Some days...

Ian Welsh continues to make sense, a very good cause you might be interested in supporting, and a lecture worth the time...

Shit, as they say, happens...

I lost an oarlock yesterday. Well, as it happens it's not exactly lost but it is in about six feet underwater near the boardwalk. It popped off when I shipped one of the oars in the early (still dark) AM. I jumped in after it but, as it was still dark, I was reduced to the Braille method of bottom exploring... Lots of beer bottles but nada on the bronze oarlock front.

I figured that I could jerry-rig an oarlock out of line and the most prudent course of action was to go back to the boat and come back later when it was light and with a mask so I could see what I was doing. Of course, when I came back several hours later a daysail boat had tied up just over the missing oarlock...

I'll try again later today but I'm thinking of adding a sculling notch on the back of the dinghy...

Listening to 10cc

So it goes...

New rule, no more excuses...

Well, this is certainly depressing, I'd sleep better if there were a few more folks like Grayson in the House, and the best cruising blog post I've read in ages...

A long time reader wrote the other day and mentioned that he'd leave his cubicle behind in a heartbeat but he can't afford a new cruising boat and just does not feel that a DIY project is doable. The bottom line is that for some reason or other he thought he'd have to pay at least $100K for a boat...

Now, maybe I'm not always clear on stuff but I'm pretty sure that if you've been reading Boat Bits for a while you should have twigged to the fact that we're of the cheap seats persuasion here and we don't think you need to spend no stinking hundred grand to go cruising.

For those who have difficulty with my English I'll repeat the important part in Esperanto...

"Ni estas el la malkara sidejoj persvado tie kaj ni ne opinias ke vi bezonas elspezi neniu fetoran cent grandioza iri transepto."

The guy in question wants a 28-30 foot boat pretty much ready to go so what do I come up with in fifteen minutes?

How about a 1985 Pearson 28 footer in really good shape that you could spend a couple of weeks and maybe a thousand dollars (at most) tricking it out to full on cruiser mode so all you'd have to do is provision and simply point the boat into the sunset? Oh, the asking price (with dinghy/outboard included) is a paltry $15,000.

Not a fixer upper but a ready to go boat for a whole lot less than that $100K. The point is, there are so many good deals floating around that pretty much anyone can go cruising if they want to.

The Pearson is a design that could take a couple pretty much anywhere they wanted to go in both safety and comfort. I know I'd be more than happy cruising such a beast over to Europe and the Med and back again...

Listening to The Watson Twins

So it goes...

Some hard choices...

Krugman getting it right, one can always hope, and in the "don't let the door hit you in the ass on your way out department"...

Sometimes fate throws you a whammy...

As it happens, I've been in the realm of a lot of difficult decision of late, trying to decide on the next boat design, as well as making some other long range decisions regarding future cruising, and work variety. As the man says, "some big changes come soon..."

I thought I had a pretty good handle on things and have been seriously looking forward to moving in some new directions and then a sorta/kinda opportunity pops up out of nowhere and forces me to reexamine all my ducks which were really starting to look like they were in a row.

Sometimes I forget that life is seldom ever a straight line.

I'm not exactly sure if the opportunity is going to happen or not but if it does it means some changes and a whole lot of zig and zag. If it doesn't... well, there are still a lot of changes in store and, no doubt, some zig and zag as well. Either way I'm happy to roll with the flow.

Listening to Michael Nesmith

So it goes...

Reality light...

Well, this pretty much sums all of that up, Scalzi on some folks being comfortable with both reality and math, and, I wonder, why I had to hear about this important election result from the BBC...

All this talk of elections of late has been reinforcing my view that a whole lot of people are working on the premise that you can simply delete facts that get in the way of your preferred world view... Now, I expect that is a needful thing for some folks of a certain political bent but where boats and sailing are concerned, it can be seriously problematic.

Sailing and cruising is a very reality intensive pursuit and basing plans on what you'd like things to be rather than what they are is a recipe that will bite you in the ass big time.

Back when we had Loose Moose 2 (a boat that drew a kiss over one foot) we'd find that a lot of people seeing a 38-foot boat at anchor would decide that they could anchor there as well and in spite of the chart or cruising guide which pointed out that the depth was less than three feet, water that was clear enough to show that is was real thin, and our jumping up and down waving them off screaming shoal draft, they'd still come up to anchor close and find themselves hard aground.

The fact that water is shallow in some places is a fact you don't want to ignore...

Same can be said for weather... Every year during the "H" season we note that a lot of people tend to think that they can somehow change the weather by shopping for a different weather service or computer models. My experience is that storms with names have a serious reality bias and are seldom deterred by wishing they'd be somewhere else. As it happens, a friend mentioned the other day that "H" season was now over and it was time to leave his chosen area away from storms now... I pointed out that "H" season still had a while to go but he feels that it's time to leave because he is bored and wants to get moving again...

Me, I'm not stowing away my storm tackle just yet...

Listening to It's a Beautiful Day

So it goes...

A couple of thoughts on fabric...

Some copyright craziness, an interesting lesson, and you really should get "Ready to Get Wet?" by Mike from ZTC...

One of the really nice things about living in 2012 is the fact that there are a lot of materials that make boat building and the rehabbing of old boats both easier and cheaper...

For instance, carbon fiber used intelligently can increase the strength of your boat and even save you some money while you're doing it. The same goes for other "exotic" fabrics such as Kevlar and suchlike.

Sure carbon is more expensive than glass but it is a lot stronger so you use less. If you use less reinforcing material whether it's glass, carbon, or Kevlar you also use less epoxy... Savings on epoxy in projects add up to really significantly more money in your pocket real fast. Throw in the fact that using carbon/etc also tends to result in some labor savings as well, it's sort of a win/win situation. Which is not to say that carbon or other exotic material is always the best choice as good old E and S glass have their place as well (Kurt Hughes has a good example you might want to check out).

There are some fabrics coming into more common use that are a lot less expensive than carbon but still a lot stronger than glass. Basalt-derived fabrics readily come to mind in this sphere that you might want to check out.

But, as the man said, there is no free lunch so you do have to do your homework because matching the right reinforcing fabric to the project at hand usually takes some knowledge of the fabrics in question as well as what the actual project demands. Not exactly rocket science but it will create some serious exercise for most folks second favorite organ...

One project I have been planning for awhile for "So It Goes" is some reinforcement to the bow and bottom back to the front of the keel. The hardest part of the project is the simple act of exposing the areas that needs to be reinforced. The second hardest part of the project has been figuring out how and what fabrics to use. My current thinking is some carbon grid (tape) followed by some Kevlar cloth covered with a layer of glass. The cost of the exercise looks to be considerably south of $500 which to my thinking is cheap insurance for things that go bump on the night passage. That said, I'm currently in the process of reworking the mix to see if a basalt fabric might improve the cost or utility.

For those with an interest I buy nearly all my epoxy and fabrics from RAKA as their prices are very hard to beat and materials/epoxy are excellent. As it happens, so is their service. Another company I also deal with from time to time is Soller Composites who sells basalt fabrics and some oddments (like carbon tow) in carbon/Kevlar/etc that come in handy on a regular basis. Soller, like RAKA, have provided excellent service, pricing, and technical advice.

While getting just a little long in the tooth "The Gougeon Brothers On Boat Construction" is still a great place to start when beginning to navigate the whole wood epoxy composite universe so you might want to keep it around as a much needed resource. I use mine all the time...

Listening to John Lennon

So it goes...

For want of a proper pantry...

Ian Welsh making some sense, a book review on the subject of slow violence, and some passionate words about austerity...

I can't help but notice that the cost of gas/diesel keeps going up and, while I'll admit that the resulting lower traffic of weekend warrior cigarette boatfolk is kinda nice but, the resulting spiraling costs that higher fuel prices cause in other areas like transport is somewhat worrisome...

You might not be aware but quite a few people in the USVI do a lot of grocery shopping with Walmart. Online grocery prices at Walmart are scary cheap in comparison to Caribbean/USVI prices plus the fact that it is not hard to get free shipping (sent via US Mail) makes it something of a lifesaver. Which, I suppose, is something that boatfolk who visit and provision in the US Virgins when they're here should keep in mind as an option. For a USVI address all you need is to have stuff sent to General Delivery. It works just fine.

Which, in a way, brings us back around to the subject of cruising boat design...

If there is one single aspect of sailboat design that drives me nuts it is the fact that storage/stowage on a modern sailboat is simply crazy. It's almost like the designers involved never gave a thought to the idea that a cruising couple or family might actually need to store food, spare parts, fuel and other such needful stuff when they take off for an extended cruise.

This is actually important...

Being able to stock up when and where stuff is cheap is a major factor in being able to cruise on a tight budget. Having a full larder allows one to be able to cruise areas where the prices are silly expensive and, more or less, stay on your chosen budget.

The thing is, on a modern sailboat of say 30-36 feet, where do you put those cases of green beans you found at thirty-nine cents a can so you don't have to pay $1.39 or more a can on some paradisaical island? Most boats can handle a month's worth of provisions but to really start saving money you need a capacity of something more akin to at least six months of staples.

So where are you going to put it?

Listening to The Wailin' Jennys

So it goes...

On choosing boats designs and suchlike...

Lose a thousand votes here, a thousand there and pretty soon you have a new president, something well worth listening to, and a moment to consider a tattoo in hindsight...

This morning, while I had my first needful cup of coffee, I found my thoughts caught up in a strange mixture involving boat design and presidential politics... A pretty odd mix.

One thing that surfaced in my thoughts was how choosing a boat design was mostly a lot better than choosing a president.

I currently have a short list of boats I'd like to build or own and I'm pretty sure, if you read Boat Bits on a semi-regular basis, you do as well. One thing that all of the boats on my short list share is that they are all excellent boat designs and the real problem of the choosing what to build dilemma is more of a plethora of excellence rather than the fact that one design is better than the others... So many great boats and so little time.

Of course, if choosing a boat to build was like the current state of picking a president it would be a whole lot easier. The downside is whichever boat you'd choose would be crappy but the choice between a really really bad design and a not very good one is actually pretty easy... You simply choose the one that's not quite as bad as the other.

That said, only an insane person would choose to build a bad boat because it is not quite as bad as another on purpose. Any sane person would look for a better design or not build a boat at all.

It's funny how insanity in boat building is just the same old same in politics these days... As a Virgin Islander, for once, I'm actually glad that I'm a second class citizen and don't get to vote for president this time around.


Listening to Dave Mason

So it goes...

Need/Want Meets Boat Building

Mind the gap, Kurt Hughes (ace multihull designer) comments on the "Tiny House" movement, and about those zombie ideas...

So, the question for today is why exactly should you build a cruising boat?

It's not really because it's a way to save money as older, perfectly good plastic boats are everywhere and can be had for a song,

Fact is, just about the only real reason to build a boat to go cruising in is because you have some special needs and can't sort them out any other way.

For example, there are simply bugger all shoal draft boats around in the used boat market. Now, by shoal, I mean S-H-O-A-L and that is something of three feet or under. I won't bother to go into the whole superior seaworthiness of real shoal draft boats over their deep draft brethren but if you want a seaworthy boat with a draft of less than three feet the only way you're going to find it is to build it yourself.

Tad Roberts' 27-inch draft Future Cruiser

The same thing applies if you have some special need... Let's say you want to work while you cruise and you'd like to build surfboards or somesuch as you go. Building surfboards necessitates a workshop of sorts and stowage of materials to build surfboards from (because you are not going to find any surfboard blanks in the Caribbean) you really need a cargo type of boat and pretty much the only way you're going to find that is to build it yourself...

George Buehler's Cargo Schooner, Mel

I'm sure you can come up with scenarios yourself of various boat designs that are simply not available to buy because they are too specialized to make sense in a mass production world. The thing is, where it makes sense to build it yourself is when the boat you need, and you really have to apply a rigorous need/want equation here, is simply not available so you need to build it yourself.

Now I'll admit that I've skipped over all those people who simply like building boats and whose idea of heaven is twenty years and a big pile of wood... I get that. Most folks reading this want a boat in the near future or somewhat sooner because they want a boat to go cruising on and being Boat Bits readers that also, more than likely, means they want it affordable as well.

Listening to Guy Clark

So it goes...

On the urge to build a boat...

Here's an apt question, not so much paradise anymore, and some myth busting...

A lot of readers of Boat Bits, as well as the guy who writes it, have an urge to build a boat from the keel up. More than an urge really it's somewhere between affliction and an addiction...

        "Hi, my name's Bob and I'm a boatbuilder..."

The thing is, there are some reasonably good reasons to build a boat. I should also point out that there are a lot more good reasons not to.

That said, most of the nay-sayers who crawl out from under the woodwork and tell you why it's stupid to build a boat are idiots and could not find their butt with a map, flashlight, and both hands. The anti-boatbuilding brigade is problematic simply because they're so stupid that they simply cloud the issue and give you the false confidence that if they're against it your cause is both sensible and just.

Like most things in this world it's complicated.

So, why not build a boat?

In the current economy there are so many cheap boats for sale at giveaway prices that you can buy a reasonably good condition sailboat for considerably less than the raw materials a new boat would entail... Sadly, if you can't afford to buy an old fixer upper CAL/Columbia/Pearson/Whatever you're not going to be able to afford to build a new boat. The old wives' tale that it allows you to pay as you go simply does not work in the real world as prices keep going up and in the end you wind up paying even more, plus, the working in fits and starts scenario means that you'll slow your building down to a point that you'll simply never finish the boat.

The downside, for me, of building a boat from the keel up is simply the fact that it is not nearly as eco-friendly as rehabbing an older boat. Face it, the most sustainable system is to reuse rather than bring in new materials that deplete forests, require the use of toxic chemicals and various oil based resins. Seriously, this is really a big issue and one that keeps me up some nights.

The obvious downside is it takes a lot of labor/time to build a boat... not that you can't build one quickly (our 38' Loose Moose 2 was built in six months while our 26' Loose Moose took 4 1/2 months) but most people cannot work full time on a project and the less time you have to build the more hours it takes. Ten single hours of labor never ever equals a ten-hour day of labor... My guesstimate is it's something like a factor of five.

All that being the case, there still are some excellent reasons to actually build a cruising sailboat but that will have to wait till tomorrow...

Listening to Spirit

So it goes...

A couple of links...

My favorite bike blog makes an astute observation (that pretty much works for boats as well as bikes), truly amazing things come out of the muck, and why is the Onion making more sense than the rest of the media...

Over at 1001 Boats there is an excellent write up about the Benford 34' Junk dory which is well worth reading that you might want to check out.

Now, here's a question I can't quite get my head around... Why is it if folks pay lots of money for something (let's say a VERY expensive LED navigation light) and have it and its replacements fail (resulting in a near 100% failure rate) do they still consider the product excellent and the company providing it a "fine and responsive company"? Me, I'm guessing Stockholm syndrome. More on this strange aberration over at Attainable Adventure Cruising...

Listening to Blackie & the Rodeo Kings

So it goes...