Getting the boat ready

The clock is running on my new sail. The sail company sent me an e-mail stating that they were all set with the measurements I sent them. All I had to do was to pay half the cost of the sail upfront. That appears to be a pretty standard requirement for custom built sails. Not that they've been paid the clock is running. They said it takes about four weeks for them to finish. Full payment is due at that time.

The new registration sticker are on so the boat is legal.

Unfortunately, the battery appears to have died over the winter. Amazing how they seem to last just slightly longer than the warranty. Once that's replaced I'm going to drive the ¼ mile to the boat ramp. Nothing like having a boat at your own beach.

The lake is small enough that I'm not worried about using the old blown out sail while waiting for the new one. The trailer needs new tires and a new jack, but it'll be good enough for the short distance to the ramp.

Living up in the mountains of northern New Hampshire there's not a lot of marine supplies. It is possible to get a few odds and ends for fishing boats, but forget about sailboat supplies. I'll be joining a friend of mine who lives in Maine on a trip to Hamilton Marine in Portland Maine. It's good to go with a native guide. He knows the places with the best beer and food in the area.

Once the new sail comes in and the trailer fixed we'll trailer it all over New England. We are hoping to get back out to the “West Coast of New England,” Lake Champlain. It's a fun place to sail. Now that we have our passports we may even sail into Canada.

We aren't sure exactly what we'll do for a boat next winter, but in a pinch we'll have the good old Oday 19.

-Sixbears

Still plugging away

The days have been warm and dry for this time of year in northern New Hampshire. It's perfect weather for working on the sailboat. With all the paints, varnish, and adhesives that go into boat maintenance and repair, that's a good thing.

I'm taking care of all the little things that annoyed me. The new shelves inside the boat are working out well. The marine radio is mounted at a much better angle and is easier to use. There' s a nice new depth finder up and running. The cabin light is in a better place. Lots of little things add up to big improvements.

While it doesn't compare to actually sailing the boat, puttering around on it has been pretty fun.

For all the work I've been doing on the boat, there's been very little spent on the project. This whole operation is pretty low budget.

My lovely wife has been planing our packing. The next time I'm in the boat I'm going to take measurements of all the storage compartments. That way she'll be able to figure out what goes where. On a tiny boat, organization is the key.

Working on the boat and imagining great days on the water, sure beats the heck out of thinking about the garbage on the news. Cheap therapy.

-Sixbears

Boat season

It's the wonderful time of year again. Time to get the boat and trailer ready for my trip to Florida. It feels weird to be working on the boat and trailer in the snow. I'm also the first one in town to register my boat every year. I can't put the new stickers on until the boat is in Florida and it warms up enough for them to stick. There are few little projects that will have to wait until I get to where it's warm. Winter cold and ice make everything harder.


There's a bit of ice in the cockpit so I've just put a better and larger tarp over the boat. Like in previous years, the snow and ice probably won't completely melt off the boat until somewhere in South Carolina. At least I shouldn't have to shovel snow out of the boat this year.

The trailer needs to be greased and the tires inspected. Also have to make sure the lights and safety chains are in good shape.

I had hoped to have all this stuff done by now, but my nasty cold set me back over a week. Then there's this holiday thing coming up that's requiring time, money and attention.

-Sixbears

Marine Supplies and boat living

Today I stopped in at a marine supply store. It’s the last place I got to for boat parts. One would think it would be the first, but put the word “marine” in front of anything and the price triples. Usually, the huge markup isn’t worth it.

Things like stainless steel bolts, screws, nuts, washers, cotter pins are much cheaper at hardware stores. Best I can tell, it’s the exactly same stuff.

However, there are some bits and bobs that can only be purchased from a marine store. For those, all I can do is take a deep breath and pull out the wallet. It seems there’s an assumption that anyone with a boat can afford to pay through the nose.

That may be true for a some sailors, but that’s a thinning slice of the market. Now I’m running into people who are living on their boats because their house was foreclosed on. I’m sure they are not as free with their wallets as they once were.

Living on a boat can be a great and inexpensive way to live. Boats are efficient and self contained. Now it’s common to have solar and wind electrical power, composting toilets, water collection -they are basically off grid houses. They have an advantage that houses don’t have. It’s possible to raise anchor and bug out.

To make that affordable to the average Joe, the price of entry must come down. If you read the glossy sailing magazines, a cheap boat is $200,000. That ain’t right. To make it a viable cheap lifestyle alternative, the price should be 1/10 of that.

It is possible to buy decent older boats on the cheap. For many people that works. The only problem that older boats need repair. For some of those repairs, a person is stuck doing what I did today. They buy specialized parts from the marine supply store. Now my boat is small and parts are relatively cheap. The boat just doesn’t have all that many parts.

Thanks to Buehler's Backyard Boatbuilding, by George Beuhler, it’s possible to build an inexpensive boat from the ground up. Should a person build such a boat, they’d have a cheap reliable craft that can repaired without going broke. Buehler has some good designs, but they won’t suit everyone’s needs. We need more people like George putting out new designs for the sea hobo. Even if you don’t build a boat from the keel up, there are some good lessons to be learned from books like Beuhler’s.

Boats have to be more than play toys for the rich, expensive working boats, or floating retirement homes. Imagine a small sailboat that’s a home, but maybe well laid out for fishing, light cargo transportation, or even salvage work. My imaginary boat would be able to get into shallow waters, opening up opportunities not available to regular boats designed only as play things. This would be a boat for a working Joe who not only lives on his boat, but uses it to pay the bills.

Such boats won’t be heavily reliant on marine supply stores. Of course, if there are enough “working Joe” boats out there, some clever marine store will begin to cater to them.

Some marine specific equipment can be bought for reasonable prices. Electronics is one area where prices have come down. GPS units, marine radios, and other electronics can be had for reasonable prices. There is no reason to buy top of the line items when the cheap stuff is reliable and does the job. Resist the bells and whistles.

That’s the chain of thought I fall into when I buy a couple small bags of boat bits. It starts out as a small necessary purchase and has me thinking of a whole way of living outside the box.

-Sixbears

Almost ready for sailing

It’s a weird time of year for me. Most people are getting into the whole Christmas holiday season. The thing that’s held my attention lately is getting the sailboat ready for Florida. One advantage of owning a trailer sailer is that it can be worked on in the driveway. Beats the heck out of a marina haul out.

When I bought the boat, it had a boarding ladder attached to the transom. The previous owner did a crappy job on the install. It was only held on by a few bolts with tiny washers. The fiberglass had started to show cracks in the gelcoat. I removed the ladder, patched the damage and plugged the bolt holes. For the next ten months I used a single boarding step that connected by ropes to the cleats. It wasn’t fancy, but worked well enough, and it was cheap.

While that worked fine when boarding from shore or shallow water, in deeper water it was a struggle. I imagined what would happen if I fell overboard in cold water, or became injured. the single step wasn’t going to cut it. After looking at all kinds of boarding ladder options, I ended going back to the one I removed. The ladder itself was rugged and built of stainless steel. I’ve seen similar ones in catalogs for over $200. The problem wasn’t the ladder but the way it was mounted. Instead of just a couple washers, I made long backing plates for the bolts. I also fabricated a couple extra brackets. Now it’s really solid and easily holds my not inconsiderable weight without strain.

Last year a friend lent me a handheld VHF radio to use as backup for my base unit. I really believe that a good backup radio is an important safety feature. Last spring I saw someone lose their main radio antenna on a railroad bridge. He and his wife were rescued by Coast Guard because he was able to call them on his handheld. I took advantage of a good one day sale at West Marine and bought a decent radio of my own.

Leland strobe lights have been a problem. Since we spend nights on the water, having strobe lights on our life jackets seem like a good idea. I ordered two through Amazon. One worked, the other didn’t. Amazon quickly replaced the faulty one -with another faulty one. Doesn’t anyone check these things? I just filed another claim with Amazon.

One of the things I was uncomfortable with was the amount of water we carried on board and the way we carried it. I discovered a new product called Water Bricks. They are rectangular 3.5 gallon water containers. The cool thing is that can be stacked up like Lego blocks. I ordered 4 and they just came in. One nice thing them is the size. 3.5 gallon containers are much easier to handle than the big ones. They even have comfortable carrying handles.

I did a lot of little odds and ends: heavier battery cables, worked on the outboard, rebeded loose screws, repaired gelcoat, painted the bottom, new tiller, and other little jobs. Any boat owner will tell you that there’s always more that can be done on a boat.

The only big thing on the boat that bugs me is that I don’t have a good way to mount the solar panel. The marine brackets for mounting a small panel start at over $500. That ain’t gonna happen. I think I can fabricate something just as good for a tenth the price.

I suppose I’m going to have to pay some attention to the holiday season now. It’s much more fun to think about sailing.

-Sixbears