My kind of cat, regarding someone I admire, and in the "The importance of a reality based world" department...
It would appear that most folks these days, when confronted with a problem or issue with their boat, tend to go to their favorite forum or YouTube. Now, I've gone on record about my feelings for most forums and while advice freely given is, more often than not, worth exactly what you're paying for it.
That said I do, every so often, visit a particular forum from time to time simply because the advice is so entertaining in its silliness and general lack knowledge purveyed.
YouTube is actually a lot better and there are a lot of excellent bits of video telling you how to do or fix stuff on sailboats. On the other hand, it's best to realize that for every one good bit of video there are a dozen or so that are just clueless.
For me I tend to find my best avenue of problem solving or good ideas is to be in books.
Books work and happen to be an excellent investment. I've lost track of the number of times I've used Brion Toss's "The Riggers Apprentice", Fred Bingham's "Practical Yacht Joinery", Bruce Binghams "The Sailors Sketchbook", Dynamite Payson's "Build the New Instant Boats", and Dan Spurr's "Spurr's Guide to Upgrading Your Cruising Sailboat". I've never kept track of how much money those various books have saved me but it would be a substantial amount far exceeding the cost paid for them.
There are a bunch more books I could list but those are the ones that I still use on a regular basis and have had the most impact where fixing up an old boat are concerned.
Listening to Drinking Boys And Girls Choir
So it goes...
