on buying used gear...

Some good news, something interesting about Dolphins, and in the "Another banned book" department...

I'm a firm believer in recycling where boat gear is concerned for a variety of reasons. Some of which might surprise you.

For most, the main reason to buy used gear is just simple economics. Recycling older gear is less expensive than new and that alone makes it a good thing. That said, looking at older gear on eBay often finds the cost of old gear is as expensive as new, and what's up with that?

A lot of second hand gear, especially electronics if still working, just might last forever while the exact same model new from WEST or their ilk might not work at all. Electronics are funny that way.

As someone who has worked in the marine consignment business, I quickly learned that for the most part, the main reasons folks brought stuff to us was that it did not work, they did not need it, or that they simply wanted something newer and shiny to keep up with the "cool" kids.

Then there's the element of mystery. Why is someone selling the object in question? There's almost always a story behind why someone is selling something that sometimes is surprisingly interesting. Or, to paraphrase Rod Stewart... 

Every boat bit has a story. 

Some of those stories can be quite compelling.

Romantic musings aside, I do have some rules in buying used gear. In general, they are:

• the item needs to be working or fixable, 
• the object is something that's needful rather than just something that was cheap,
• they should cost no more than 50% (but preferably less) of the product when new.

I've noticed a trend in folks pricing their gear at 90% of new. It might work for them since there is no shortage of idiots with boats these days, but if you want to actually get rid of unneeded gear, you'll find that 50% of new is the sweet spot, and I have a lot of consignment experience to back that up. Which is a roundabout way of saying it pays not to be greedy.

Listening to some Jethro Tull coverage

So it goes...

Doing the math...

Profoundly disappointing, a crime of note, and an important topic for boat folk...

One of the few YouTube channels I actually respect where sailing and cruising are concerned does the math.

Listening to Birdtalker

So it goes...

on the cost of things...

An important question, some needful reading, and in the "There's hype but then there's hype" department...

As it happens I just came across a receipt for some Samson rope I purchased a few years back and the important number was $79.95.

Considering that this was for a 600-foot spool of 10mm line that's a pretty good number. Doing the math tells me the line only cost just a kiss more than thirteen cents a foot. A 600-foot spool was more than enough to replace all of the running rigging aboard "So It Goes" with enough left over to replace any halyards or sheets that need replacing in the foreseeable future.

Doing a quick search while having my morning coffee I found several reasonable facsimile deals for spools of rope in the under twenty-cents a foot price point.

You just have to look.

Listening to Lasers Lasers Birmingham

So it goes...

Just another pissed off day in paradise...

A major accomplishment in assholery, a reliable source of profit, and something about tree burials...

Every once in awhile I'll find myself in a marine store looking to buy something or other but it's become a fairly rare occasion. Which is sad in a way as I really used to enjoy spending time in a chandlery, if for no other reason than I'd often get good ideas on how to cobble up rigs and suchlike. 

Not these days though...

Truth be told, the only thing I seem to get when visiting my local marine store is getting pissed off. Like yesterday when I needed to get a handful of machine screws and found the 3-inch 1/4" machine screws were $4.99 a piece.

Admittedly, I'd just come from the local Ace hardware where they did not have any 3-inch 1/4" machine screws but the place where they should have been said that if they had them they'd cost $1.99 a pop.

I mention this because the place I normally buy machine screws stateside sells them for 25-cents if you're buying just one and 23-cents each if you buy twenty-five and they'll ship them to me down here in the Virgin Islands for free.

Being both frugal and not an idiot, I decided to not buy any screws locally. I'll order them stateside and get them in a few days. Still, the idea that the "friendly" local marine store had jacked up the price to that extent really pissed me off. For those adverse to doing math, my stateside seller sells 25 machine screws for $5.75 with free shipping and the local store would charge me $9.98 for 2 screws.

As a quick reference West Marine sells 25 of the same size machine screws for $10.49 not cheap but certainly not the model of avaricious greed-heads our local marine store seems to be channeling.

On the way out of the store we passed their masking tape which cost $10.55 a roll while Walmart sells the exact same tape for $3.83 a roll which is just adding insult to injury.

Such marine industry hijinks pretty much accounts for why I don't spend much time in marine stores anymore.

Listening to The Veldt

So it goes...

Pennies on the dollar...

Regarding a favorite book/film, an accessible art collection, and a question answered...

One of the great advantages frugal cruisers have these days is a direct offshoot of the stupidity of our entrenched consumerist addicted brethren. Folks with an insatiable urge to buy, often need to make room for that new and better thing to achieve their consumerist high.

A friend just dropped me a line about buying a bit of unused boat gear for $400 that retails for a couple of thousand dollars and change. Which on the part of the buyer is a good deal but as far as the seller's side of things is some seriously stupid economics.

Then again, junkies are seldom known for intelligence when they're Jonesing for their drug of choice.

Of course, there is still a downside to the whole consumerist spiral we're all, to some extent or another, caught in. The greed-fueled distorted market is selling stuff for much more than it's actually worth. This means those great deals might not be such bargains at all and are more along the lines of what the item in question is actually worth.

Just saying.

Listening to Run River North

So it goes...

What stuff costs...

A good point, another reason not to use Google, and in the "Rich men behaving badly" department...

Over the last week or so I've been trying to find some seine line/twine and finding it difficult to find in the size and color I'm looking for. The real difficult part is that it would appear that many purveyors of said line won't just drop it in the mail but instead quoting silly amounts to send the line down here to America's Paradise.

Anyway, as I also needed to replenish my dwindling stock of waxed sail twine, I noticed that the price of said sail twine was pretty much the same from the various folks who sell it with a fairly glaring exception.

West Marine.

Sail twine is available mostly in one ounce, quarter pound, and pound spools. As in most things the prices seem to be more expensive per foot if you're buying the smaller sizes and less expensive in the larger spools. Most places sell an ounce for $4, a quarter pound for around $9 and a pound for about $30.

So, imagine my surprise, when I checked out West Marine and found them charging $64.99 for a one pound spool. Not exactly surprising that their smaller spools were even more expensive.

The thing is, West Marine is so big that they really should be undercutting most other suppliers of marine goods if for no other reason that with their economics of scale they're paying less for goods than their smaller competitors.

Anyway, just something to keep in mind when you're shopping for stuff and a reminder to always do the math.

Listening to a coffee themed playlist

So it goes...

Some thoughts on the budget thing...

Apparently someone has a problem with basic math, a new font of interest, and on the passing of someone who rattled the cages...

All the current talk about minimum wages has me rethinking what would be the minimum budget to comfortably cruise in the right here and now.

Writing about budgets is always going to be problematic. For starters, everyone defines the word "comfortable" differently, and I'm pretty sure your idea of what you need to cruise in your comfort zone is a lot different than what I need in mine.

In our case, we hate marinas, don't like to eat out or do bars, and generally do not feel we need a lot of what we deem to be spurious systems aboard our boat. This has a huge affect on our ability to cruise on a smaller than average budget.

As far as spurious systems go, take air-conditioning as an example. I don't like living in a refrigerated environment so the whole idea of air-conditioning is somewhat repugnant to me in spite of living in the tropics for the last few decades. On the other hand, I know a lot of people who wilt when the temperature or humidity climbs a kiss and rush to the thermostat. Whatever your stance on controlling your indoor environment, the fact is that whatever it is will affect your budget in terms of outfitting and energy costs.

Another factor I've come to recognize is that some folks are good at setting and following budgets and some just don't seem to be able to. Recently aboard "So It Goes", our sewing machine quit working. Confronted with the choice of fixing it myself, paying someone else to fix it, or buying a new sewing machine had me looking at the budget wondering just what fixing the thing would cost. Since having someone else fix it or buying a new one would adversely affect the budget, I was left with the option of fixing it myself which, it turned out, was a fairly non-problematic affair and did not cost anything at all. As a bonus, I can now fix a sewing machine if the need arises. Of course, either other option would have cut in to the month's budget.

Being able to do the work needed to maintain or fix the various systems on the boat is a great way to keep on a budget so my first thought is to always fix it myself even if it requires learning new skills to do it. Which is not to say that there is anything wrong with not doing the work yourself but the fact remains that if you throw money at problems it will always affect the budget.

As it happens, our recent thrown rod experience with our generator which was beyond my ability to fix within a cost effective envelope meant we had to buy a new generator. We got a great deal on slightly more powerful, yet quieter model that is much more user serviceable than the Ryobi.

So yeah, budgets really have to be dealt with on an individual basis and what works for you. Keep in mind that what you spend is 99% under your control and you have the ability to spend less if you need to.

Listening to some Willie Nelson coverage

So it goes

What stuff costs...

EBM pretty much nails it, some ongoing USPS news, and in the "and the tubes they glow in the dark" department..

Back when I was building the mast for "So It Goes" I used quite a bit of carbon tow in the layup as it would stiffen the spar, was easy to use, and it was cheap. Fact of the matter is that carbon tow has a lot of uses as a way if adding selective reinforcement and rigidity to any number of boat oriented building project and as I've already said it's cheap.

So, this morning while perusing a boat designer and boatbuilder's website who also sells various boat building materials on their site I was surprised to see that they were selling 12K carbon tow for $0.29 a foot.

The price seemed a little high.

Worried that the price of carbon tow had went through the roof due to some sort of world shortage or suchlike I went over to my usual purveyor of carbon tow and other needful composite materials to find that carbon tow was still very affordable at between eight and thirty-five dollars a pound for 12K tow.

For those unacquainted with carbon tow a pound is a lot of tow as the tow I used for my mast was was 1734 feet to the pound and that works out to (rounded up) $0.0139 a foot or $24 a pound. As it happens this tow was actually the most expensive per foot from my supplier.

Now, at $0.29 a foot a pound of my tow would cost $502.86. or as best said in my favorite scene from "Used Cars".

Need I say more? Do your homework when dealing with marine suppliers.

Listening to a bunch of good songs

So it goes...

A good case for DIY...

G&T on a pet peeve of mine, a timely cartoon, and a very good point...

Glancing at a recent "All At Sea" magazine I noticed that the Budget Marine ad was listing soft shackles as starting at $64.65.

That seems like a whole lot of money to me.

Going to the Budget Marine website it seems that the $64.65 price is for a pair which still translates to $32.33 a pop.

Which is still a lot of money to me.

Especially when an equivalent soft shackle is just Ten bucks worth of Dyneema and ten minutes of spare time to make it happen.

Do the math.

Listening to a Frank Zappa song

So it goes...

Adventures in shopping...

L, G,&M on life in a failed state, and the asshole of the day award goes to this jerk...

Every once in a while I find myself in absolute awe at the balls marine retailers must have to sell stuff with a near-criminal mark-up.

For instance; I have two indestructible canvas rigging bags that are excellent quality, have given me years of use, and are still going strong As it happens, the WoodenBoat store seems to have the exact same bag for sale at $21.95 which a tad more than the $9.99 Harbor Freight (who I bought mine from) sells it.

So here's the WoodenBoat bag...

...and here's the Harbor Freight bag.

A tool that belongs in just about anyone's rigging bag and lives in mine is a "Speedy Stitcher" awl.

West Marine sells its Speedy Stitcher for $29.99 while Harbor Freight sells their identical "Quick Stitch" for $6.49.

As it happens, while I was on the WEST Marine site, I checked up on their lure prices of the Cedar plug sort. West sells its rigged 6" plug for $18.59. Looking around for pricing on the Sea Striker plugs I found the street price to be somewhere between $10-$13 dollars

Sea Striker plug from West Marine

That said, Tail Chaser Lures (my go-to place for Cedar plugs) sells their rigged painted six-inch plug for $7.95.

Tail Chaser Cedar Plug

I'm pretty sure you can do the math but I'll point out a few dollars here and there really do add up where budgets are concerned.

Listening to Noel Redding & Friends

So it goes...

How comparative shopping and knowing how to do things yourself is a goodly thing...

A reminder of note, Moldy Chum with something important about NEPA, and today in the "Just when you think the bar couldn't get any lower" department...

I was looking at Defender's pricing on rope the other day while throwing around some rigging ideas when I had a brief moment of clarity and found myself asking a couple of questions.

Why the hell does everyone seem to think that Defender is the best discount store around anymore?

Fact of the matter is, I seldom buy anything from Defender these days because there most always seems to be someone selling the same stuff for less. Sure their yearly sale seems to be good but for the last three years running most of the deep discounts were on the sort of Brand X stuff you bring in a sale as lost leaders.

How do they get away with charging twenty-four frelling dollars for an eyesplice in Amsteel?

Seriously, the Brummel eye splice is dead easy and the alternative simple tapered bury with lock stitching is even easier. Either splice will only set you back five to ten minutes of not very laborious labor so why'd anyone pay twenty-four bucks to have someone do it for you?

Just saying.

Listening to Chip Taylor & The New Ukrainians

So it goes...

Boat economics 101...

Something taxpayers might want to take note of, a little situational awareness snafu edition, and in the "Pants on fire" department...

So, let's say you need a water jug or two for your boat and have chosen the Scepter five gallon because it's what just about everybody uses. You know, this one...

What's it going to cost you?

Well, as it happens, Budget Marine just sent me an email that had that very thing on sale for $53.95 (normal price is $59.95).

Yowza! I'm not sure about you but more than $50 bucks for a plastic jerry can seemed just a little bit high so I thought I'd see what other folks were selling the exact same thing for...

WEST Marine had it for $29.99.

Defender had it for $19.99.

Amazon had it for $14.44.

WalMart did not have the Scepter jug but did have a reasonable facsimile for $12.97.

Quite the difference. Obviously this sorta/kinda disproves the whole "You get what you pay for" mantra /idiot speak so common where boat stuff is concerned as well as underlining the fact that you really should do your due diligence and math before shelling out money for just about anything for a boat.

Especially whenever the seller has the word b-u-d-g-e-t in their name.

Listening to Los Lobos

So it goes...

PS Have a great Cinco de Mayo

on being a "YGWYPF" free zone...

Badtux making a good case, a telling note, and in the "Mean and vindictive asshats" department...

I'm currently in the process of getting rid of a lot of crap aboard "So It Goes" which is simply taking up valuable space but, more on that later.

On a related subject, I've received a couple of emails regarding my opine on the SeaWater Pro watermaker of the "You get what you pay for" sort and, to be perfectly frank, I'd like to point out a couple of things...

For starters, a goodly amount of the "crap I need to get rid of" aboard "So It Goes" is of the stuff I paid a serious chunk of money on that is, for want of a better word, crap. For instance, I have two pairs of very lightly-used Keen sandals and one pair of new ones where the glue holding them together has simply quit working. Not exactly what you might expect for $100+ sandals.

I also recently wanted to use a light, albeit pricey, Marmot rain jacket that I'd only used a couple of weeks and when I got it out of the closet found that the Goretex membrane had morphed into something other than a waterproof barrier and become so much dust. Again, not exactly what you'd expect from the money spent...

I could go on of course, the Raymarine gear that's never really worked, the brand new $120 basketball shoes whose soles came off the third day I wore them, the new DeWalt batteries that never held a charge, the expensive tools that fell apart. All things that I paid top dollar for that performed worse than much less expensive alternatives.

What's actually more important is that the companies making the expensive crap seem to be less than eager to fix or replace items that don't quite live up to expectations.

Which brings us back to the whole "you get what you pay for" thing because, in my experience, you really can't just depend on price being any kind of indicator of quality or service these days.

Being a smart consumer means you really have to look closely at the the product in question rather than just the price tag. I know that seems obvious but just the fact that every time I suggest here that a lesser priced product may actually be of impressive quality I tend to get letters of the "YGWYPF" sort. It shows just how many people are addicted to the consumerist kool-aid.

Just saying.


Listening to Buyepongo

So it goes...

The DIY alternative...

Buffy Summers has a lot to answer for, slave labor in America 2017, and hey look it's GOPcare...

The other day someone was bemoaning the high cost of self-steering gears and made the statement that it was impossible to get one for less than $3K.

I pointed out that a used Aries or reasonable facsimile could, with a little looking, be had for between $400 to $600 or you could buy a kit for an excellent gear that with a little sweat equity could be had for between $300- $600.

The advantage of the kit approach is when you are somewhere far, far away and something breaks you know how it's built and you can just fix it.

DIY is not just about saving money...

Listening to Esmé Patterson

So it goes...

Some thoughts on buying used stuff for boats...

Words, some bad (though much deserved) news for Utah, and a little depressing math...

OK, I'll admit it, at least once every week I check out eBay to see what's for sale in the boat gear category. Partly because you always need something for your boat and partly because it's good to know what stuff is worth.

That said, eBay is no longer the extended yard sale/swap meet it used to be and not really a good place to check prices because the greed has taken hold with a vengeance. Take self-steering gears for instance. You will often see used gears for silly prices. I suppose the fact that most new self-steering gears being stupidly expensive is a factor but still something used really should come with a price that reflects the fact that it used or, in far too many cases, used and abused.

Once upon a time I used to work in a consignment store selling boat gear. It was not a bad job as things go and it did teach me a lot about gear not to have on a boat and how the whole used gear thing actually works in practice. Being a consignment store it also taught a lot more on how not to sell things.

Which sorta/kinda brings us to the rule of half/half again... Let's say you have a self-steering gear on your new used boat you don't want and you want to sell it. Let's also say that you can buy the very same gear from its builder for $6K in spite of it having a retail price of $6.5K (face it everybody discounts). What would/should you price it at if you actually wanted to, you know, sell it?

Well, a guy on eBay today seems to think $5.5K which equals out to a $500 discount for a gear that predates his ownership of the boat, so it could be a decade or so old, possibly needs some work, and new bearings. At that price we'd never have been able to sell the beast in the store unless we lucked onto someone exceptionally stupid and drunk... Nope, at that price it would just sit in the corner and gather dust.

The fact is, used boat stuff really does not move until it hits the half off level rounded down to the nearest round with a kiss off that number... So, for the windvane in question, half of $6.5K is $3250 then rounded to $2999 is a price where it might actually sell for if it was in like-new condition, had all its bits, spares, and documentation. Truth be told, anything that was once bolted to a transom would fall into the half again rule where it might sell for $1500 at most.

Since one is predisposed to spend more in an actual brick & mortar store than from some dude on the internet selling off stuff he no longer wants, $1500 is actually way more than most people would fork out unless, of course, they were of the exceptionally stupid and/or drunk variety. A real world price is more likely to be under $1K.

As a consumer, you already know this to be true to one degree or another but there is a lot of pressure, both peer and otherwise, to forget the common sense you were born with and spend boat bucks like a drunken sailor (spelled exceptionally stupid and drunk) because... you know... you get what you pay for.

Working at the store taught me that the half/half again is just based on what good used stuff is really worth and nowhere near rocket science or voodoo. More importantly, it also taught me that there is always new old gear coming to the market all the time. If the guy selling that old funky winch for $500 or the $5.5K windvane won't come down to a real world price, someone else will have the same thing or a reasonable facsimile in the not too far distant future. All you have to do is keep looking and be patient...

Plus, the folks with the too-high gear will still be selling their gear next month or next year because it just ain't going to move anytime soon.

Listening to Barbagallo

So it goes...

Just a quick note on the consumerism as disease thang...

SNL on the front lines of struggle, more in the ongoing war against science, and in the "so dumb they couldn't organize a piss-up in a brewery" department...

So, yesterday I was bitching about the variety of prices of a specific product and, surprisingly I got a couple of emails explaining to me that I did not understand that, on a boat, gear is a safety concern so buying the best is all about s-a-f-e-t-y. Also that you get what you pay for.

OK, maybe I wasn't clear... The item in question for sale at different stores was the exact same bit of gear, All the same model built by the same company, and all having the very same manufacturers suggested retail price of $22.95. Seriously, how can anyone think that someone charging $49 for a $23 item makes any kind of sense at all?

It's not a safety issue. It is, however, a greed issue on the part of the sellers who are, for want of a better word, gouging.

It is also an issue for us if we have been trained/indoctrinated in consumerist-speak to the point that when confronted with the same exact item at two very different prices that the knee-jerk reaction is to buy the more expensive because... you know... "you get what you pay for and umm, you know... safety" part of the brainwashing kicks in.

In point of fact, the very idea that folks would write to defend this sort of abuse of customers by a bunch of vendors smacks of the same kind of logic that makes battered spouses or children defend their abusers and it's more than obvious that at some point consumerism is no longer just about buying stuff but over the edge of being a disease.

Of course, there's a simple cure for this kind of thing. All you have to do is do a little research on the stuff you need, know what it should cost, and become a smart consumer. It will save you lots of money and strike fear into the hearts of greedheads everywhere.

Rant over.

Listening to Mirel Wagner's very interesting Ramones cover

So it goes...

On the gouge conundrum or why it pays to shop...

Some needful reading from Wendig, just follow the money, and stupid/crazy/evil...

This morning my plan was to buy  four Tylaska spools like this one...

Checking around for the price of the size I needed I came up with a spread that ranged from a low of $15 to a high of $49 and change each.

Just think about that for a minute or two.

The real question is just how stupid do some people think we are?

Listening to Hula Hi-Fi

So it goes...

A quick provisioning tip or two...

Just another monkey doing the wrong monkey dance, in the "Need to know" department, and just in case you missed this...

In case you were unaware, things in America's Paradise tend to be quite a bit more expensive than in the US of A. That said, the USVI is quite a bit cheaper than a lot of other places in the Caribbean so, in general it pays to provision in the USVI rather than Antigua for instance. Still, I have to admit that the total on our grocery shop at the local Cost U Less can be downright painful.

Did you know that Walmart will ship groceries free to the USVI with their Shipping Pass program? The deal is you pay them $50 to join and then you qualify to have most things shipped to you "free". Which can be a huge help to the provisioning budget.

Of course, this does not include booze, fresh meat, fresh vegetables, and oddments but, as it does include most staples like canned goods and other packed foods, it is a great way to save some serious money if you need to do some heavy provisioning.

Another quick tip is that I'm pretty sure that anything you need or use regularly that comes from Mexico (engine parts and tequila jump to mind) is going to get a whole lot more expensive in the near future so you might want to stock up...

Listening to Dan Layus

So it goes...

and a few notes on how not to sell sails...

An impressive reading list, depressing, and anything is possible in a world of alternative facts...

So, about those sails...

The sails purchased were a new staysail and jib for our simplicity rig and quotes for the two sails from a variety of lofts ranged from just a kiss over $1K to $3.5K which is a pretty amazing price spread for two rather small sails.

I'll insert some things that really got up my nose with the whole buying sails process... First of all, in a lot of the quotes received it was obvious that the people quoting had not read my entire letter, looked at the enclosed sail plan, or answered specific questions I had asked.

In my letter to the various lofts I had made a point of not saying that the boat was a CAL 34 knowing in advance that if I had, the lofts would mostly quote for stock sails for the CAL 34 and, as I had a completely different rig, this would be problematic. That said, I should have realized that most lofts will refuse to quote until they have the specific boat model. Of course, after answering their queries and telling them that I had a CAL 34 with a different rig and resending the Simplicity sail plan, they responded with quotes for the standard CAL 34 rig as expected.

I also told all of the lofts that the sails were non-roller furling, that a set of reef points were required for the staysail, and because I have Dynex stays that I needed hanks of a specific size... They almost all sent me quotes for roller reefing sails with luff tape.

Lastly, I asked all of the lofts where the sails were built and what brand of sail cloth was to be used. Not that I was expecting to get answers but I did want to know and only two lofts actually answered.

To say this is a frelling sorry state of affairs is really an understatement...

The two lofts who actually seemed to have read my request, took the time to look at the enclosed sail plan, put in enough effort answer my specific questions, and send me an accurate quote were Sailrite and Far East Sails. They both were also the lowest quotes of the bunch.

The quote from Sailrite was $575 for the staysail in kit form and $450 for the jib kit plus shipping (our last sail from Sailrite cost about $100 to ship to the VI). I forget the exact number for them to build the sails but it nearly doubles the cost.

Far East Sails on the other hand quoted $555 for the staysail, and $542 for the jib with free shipping.

Obviously, the cost of the Far East quote was both attractive and scary. While I had been impressed by their attention to detail on their communication leading up to the quote, I've heard enough sail loft horror stories and survived a couple myself to do some checking. The results of my research was pretty much all positive.

Since time really is money and I don't currently have the time to sew a couple sails, I decided to go with the Far East Sails loft and sent them 50% on December 13th. The sails were finished by December 29. Through the whole process there was ongoing communication letting me know what was going on and asking me preferences/questions when needful.

The sails were shipped via DHL, well packaged, and arrived promptly. What's not to like?

The actual sails, once I had time to lay them out and measure them, were spot on measurement wise. The sail cloth was as described, of excellent quality as was the stitching and overall construction. In short, the sails are excellent.

For me, the cost is of lesser importance than the fact that with Far East I felt they were actually on the ball and paying attention to my sails. Their customer service and attention to the detail was all about getting it right the first time. A lot of the other lofts seemed to adopt the attitude of "I really don't give a shit and can't be bothered" which just does not inspire confidence.

So yeah, you can color me a happy camper.

Oh, one other thing... The Far East Sails sail bags are just about the nicest I've ever come across and were sized to fit the sails they contained (a concept that so far seems to elude most sailmakers). It's just that bit of attention to detail that will have me ordering a new drifter in the next few days from them.

Nuff said.

Listening to Some Guns N' Roses covers

So it goes...

The little shit will kill you...

A simple test that works, shit's getting real, and a very interesting interview...

Maybe it's just me, but sometimes when I peruse West Marine's offerings I find myself saying over and over...

"People really can't be this stupid... Can they?"

For example, let's look at the Plastimo (affectionately called Plastishit by my French friends from the boat yard in Meaux where I built LM2) Omni-Directional Wind Scoop that sells for the mind-boggling price of $177.99 which you have to admit is a lot of money for what amounts to five or ten dollars of material and a few minutes of time on a sewing machine. Of course, it is the hip deluxe Plastimo wind scoop but you can always buy the equally mind-boggling priced standard version for a paltry $99.99 if you're one of those lesser folk who needs to count pennies...

A wind scoop is actually a goodly thing to have but you really have to do a need/want and value/cost benefit analysis to things you put on your boat. Of course, if we all did that and shed the consumerist monkey riding our backs, the cost of something as simple as a wind scoop would cost a whole lot less than the silly high prices that are now deemed normal.

So, here's the scary thing, I'd put money on the fact that some reader (or three) will sit down in the next day or so and write me an email pointing out that, where boats are concerned, you get what you pay for, only an idiot would compromise safety for frugality's sake, and how dare I say otherwise. Which is nuts on so many levels that it really makes you wonder about little things like sanity and the current educational system that produces such thought processes.

Listening to K Phillips

So it goes...