Random thoughts and rants on boat design, boat building, and other boat bits for those in the 99%...
The real question is just how many balls can we continue to juggle before it all goes FUBAR, reason number 1399 why Florida is not on my "any place I want to be" list, and a pretty good reason to brush up on your 'unfamiliar fallback navigation methods such as chart, compass and visual bearings'...
It's one of those tear down a carburetor repeatedly until it starts working properly kind of day... Fun stuff!
Listening to Marah
So it goes...
This is interesting, Ian Welsh is still on a roll of sorts, and something well worth reading...
Back when we were living in France almost every boat had a trailing log and now you hardly ever see one... The curious thing about that sad state of affairs is where did all the trailing logs go?
You'd think that eBay and consignment shops would be awash with Walker and Wasp logs and they'd be cheap but looking around I see there are very few and what ones are E-X-P-E-N-S-I-V-E!
Now, I can see the Walker Cherub...
Kunstler on the foreseeable future, it just keeps getting worse, and Ian Welsh does the math...
For starters, you really need to read this post over at the Old Salt Blog. I'll wait...
Yesterday's post seemed to bring in a lot of advice of the "Do you know what the hell you're doing" sort.
The short form is yes I do.
The longer form is more complicated...
A long time ago Phil Bolger told me that since he did not have time to design Loose Moose 2 for me and, that I already knew pretty much what I wanted, I should just design it myself. He went on to say that when it comes down to it, designing or modifying a boat is not all that hard with a little common sense.
Phil Bolger was a smart guy...
That story about the Spanish submarine is interesting because it was designed by a lot of engineers and designers of some stature and it's not exactly a great moment in naval architecture is it?
Which is not to say that designers of boats are not a good thing when you need them... For instance, as I need a new rudder and as long as I'm going to build one I thought why not improve it while we're at it so commissioned Tad Roberts to design a new CAL 34 rudder for all of us folks with 40+ year old boats whose rudder stocks are all past their sell-by date. The fact is, I could easily build a clone of the original or designed one myself that would have worked as well as what I have. The reason I enlisted Tad was because I wanted better and did not want to have to build a half dozen prototypes to get it to the better point.
I'm looking forward to building that new rudder...
The thing is, we put far too much faith in "experts" and too little faith in our ability to do our own thinking and research. Modifying your boat has always been part of the thinking sailor's bag of tricks and is responsible for most of the evolution of sailing vessels that forms the basis of what we call naval architecture.
So, while I really appreciate the thoughts for my safety, I'm pretty sure that "So It Goes" will continue to float right side up and will not disintegrate like an AC72 (yet another not so great day in naval architecture)...
Listening to Mylène Farmer
So it goes...
David (the Wire) Simon making sense, counting birds, and Robert Redford weighs in on Bristol Bay...
On the project front, I have a little more grinding to do on the hole in the transom to make pretty and then I get to play with some carbon and glass fiber... Fun stuff!
For a fact, I'm already loving the open transom for a variety of reasons. The chief bonus is that next time I haul the boat I'll be able to lose four through hulls of the cockpit drain variety which have always been worrisome and not nearly effective as needful.
Of course, CAL purists are shaking their heads at my depravity and desecration but I'm pretty sure that if Bill Lapworth was still around he'd be in grok mode on the project.
Now, off to make some potato salad and a pineapple cake...
Listening to The Cranberries
So it goes...
Something to be nervous about, Badtux has the blues, and about a great film that never happened...
Has anyone noticed how cheap GPS units are getting?
Yesterday, I noticed this GPS keyfob for just less than $32.
YOWZA!
Looks like something you might start finding in Cracker Jacks. Come to think of it, the first compass I ever owned actually came from a Cracker Jack box...
Listening to Cyndi Lauper
So it goes...
In the "it's-only-deadbeats-who-get-foreclosed-on" department, well worth watching, and about that collapsing empire infrastructure...
I realize that this may get me kicked out of certain clubs but I really hate reading the Defender and West catalogs.
It's not just that I'm frugal, I know lots of people with less money than I have who spend hours and hours looking at things they wished they could afford for their boats...
No, the problem is deeper than that. I just find modern boat gear pimpage mostly depressing and, well if you must know, boring.
Partly, it's about the fact that a long while ago I figured out that I did not need all that much to make a boat go and, as a result, once I realized that having the newest state-of-the-art-integrated-navigation-system had nothing to do with my best interests, boredom set in.
The other part is how, even when I need something, shopping for boat gear is just not fun. In fact, it's more like a chore right up there with fixing a marine head and I'm pretty sure most folk reading this understand where that is on a scale of one to ten.
Listening to the Clash
So it goes...
This, sadly, seems to explain a lot, because they can, and Shuggie riffs with Frank...
Everybody has an opinion. Or, at least, they should have! It might actually surprise some of you but it has been rumored that I have some strong opinions as well.
My better half, who is currently reading Fatty's "Buy, Outfit, and Sail", pointed out to me this morning that Fatty and I do not agree on some fairly major points about windvane self-steering.
The thing is, Fatty has some opinions too...
Which is something you'd expect from someone who has lived most of his life aboard boats. He's earned those opinions and what works for him works.
On the other hand, what works for me works as well...
The whole point is simply that there is no ONE TRUE PATH where boats, cruising, and sailing are concerned. There is no BEST, there are simply variations on a theme...
Work that out and you'll be a whole lot happier!
Listening to Tears for Fears
So it goes...
Krugman is on to something, taking care of the troops, and about that letter...
Today's a little busy here on the good ship "So It Goes". So much to do and so little time as the phrase goes. "H" season being just around the corner, I have projects that need doing that should have been done already.
Such is life!
In the meantime, you might want to check out a book I just read, "For Those In Peril On The Sea". It's about boats, apocalypse, and no small shortage of mayhem... Oh yeah, I should mention there are z-o-m-b-i-e-s!
What's not to like?
Listening to the Talking Heads
So it goes...
The importance of history (the true sort), Joe making some sense, and a book that just might be worth reading...
I like boat projects.
Which, you might say, is no bad thing as living on a forty-four going on forty-five year old sailboat gives one ample opportunity for any number of boat projects. You might say I don't just own an old boat, I own a cornucopia of projects!
Of course, I'll be the first to admit, I like some projects a whole lot more than others. Painting, for instance, does not as a rule make for a warm and fuzzy feeling when it's on the list...
Know what... Guess what's on the list?
As it happens, I've been doing a lot of research into vinyl and vinyl wrapping as an alternative to painting. It looks interesting and a lot of the round-the-world race boats seem to be using it and it seems like it holds up...
It does seem tempting...
Listening to Julien Clerc
So it goes...
Anyone check out the Eurovision song contest (Romania had me the moment they picked up those angle grinders), on being screwed, and another cool Simmons...
Since we were speaking of making money while cruising....
Admittedly not everyone is going to want to make handlines or fishing lures and some might eschew the whole manual labor thing because it doesn't fit their self-image or are less than handy... What to do?
Well, a lot of folks gravitate towards doing the charter gig. What's not to like... The whole charter captain gig or charter chef has a certain romantic appeal plus you get to sail and someone pays you lots of money to do it!
As it happens, we have a charter business and we book and have booked charters for over a decade. We don't do charters on our own boat but we're an agent for boats that do... In other words, we're boat pimps.
It is a good job as it goes. We get to sell our clients fun and a great vacation but it is hard work because the charter industry, on a whole, is pretty seriously screwed. So, while we pimp boats the hard part is more of a match-making and keeping our clients away from the bad boats and crews exercise. Sadly, the charter biz is a great example of "Sturgeon's Law" (ninety percent of everything is crap.).
Of course, not everyone is cut out for the charter business and, for example, if you think being a charter crew is "romantic" well, you're already excluded from those who should. For a quick reality check think about the romantic appeal of rebuilding a marine toilet in a head that has had repeated incidence of projectile vomiting recently. Then factor in that the clients have managed to take down every toilet on the boat so you need to fix them all amidst a group keen on projectile vomiting...
A quick hint to charter chefs everywhere... BEWARE THE FROZEN SHRIMP!
Yep, and that's not even a worse case scenario...
There are a lot of reasons you should consider anything else but charter and they range from the simple (you may not be a people person) to the mundane (you're useless around boats) on to the very real fact that the charter guest from hell really does exist and they are legion (see Sturgeon's Law).
Listening to Boz Scaggs
So it goes...
George Takei always brings a smile with a thought, something about people stealing (who won't go to jail), and this is not where I'd be trippin...
Over the years I've seen a variety of folk eke out a comfortable cruising income as they cruised... Off hand, I'd say it is not that hard.
That said, those who are successful at it seem to fall within a certain mindset of not concentrating on a single thing (it seems that multiple small income streams work better than one big one), they're not reinventing the wheel, keep a low profile, and, most importantly, they're not greedheads. They also can tell when/where a need needs filling...
Then again, there are exceptions but the folks we've encountered who were making money and happy seemed to fall into that group.
A case in point: we knew a couple who were nearly flat broke in the Canaries and when a group of us were talking about fishing and handlines they seemed to take a keen interest. Next thing I knew he was asking me where to find the bits to make a handline...
As it happened, there used to be a fishermen's coop in Las Palmas that sold cheap commercial fishing line, rubber squids, associated hardware, and suchlike. So I took him to the coop and he bought enough stuff for a couple of handlines and lures...
A couple of days later, there he was by the ARC boats sitting on a bench making handlines like an old pro while a half dozen ARC folks stood in line with money in hand waiting to buy one.
A couple of weeks later they sailed off headed towards the Caribbean fully provisioned, cash enough for a while, and a whole lot of handline/lure making materials in a locker...
Listening to Telephone
So it goes...
About that debt crisis, something interesting from a young Kurt Vonnegut, and a really good post on why rollup dinghies make a lot of sense...
Speaking of rollup dinghies, we've been considering shelling out for a new inflatable for a while now. The problem is that we're just that little bit leery because the last three dinghies of the inflatable variety really sucked.
It's not like we skimped and went with a cheap seats dinghy either but bought established brands (AB and Caribe) but it just seems that top quality these days is more about the price you pay rather than utility...
Want to know what's really frustrating? Having to pump up your expensive hypalon dinghy every time you use it while folks on cheaper PVC dinghies just hop in theirs and use them.
A couple days ago walking by the dinghy dock I noticed of the half-dozen inflatables tied to the dock, the only one that looked properly inflated was a PVC... This no longer seems to be an unusual experience but something approaching the norm.
So much for the whole you get what you pay for thang...
Anyway, West Marine has their cheap rollup, the RU3, on sale for the moment at a pretty unbeatable price so we may just bite the bullet and buy one. It's quite an improvement on the old model it replaces with bigger tubes and a much better UV resistant Heytex fabric. So, it is tempting.
Then again maybe we won't... I expect it will all depend on shipping.
Listening to Ryan Bingham
So it goes...
I find this bothersome, so much for one justice for all, and something you might want to ponder...
I suspect I surprised a few folks yesterday when I mentioned ferro-cement as being sorta kinda equal with other boat building materials. So, let me say this...
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| A Ferro Endurance designed by Peter Ibold |
This got me thinking, obviously not a bank with a warm fuzzy feeling, and why the words "brominated flame retardant" scare me...
Where materials to build boats are concerned I'm of the opinion that pretty much anything works and when you factor in the plus and minuses, glass, wood, composites, steel, aluminum, and ferro-cement all work out about the same.
The question is really more about what sort of maintenance you prefer...
Steel rusts. So, if you have a steel boat it is going to rust and your maintenance program is going to be rust related. If you're not big on the whole dealing with and preventing rust thing steel is just not going to make you a happy camper.
The real advantage of steel is that welding is a pretty easy skill to acquire and steel is cheaper than a lot of other materials so it's a good choice for home builders. Back when we lived in France I'd guess that 60% of the cruising boats being built were steel.
That said, a steel boat is not really any cheaper in the long run as the savings in the hull are mostly negated by the need to insulate the hull and the fit out of most steel boats is akin to building a boat within a boat.
As to the strength issue so often touted as the real advantage of steel... Well, I've seen far too many steel boats on reefs with big holes in them to buy into the whole steel makes you bulletproof club.
Where steel would be awesome is for sharpies... Colvin and Bolger both drew some interesting boats in steel that made sense of the sharpie variety...
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| Phil Bolger's Lion's Paw |
An organization worth checking out, today's educational shell game, and cheap clothes/outsize profits...
I've been following the adventures of a very nice couple refitting a good boat and it's just that little bit depressing.
The problem is they're spending a fortune doing it and, when the dust settles, they'll have a boat worth a lot less than they've invested in the project. More problematic is all of that money they should not have spent on the rehab would have paid for a three to five year cruise.
It's not just a need/want thing either. It's the pervasive attitude that it is normal, if not required, to pour silly amounts of money and labor into a perfectly good boat to make it a "yacht"...
Of course, this is not an unusual situation. For a lot of people it seems to be standard operating procedure and I see it over and over again but that does not make it any less depressing...
Just saying.
Listening to Ray Wylie Hubbard
So it goes...
Be wary of folks who profess their faith when asking for something, I guess someone doesn't want us reminded of Bobby Sands, and speaking of iconic...
Back when we we're living on a peniche outside of Paris and looking for a boat to buy there were only two boats, of the new variety, that we considered and both of them were designed by Philippe Harlé...
One, the Fantasia (an evolved version of the famous Sangria/Sangria NV) I've talked about before, was both too expensive for us at the time and actually seemed bigger than we needed. For those who keep track of such things, the Fantasia was was all of twenty-seven feet long.
The truth is, the boat we really wanted was the Philippe Harlé designed Tonic...
Maybe not everyone's mother-of-the-year candidate, Crooks & Liars kicks some butt, and a non-happy making "don't-worry-it-won't-ever-happen" milestone...
Some stuff works better than other stuff.
For us boatfolk it really is to our advantage to know which is which but, and there seems always to be a "but", it's not always easy to ascertain what is what.
Different folks use different criteria...
A great many seem to think that the cost of something is the best measure. Those that hold this opinion are fond of the phrase "you get what you pay for" and often quote how much they paid for something when discussing stuff. Off hand, I have to say that these folks are way off base but they do come in handy when you have something you want to sell.
Others think that whatever the "experts" say is the way to go but, and there's that "but" again, more often than not those "experts" have an agenda or work for someone who has an agenda so this can be problematic especially if your "expert" of choice is involved in the yachting press. Face it, when was the last time you read a review of a marine product where they said it was crap?
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| Not a bad boat if you like the pregnant guppy look |
Something well worth reading, more on fiscal folly, and a bill that needs your support...
Everyone seems to get the concept of buying an old boat and fixing it up to save money but few seem to grok the concept of just how enjoyable working on a boat can be.
Sure, there are any number of icky jobs to do on boats but, from where I sit, most tasks involved are not just enjoyable but deeply satisfying...
Today, for instance, I get to frame in and laminate a good portion of my cockpit/transom hack and I'm really looking forward to it. Of course, I have to do a bit of sanding to start things off (not really a big fan of sanding fiberglass) but the rest of the day is just fun work and I can even listen to French radio while I do it (the internet being a wonderful thing)... All in all, a very pleasant way to spend the day.
Afterwards I can jump over the side to get the dust off and, I expect, a cold beer on the foredeck (the cockpit currently being a disaster area/work in progress) to top it off...
Even better, tomorrow I get to do more!
Listening to Jo Jo Gunne
So it goes...
Some more of the same old same, you can never underestimate the "DUMB" factor, and a Simmons of interest...
I noticed that Jimmy Cornell has a new trans-Atlantic rally going called the Atlantic Odyssey with two crossings of the Atlantic west to east scheduled for the coming season.
Now, I've mentioned before, I'm not a huge fan of cruising rallies and suchlike but I do really admire Jimmy Cornell's thought process in sorta/kinda getting people to pay him money to do something that people could do on their own without having to buy a ticket.
The fact is that before the ARC and such things existed, folks tended to cross and do all of the rally stuff all on their own. Every year folks would sail down to the Canaries to wait for a crossing window and interact with each other (Posse up), share knowledge (those who were clueless would interact with folks who could clue them in), and do the social thing (often spelled P-A-R-T-Y). All in all, a pretty excellent situation...
Jimmy Cornell was a lot smarter than the rest of us as he figured out how to get folks to pay him to do what they, more than likely, would have done anyway. Face it, the ARC really was a brilliant intuitive leap and I'll be the first to admit that I'm a bit jealous because I did not come up with the idea myself.
Of course, now I'm older, much more curmudgeonly, and cheaper (if that's actually possible) so every year I find the idea of ticket required organized play dates for adults (with the added chance of getting T-boned at the rally start) not only something to not do but to avoid being anywhere near.
Just saying...
By the way, maybe it's just me, but having read my share of Greek mythology and Homer, anything with the word odyssey in the title smacks of prime territory for nautical superstition given the luck of Odysseus...
Listening to King Tuff
So it goes...
I obviously missed the part where we adopted Napoleonic law in the US of A, a film that could use a little help, and to say I want this guitar is something of an understatement...
Yesterday while rowing in to the dinghy dock, I noticed a boat with an awkward life raft installation and not too far from it a local boat had sunk on it's mooring so that led my thought process to unsinkable boats.
The problem with the idea of unsinkability in sailboats is that while it is surprisingly easy to accomplish it is somewhat problematic to the interior and accomodation.
Take the Etap for instance...
A database of interest (providing you have a high greed threshold), a proposal of note, and I wonder just what he really thinks...
It's raining, it rained yesterday, and it rained the day before that. On the positive side, the island outside my window is looking very green and lush.
As for the downside, I just cut a BIG HOLE in my cockpit and transom which needs to be dealt with and wood butchery/fiberglass work during a deluge is, more often than not, problematic.
If it's not one thing it's another...
Listening to the David Laflamme Band
So it goes...
Today's not so good news, a voyage of note, and who would not lust after this for your anti-boarding tool of choice...
"It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change."Dmitri Orlov makes some interesting comments regarding "square boats" (a term I'm not overly enamoured with) on his blog this morning so you might want to take a few minutes and check it out!
Charles Darwin
This is scary, an interesting study, and in the “whoops — we did exactly the wrong thing, and killed the economy” department...
Webb Chiles
Something a lot of people often forget is boats become finite systems once they get out of sight of land and, if you were to point your boat at Europe or Tahiti, you're pretty much on your own till you get where you're going.
Of course, since we all live on a finite system called Earth, you'd think that we'd all understand the concept of finite systems and sustainability but I'm often surprised how few people actually do...
It's pretty depressing when you think about it.
It would be a good thing if more people were thinking about the whole sustainable living/sailing on sailboats gig and doing the math.
Maybe some folks need an enticement?
Some "Ag-Gag" with your morning coffee, where oh where are the perp walks, and something about medical extortion...
I came across this commercial the other day...
I don't know about you but that commercial left me thinking about the need for a waterproof bulkhead rather than how cool the watch was...
Breitling certainly has a great idea of a PLB as part of a watch but the damn thing costs more than my boat. I can't help but wonder just how long that PLB circuit is going to run off the watch's power system... But yeah, that would be a cool watch to own and yes, I want one!
Aboard "So It Goes" we don't really do "want". We do things that fill a need. So I use a cheap (less than $20) Casio watch which works just fine with the one exception that it is somewhat hard to see at night as the luminous hands are anything but. That said, I've noticed most analog watches (even some super expensive ones) these days seem to share the same problem.
Moral lepers, an info-graphic that might surprise you, and what's wrong with in-your-face “prima facie criminal behavior” as long as profit is involved...
The internet, from time to time, is a place that often surprises me... Especially in the general connectedness where it concerns folks reading "Boat Bits".
Yesterday's post, like many that deal with boater education (or lack of), always produces a big mailbag and I never do quite understand why some readers take what I say so personally.
Maybe it's the dynamic of the internet that everyone thinks the blog is directed at them personally and, somehow, my pointing out that there are people who would be unable to sail a boat well enough to effect a rescue if their significant other were to fall overboard is some how akin to a personal attack...
The thing is, I don't recall writing anything that was directed at any individual yet this morning I find a half dozen folks who think I had called them out personally and told them they were "passengers" and "useless" where needful sailing skills are concerned.
One of the great things about sailing and boats in general is that there is very little regulation about... If you want to sail around the world all you have to do is to buy/build a boat, point it in the direction of choice, and have at it. You don't need a license, special permission, or the need to pass any tests and, from where I sit, that's not really a bad thing.
Lots of folks do just that and learn how to sail as they go. Most of them survive and usually wind up with some entertaining stories of the "what does not kill us makes us stronger" sort to share over beers as they work their way through the learning curve.
Of course, the downside is some folks don't survive, people get hurt, and dreams fall apart... Life is like that.
So, next time I point out that "you" (in the collective sense) might want to think about some aspect of your skill set or lack thereof don't take it personally and simply take a moment to consider that what you know or don't know may just be the difference between being a happy or a very unhappy camper...
Listening to Renaud
So it goes...
Worth checking out, something very cool, and an interesting way to learn your sushi cuts...
This story is really something of a must read...
The important phrase everyone should dwell a bit on is:
"According to news reports, Vernon was an inexperienced sailor and could only watch as the 38-ft Jonetsu sailed away from Stimson..."Sadly, over the years, we've met a great number of long-term cruising couples and families where almost all of the sailing was done by just one of the crew while the other/others were more akin to being a passenger.
In the not-exactly-a-survivial-trait department, quite impressive in a bad way, and some seriously scary shit...
...Some math to keep in mind, shopping bags full of money, and a great interview with Shuggie Otis...
Today's to do list is actually very small and all I have to do is to remove four screws from the transom... Easy!
Well, actually, easy once you get into the two cockpit lockers and remove the (where the hell did all this come from) stuff inside so someone smaller than I can climb in and get a wrench on the four corresponding nuts so I can unscrew the four screws.
Of course, then all that "stuff" needs to be put back. Which, I might add, is a pain as tomorrow's to do list requires actually doing some real work inside the transom so all the stuff has to come out yet again...
No rest for the wicked!
Listening to Captain Bogg & Salty
So it goes...
