Boat Hooks

Over at Sail Delmarva, Drew has some comments on that ubiquitous tool: the boat hook

Six months ago I was asked to review boat hooks for Practical Sailor Magazine. Everybody needs one. How dull I thought; I've never bought one, not in 30 years. I always find them by the dumpster or on the beach, and have a stack of "spares" at home that I haven't used yet. Keeps me from getting to choked up if someone drops one. Most days we just drop it in the middle of the tramp--I've never lost one from there, even in heavy going, though I generally tie it down when it starts banging into things.

Everybody does need one.

And low and behold it was more fun than I thought.

• The most expensive, heavy duty model was the first to fail in the field.
• Most would not allow me to pull with full strength without breaking.
• The company that urged us to test, feeling theirs were best, was absolutely right.
• I still like my 20-year-old pole for daily use.

How about this classic crabber's  hook? It's been hanging on the wall in my daughter's room for years, after I found it tangled up in my docklines after Isabel (I left in on the dock for 2 weeks, but no one claimed it). In fact, it was perhaps the best balanced and most suitable for all-day heavy use. No surprise.

The old guard vs. the new kids. Second from the left is my every-day pole.

I wonder who got the bright idea that a boat hook makes a good brush pole (I'm not picking on West Marine--they are ALL like that now)? All it does is snag lines. Unfortunately, about 1/2 of them won't screw into a brush because part of the hook is in the way. And nothing can be screwed into the "take" part of the hook anyway, so what's up with threads there? Worst of all...

... the bulbous padded tip makes them useless for snagging a line off a piling or dock...

Which all of the old-school poles can do easily, but only ONE of the new poles. Not an improvement in my opinion.

Transom Project Complete

Please welcome new contributors Nate & Jenn, newly moved aboard (August, 2014)  their first boat, the 36-foot Allied Princess s/v Aletheia.  Since moving aboard, they have already cruised from Halifax, Nova Scotia down to Ft. Lauderdale, Fla - not bad for less than a year aboard!  And one of the first things new boat owners do is change the lettering on the transom...

We did something cool and fun this morning aboard Aletheia...we gave her an official hailing port on her transom. On top of the two previous owners' hailing ports: Florida, USA and Portland, lays Denver CO!

We scoured local craft and hardware stores all over the East Coast only to find 3-inch letters that come individually and this likely would have been a bigger project trying to match each letter, evenly spaced, to my OCD-perfection. After asking the Universe for where to look next, a fellow blogger at TheBoatGalley.com suggested  DoItYourselfLettering.com. Winner! After just a few minutes on the website, t'was a no brainer. Customization out the wazoo, with hundreds of fonts, more than a dozen colors, sizes and several grades of vinyl, depending on your specific needs. 

Before beginning such a project, we checked the requirements for US Coast Guard Documented vessels. According to the USCG, the required letter height on a recreational vessel needs to be at least 4" tall. DoItYourSelfLettering had everything we needed, and we ordered it from the boat! No more traipsing around!

Since we only need a hailing port, we matched the font as best we could with her name. It costs $20, shipping included. Other signage companies can easily charge upright of $75-100 for similar apply-it-yourself lettering. 

Denver, CO came in one long piece with easy, detailed installation instructions - fairly foolproof. They even guarantee "anyone" can install the lettering and if there are any problems with the installation, they will send a replacement at no cost. I'll admit I was a bit nervous, but we walked through our installation process a few times and it came out great! No need to request a replacement! Thank you DoItYourselfLettering for making me feel like a pro!

I highly recommend this company both for personal and professional projects.

Here are some pics of our install:

Step 1: Green tape applied as a "hinge" to set the location of the name

Step 2: Remove the backing off the label

Step 3: Pull taut and adhere to the surface, scraping the overlay to remove any air bubbles 

Fine-tuning

Since we have drainage holes on the transom, we cut around to make sure the surface area is flat. So far, so good! 

It's working!

Complete Success in about 10 minutes!

That's one less project from the to-do list. 

Love to all,
Nate & Jenn

How to: Salt varnish

Unless you are an Olde Salt, you may not have heard of salt varnish.

On a cabin sole finished bright, with beautiful gloss varnish, how do you provide essential non-skid areas where they are needed? For example, on the edge of the raised area under the dinette on Eolian facing you, where people want to firmly place their feet while sliding out from under the table?

I had tried various alternatives, including a clear non-skid tape made by 3M (the adhesive failed wherever sun hit it). And then, like in most cases, I discovered that someone had solved this problem a long, long time ago, in a very elegant way: salt varnish.

Here's what you do:

• Mask off the area to be "non-skidded"
• Apply a wet coat of varnish
• Immediately sprinkle it with a liberal layer of regular table salt
• When the varnish is cured, sponge away the salt with a moist sponge

What is left behind, once the salt is dissolved away, is a layer of rough varnish. Perfect non-skid. And easily sanded for re-treatment when it is needed, since it is just that: varnish. I tried to show it in this picture, but it is not easy to capture, which is one of its virtues, after all.

Sparkman & Stephens type plans

Sparkman & Stephens build some absolutely gorgeous boats. In doing one of your projects, you've probably not said to yourself, "I wonder how S&S would do this."

But maybe you should have.

This gem is from Craft A Craft:

Sparkman & Stephens, a long time maritime design firm, has placed quite a few of what they call "Type Plans" available on their web page. These are small detail plans of various features on boats,say bunk board mounting or sail rigging designs, etc. Looks like there could be some great ideas to use here if you are building or modifying a boat.

S&S Type Plans
Over the years we have created a catalogue of typical details which might be found on any yacht which we refer to as "Type Plans". These were delivered to shipyards along with the plans and specification when building a new S&S boat to assist them and to attempt to standardize many of the details that can be found onboard an S&S boat. While many are somewhat outdated we include them here as they are extremely interesting. We hope you enjoy reviewing them.

Repurposing in the galley

The galley is a rich source of small projects, probably because so much of great import happens there. And as stowage is always bubbling near the surface of a cruiser's mind, it is not surprising to find an intersection here. Here is an idea from Mike & Rebecca of s/v Katana. The full article from which this was excerpted can be seen here.

A few posts ago I mentioned Rebecca was playing around a bit with macramé. Here is her first project, built on a wire-frame basket that she purchased for $1.00!

Fancy ropework on boats is not only traditional, it is noble!