Not too very long ago, someone wrote in to tell me that my thoughts on boats concerning the whole idea of a VolkCruiser mindset were simple and I’m pretty sure he did not mean it in a positive sense. It got me thinking… … About how when I was in school taking design classes that …
One problem with buying into the out-of-control-consumerism gig is that the first thing to go is anything that passes for critical thinking. Or, in other words, you quit thinking… For instance, here are two anchors… The Bruce (or clone thereof) And what seems to be the current nextgen flavor of the month… They’re actually both …
a tale of two anchors and a bit of critical thinking… Read More »
I’ve been working on a better mast raising/lowering system for “So It Goes” and rereading all my various go to boatish books for whisps of cunning plans for ideas. Have I mentioned of late what a great book Bruce Bingham’s “The Sailors Sketchbook” is? One thing I like about it is there are no “Buy …
A book that should be part of every VolksCruisers library… Read More »
While all boats need a good selection of tools, it’s a given that folks of the VolksCruiserish persuasion tend to be a bit more serious about their tools because they’ll be using them on a regular basis. You might say a good set of tools and half a clue about how to use them is …
Time, apparently, is a somewhat elusive concept where work and boats are concerned… The other day someone was telling me about a guy who’d taken 12 years to build a boat. As it happens, I built the same boat and it took me six months of work spread out over a year. So, the question …
We seem to live in a world of absolutes these days and, just between you and me, it drives me batshit crazy. Take two words that come up a lot where sailing and cruising are concerned… Easy Hard Now, in the world I grew up in those were just two words on a scale but …
The other day I heard that a boat I knew who anchored not far from us in St Martin was in the South Pacific… I mention this because the boat in question was a Belgian canal barge drawing a couple of feet converted into a sailboat/art studio/gallery so hardly what comes to mind when folks …
Perfection is an interesting and somewhat elusive concept in general, especially when connected to things like boats. From my experience, I put perfection in things of a nautical or marine nature about as likely to exist as honest politicians or pink unicorns… Need I say more? Which is not to say there is not stuff …
Back when we were cruising the Med and West Africa in the early 90’s, you hardly ever came across anyone with dinghies bigger than eight feet. As far as outboards went, 5HP or smaller was the fashion unless you had a sailboat larger than 60 feet… At the time, we had a Bolger Tortoise which, …
