double bummer!
Luckily I scraped by with a stern warning and a field trip tomorrow to go show the powers that be that I have purchased brand spanking new pyrotechnics for silly Caribbean prices or found the ones that seem to have gone walkabout... So it does go.
The moral of the story is not to get caught with out of date flares and find someway of reminding yourself when they are about to expire (or at least have some cat treats on hand so you can bribe the Buffy for where the in-date flares happen to be!)
Offhand, I'd agree with the something must be done crowd to a point, but I'm pretty sure that most won't agree with my solution.
What we do on boats... this cruising gig... is something of a non-essential pastime and something that should not ever put others at risk or in harm's way. It's not like we are delivering humanitarian aid or some noble cause, we are simply tourists and vagabonds, and as such, we simply don't have a moral right to protection if that protection involves putting others at risk.
A lot of folks are saying that the UN or various governments should convoy cruisers through areas where there is a risk of piracy with military escorts which would put soldiers and sailors at risk... Which I can see if those cruisers were transporting vaccines or some other important thing, but to make our tourism non-problematic I'm not so sure that those military folks or their families would look on it as a mission worth dying for.
Which is not to say that piracy and crime in areas we cruise should not be dealt with in some way or other (a much more complicated issue than it would appear)... Just that our cruising and tourism is not important enough to rate any "special" treatment.
So what to do?
Well, for a start, get a clue about world politics and listen to the warning signs that are telling you it may not be prudent to be someplace or transit an area to get someplace. If assault rifles, RPG's and kevlar are deriguer gear for going down to the local store to buy a six-pack, you may want to rethink your need to be there.
For instance, this whole piracy gig off Somalia has been going on for a couple of decades/centuries, so it is hardly surprising that from time to time cruisers and in-the-wrong-place-at-the-wrong-time tourists are going to find themselves in harm's way. When they do, it is tragic, and if possible even more so, as it could so easily been avoided...
But, some folks will say that going through Suez is the shortest route to/from the Med available so we need to be able to do this route in safety... I'll refrain from my standard need/want rant and just say "so what?" and point out if you are a mariner that going round the Horn gives you some serious street cred and the earned ability to wear an earring.
So to return to the question of whether something should be done or not, the answer is yes. We, as cruisers, should avoid places where the words unacceptable risk become part of the dynamic of cruising an area or be willing to deal with the consequences if we decide to take a risk...
If I were a whole lot younger and wanted to sail away for awhile for the absolute minimum investment, I'm pretty sure my choice of boat would look a lot like this...
Yes, a CAL 20! Lots to be said for the design... it's seaworthy and it's cheap. Not much to change and what you would modify would be pocket change related to a bigger boat. There is an excellent book, "Black Feathers", on making one into a Transpac racer which would also go a long way to showing you how to make it into a minimum long range cruiser as well.
If I had a little more budget and time, I'd seriously consider building a boat like Eric Henseval's most excellent Aviateur design...
Yeah, there might be just a little similarity. You might think of the Aviateur as something of a CAL 20 evolved to 2011 (in point of fact, it's more along the lines of an evolved Muscadet, but unless you are French that won't mean anything to you).
Notice the "bubbles" or domes? They make all kinds of sense and were once the badge of home-built French cruising sailboats everywhere... They have fallen somewhat out of vogue these days but, if I were to come upon a couple for the right price they'd find their way into "So It Goes" in a New York minute! Fact is, they'd look right at home and be smart on a CAL 20 as well...
Aviateur is a kiss shorter than the CAL 20 and beamier, so the boats would more or less have close to the same interior volume. This video of Aviateur shows just how roomy a less than 19-foot boat can be!
If I were refitting a CAL 20 for voyaging I'd spend a lot of time looking at just how the Aviateur is laid out both inside and out!
Most of us these days tend to use our GPS systems for speed and distance which works so much better than impeller logs, but in the event of having your GPS go down you may be left without a means of knowing speed and distance covered... Both really important bits of info for navigation.
On our previous boats we always had a trailing log and found using them, when needful, no bad thing... Problem is, these days no one makes trailing logs that I know of, and used ones have been reborn as "antiques" and are just too expensive to consider.
So, if you happen to see one of these Wasp or Walker logs at the local marina flea market, you might consider picking one up...
...Or tell me about it so I can buy it!
The lack of such a needful item on the market has got me thinking that a DIY plan or some enterprising cruiser setting up to build them and sell as they cruise would be no bad thing. While I'd think the mechanical clockwork sort makes the most sense in my mind, it would probably be a lot easier to base such a beast on hacking a bicycle computer for the task as all of the heavy lifting is already done for you... Damn, yet another project on my to do list!
A quick update... One of our readers in Finland (yes, we have readers in Finland!) just dropped us a line pointing out that the Knotstick might be an option...
Regarding your recent post about trailing logs. Have you looked at the Knotstick?
I have one and it works great. It's simple, inexpensive, and easy to use. I'm even considering getting rid of my under-hull paddlewheel log rather than continue to mess about with the constant cleaning/maintenance.
I'm never sure whether to describe myself as a film maker who sails or a sailor/boatbuilder who makes films...Either way I'm a pretty happy camper when all is said and done.
