How many holes?

Bob over on Boat Bits has posted a sobering rant that every boat owner should read.  Here is a tease - a short test from the end of the post:

So here is a quick and handy test to see if you have a too complicated (spelled unsafe) boat...

1. How many seacocks and thruhulls do you have?
2. Do you know where they all are and how to get to them in a hurry?

If the answers to #1 and #2 require ponderation of any sort exceeding ten seconds you have too many holes in your boat.

But I'd like to amplify that a little.

It isn't just that you have to know where all the seacocks are and be able to reach them..  You must be able to reach and operate them when the boat is sinking:

• It is pitch black inside the cabin because the batteries are shorted out.
• You are at sea, in a storm (of course...); the boat is rolling.
• The floorboards are floating.  This means that the bilge is under water - water that is now probably mixed with battery acid, diesel, and oil.

And under these conditions, you must be able to hold your breath, squeeze your eyes shut and submerge yourself into the water.  You must know where the valves are... by feel, and be able to operate them holding your breath, submerged in foul water.

Think you can?

Caveat emptor

Everybody knows that application of label "Marine" to something seems to mean that you can double the price.  Now, there are items for which a higher price is appropriate.  An example: a marine alternator -  a specially manufactured version of an automotive alternator, made in limited quantities (by automotive standards anyway) to be able to safely run in an enclosed engine compartment which could contain gasoline vapors.  But how much more is justified?

Bob, over at Boat Bits has been decrying the cost of self-steering gear (we're all anxiously waiting to see your design, Bob).

And now Mike from Zero to Cruising brings us a couple of real-world examples where ingenuity trumps chandlery prices:

While shopping online and at the usual chain-store chandlery, we found:

* Tiller extension: $15.00 to $60.00!
* Portable stern light: $35.00 to $40.00!

* Our tiller extension: $5.00 (piece of schedule 40 PVC, end cap and rubber connector with clamp)
* Our portable stern light: $5.00 (solar patio light, rubber stopper thing, sticky-back velcro)

Mike's example of the dinghy running light brought to mind something I saw in a flyer I received recently from a large, nation-wide marine chandlery...

This "rail lite" was offered for $29.95.  Obviously this is nothing more than a typical "solar patio light" with the bottom spike replaced by a cap, and with a cheap plastic clamp.





Harbor Freight sells this set of 10 nearly identical copper-colored stainless lights for  $34.99.  Buy the set, take off the bottom spikes and find your own cheap plastic clamp, or just use zip ties.  And then give 9 of them away to your friends at your anchorage.


The bottom line is, that while some marine-oriented items are justifiably priced higher than their non-marine equivalents, many manufacturers seem to take advantage of this and mark up everything with a marine label.  Or even apply a marine label solely so that they can mark up the price.  They get to do this, of course.  Our response should be caveat emptor - the challenge to all of us is to apply critical thinking and ingenuity to avoid being taken in by the marketing.

The right tool

When doing any project, there is a tendency to use the project as a reason to acquire another tool (he who dies with the most tools, wins).  But then this delays the project, which now depends on shopping for the tool.

Sometimes, the "best" tool for the job is the one you have, rather than the shiny, expensive, special-purpose one you see in the catalog.  Because with the tools you have, you can get right to work.  Bob over at Boat Bits talks about a personal example of this.

On the other hand, one should not fall into the trap of the lazy craftsman either:

"All tools are hammers, except for screwdrivers.  Screwdrivers are chisels."

In praise of DIY

I have long been an adherent of the DIY philosophy - you might have guessed that, given the purpose of this blog.  Most boaters are DIY'ers by nature - thus the popularity of this site!   Aside from the obvious cost savings, when you successfully complete a project yourself, there is a wonderful feeling of satisfaction, of competence.

And in the boating world, DIY makes even more sense.  There are those who proclaim that "the only tool I need is a Visa card."  That certainly works, if your boat never leaves the dock.  But when you are at sea, that credit card is not very useful - except, perhaps, if you are in need of a thin plastic shim.

Over at Boat Bits, Robert has posted an essay on this subject that I encourage you to read.

Water, water, everywhere...

But watermakers are expensive.  Right?

Well, it turns out not so much, if you are willing to do a little adaptation and do the work yourself.

Tho this is way beyond the scope of "small" boat projects, I found it very interesting: DIY watermaker, so maybe you will too.   If you go thru the site you will also find links to other DIY watermakers, ranging all the way up to the wonderfully executed version on s/v Rutu (there is nothing by half-measures on Rutu).

(This link originally spotted on Boat Bits)

The reason that this is posted is that I am beginning to run out of projects... I may have mentioned before that there are just not enough "small" projects on Eolian to sustain this site indefinitely... I am hoping that you folks out there reading will continue to contribute, or to allow me to mine your own blogs for things to put up here.  Thanks.

Boom Brake Bucks (not!)

There is a nice bit on inexpensive boom brakes over at Boat Bits.  I have been wanting to pursue a boom brake on Eolian, but the cost of the Wichard et al solutions was too off-putting.  This is the answer - we will be going forward with it on Eolian.

---

Originally posted on Windborne In Puget Sound