On developing your DIY skills...

The sort of man we can't afford to lose, getting warmer, and one step closer...

Friends of ours recently had a rudder failure and it cost them $14K for a shop to repair it which, however you look at it, is a lot of money for some fiberglass/epoxy, a bit of foam, and some stainless steel pipe. The new rudder for "So It Goes" is budgeted at less than $500 for the same matrix of materials but then I work for free.

Admittedly, their boat is bigger but not all that much bigger and the bulk of that heart stopping yard bill is simple labor and mark up... Or, should I just say lots of markup.

For a bit of mind-expanding tomfoolery, next time you're in a yard ask the guy who's working on your boat what he's getting paid as an hourly wage and then deduct that number from what you're getting billed hourly for labor... It might teach you a valuable lesson. Then again, it also might make your head explode so consider yourself warned.

In the mean and lean times of a waning 2014, DIY is even more a survival skill rather than just messing about in boats...

Listening to Jefferson Airplane

So it goes...