Every morning at just about 9:00 a.m., a daysail trimaran slips past our stern taking tourists off to Buck Island. I mention this because most of the days I really envy their quiet outboard as they whisper past. Yeah, I suffer from outboard envy. Outboards make all kinds of sense for sailboats and I often …
A friend recently suggested that I should check out a website and already it’s providing surprising dividends. Just last week I saw a description of a different way of doing a journal as a bullet pointed listing of WTFs. The fact is that most of the things I write about boats starts with a “What …
I currently have three 1 x 12 planks sitting on the starboard side deck which are slated to become the Islander’s new self-steering gear. While I find the cost of the planks ($37 each) a bit depressing the upside is the entire self-steering gear will only cost somewhere around $300 dollars and a few afternoons …
One of my least favorite parts of a new boat is dealing with the sail end of the task list. Whether fixing old sails, buying new ones, or searching out good used ones it’s just a big pain in the ass from where I’m sitting. Of course, dealing with what passes for competence in the …
We all make mistakes and cunning plans are not always as cunning as we’d like them to be. For instance, the other day I had an idea that seemed at the outset to be a possible solution to a couple of problems. Solutions made even more attractive by the fact that if it worked it …
As someone who spent several years being an on and off resident of Camp 4 in Yosemite, I have a very different view of what the word “Dirtbag” actually means… dirtbag /dûrt′băg″/ noun Which has a lot to do with my approach to the whole VolksCruiser thing and why I admire folks cruising with less, …
Practical Boat Owner has an article on the recent ARC rally that I found both interesting as well as depressing. Mostly it’s about what stuff you need to have to cross the Atlantic. Lots of stuff. Expensive stuff. Of course, the ARC has always been a favorite thing to do if one is big on …
Being in the middle of a part time refit of our Islander has me thinking both about the cost of things these days, as well as the creeping loss of common sense where cruising boats is concerned. This morning I read a great article in Voiles et Voiliers about crossing the Atlantic with a 25-foot …
Practical Boat Owner, otherwise known as PBO, has a small article talking about the Westerly Cirrus and Tiger that is well worth reading. That said, I have not a frelling clue as to what a decent sofa actually costs so, if anyone out there does maybe you could let the rest of us know in …
