An uplifting article on what's possible, EBM with a tip on barbed-wire futures, and in the "Cat and Mouse armor" department...
Just recently, I needed some nylon thimbles for a rigging project on "So It Goes" and, since there were none on island, I had to get online and peruse the usual suspects.
Imagine my surprise to find how many boat gear shops were asking silly money for what amounts to a couple of pennies worth of nylon molded into a thimble shape somewhere in Asia and at most worth a dollar or two.
Can you believe $10.99 for one frelling plastic thimble? I mean really?!?
Adding insult to injury, throwing in a shipping charge of $19 is akin to highway robbery.
The few places that had the very same thimbles for a buck and small change seemed to be out of stock or would not ship to a PO box in the USVI.
My quick, easy, cheap, and cunning rigging plan was beginning to look like it just wasn't going to happen...
For a moment, I even considered getting a 3D printer and start making my own. Well, at least till I costed out what a DIY 3D printed thimble would actually cost.
Luckily, I found just the sort of thimbles I was looking for at LFS/Go2Marine.
The thimbles I needed cost $0.81 a piece. So I bought a bunch and they shipped them for a reasonable price. Best of all, they were in my PO box yesterday!
Since I was ordering thimbles for a project, I also ordered some 5/8" in the theory that sooner or later they'd come in handy. When I opened the box I noticed that the 5/8" thimbles were not the ones I'd ordered but a different model in the same size. When I mentioned this to LFS/GO2, they sent me the correct model for free and said to keep the wrong ones.
For the record, in the past I have mostly just bought Amsteel from them as they always seem to have the best price going and their service is a lot better than the usual suspects. From now on they will be my first stop when looking for gear.
Color me being a happy camper.
As for my cunning plan of a better way to hank on jibs to a Dynex Dux forestay I'll have more info soon come.
Listening to some Dead coverage
So it goes...
