Line ends...Unraveling ends drive me nuts!!!

It drives me nuts to have rope and line ends that are frayed and unraveling.   I like to see lines that have been neatly wrapped with string...they look finished and very nautical.   This does take a lot of time but I think it is worth it.  Lines that have been cut with a hot knife or heat sealed is the easiest and it dose prevent unraveling.  Dipping the ends in a plastic that seals them is also easy, but I have not had good luck with line ends done this way.  It is better than nothing at least for a while.

A knot at the end of the line will work but it is NOT VERY CLASSY !!!   A knot will not let you fee it through a block though.

Any way...Wipping the end of a line is a good way to enjoy a beer and take care of your lines at the same time.   I recommend a good German dark beer...two even works better. 

Key Bouy will foat your keys or a tool.

I do not know how many things I have lost over board my boat...tools, glasses, keys.  Trying to recover them is often a wast of time and energy.  On the river where my boat is, with the soft mud bottom that just sucks anything with a little weight to it, and with water that has a visibility of only a few feet, the river almost always wins.

I found a neat, cheep product that works great. It is a Key Bouy.  Check it out by clicking the link.  It is a self inflating key ring that can be clipped to most things.  If it falls in the water it inflates a 14" tube that brings it back to the surface.  If the tube is not big enough to bring it back up, it make it very easy to find if you dive for it.  It is a one use bouy.  It will float your $100+ glasses if it is clipped to your glasses strap.

One note...you can not go swimming with it or it will activate.  When it activates in your swim trunks everyone will take notice!  8-)

Living on the boat changed my thinking.

Your mind set changes as your environment changes.  After moving on to my boat to live I knew I would be giving up a lot of things I always just took for granted.  Living out of a cooler size refrigerator was a big change.  You can only buy things that will fit in it.  A frozen dinner...out, ice cream...out, things that had to stay very cold do not keep and cold beverages.  You shop for what you will eat that day.  Any frozen things are for the next day, and help keep other things cool over night.  If a beverage needs to be kept cool but not with ice in it, they can go in a mesh bag and lowered over the side of the boat down past the thermocline to keep cool (beer).  Other things can join the beer to also keep cool.  Most things you drink will be cool or warm because you need to conserve your ice. 

In my case, I also was limited on what I bought by what I cooked it in.  I did get a grill that went on the back boat rail and could cook over the water.  I also picked up a cheap and very little microwave.  But with it I needed shore power and it took up a chunk of space.  It at least could be used to store other stuff in when not in use.  The main thing I cooked on was a small propane burner that a pan and a fry pan ws used on.  One more thing I used a lot was a small 12 volt powered immersion coil heater I got at a auto parts store.  It was great for heating water for coffee or tea or soup.

Dry foods in a box like rice, or noodles stored well without refrigeration.  Caned foods are good but storing them is a little harder. Pop top cans are a big plus.  I always had a hard time finding my can opener.  I found that a concrete block can be used to open a tin can.  If you put the top of the tin can down flat on the block and push down on the can and then rub the top of the can hard on the block you will find the seal on the top of the can quickly breaks down ant the top comes off.  When you see liquid start to come out you know your there.  This really works...try it.

Real fresh foods that do not have much prep is also something you learn to go for.  I never grew up with food like this and it was all new to me.

Also taking the trash out was something you do after you wash your dishes. I would cook, eat, do dishes, and take the trash out and walk the dog at the same time.  You would not think you would have a ant problem on a boat, but you can...the walk up your mooring lies.  Once on board they are a bitch to get rid of!!!!!

I did get a DC converter that would let me run AC things off the boat battery's.   These are neat little units and you can get them in a wide range of watt power outputs.  The big ones can flatten your battery's quick if under full load.  The one I got was good for only things that did not pull much power and I only used it when I was away from the dock and no shore power was available.  I used it when there was a power outage after a storm when the marina had no power for a 1/2 day.

How I thought about a lot of things I had just taken for granted really did change when I moved on the boat.

I moved to the boat to live on it.

Money was tight, I was doing OK but I was very unsettled.   I had always dreamed of living on a boat and I loved being on the water.   When I was told my rent was going to go up about 20% I said OK, Fine, I will move out at the end of the Month.   I did not have anything lined up and I figured I would just live on my boat.   When I was in the Army I lived out of a foot locker, so I knew I really did not need that much.   I checked with the Marina where my boat was at, I knew they had live-abounds there, to see if there would be a problem.  The manager said there would be no problem, but he thought a 21' sailboat was a little small  to live on.  I said that my dog did not mind and I needed very little space.  He offered me a spot in the marina that was near the restrooms that had just opened up.  He said it was a little more expensive because it was larger and he could put a bigger boat there than mine.  I told him that would be great.  Being near the bath rooms would be worth it.

I put most of my stuff in storage and the dog and I moved on board.  I guess that space wise it was about what a slide in pick up camper is like.  I first put everything in storage and then I limited what I was going to take to the boat to what I could put in a army sized footlocker.  Only the essentials.  After that I was going to see how much room I had on the boat and go from there.  I also bought a Dock Box to put on the dock next to the boat to put boat junk in.

The dog and I moved on board.  The boat has a small bow bunk and access to it is a bit of a pain. You have to crawl in to it and it is a real bitch to make the bed up.  The main cabin has a bunk on each side with storage underneath and small shelf's along side the bunks.  A table can be pulled out that goes between the two cabin bunks to eat on or do work on. On one side there is a small nav desk and a small sink and a storage spot for a little propane stove. I decided to use the bow bunk for storage and the dog also claimed it as his.  I would sleep on the bunk on the side with out the nav desk and use the storage area under the bunk and the little shelf for my personal stuff and use the other side storage for food and things I would need to use every day.  It was a little tight but very workable.  The bow bunk was the catch all for most thinks I needed but did not use all the time.  I had to get creative on where I stored stuff to make sure the boat did not tilt to one side or the other and stored so that the stuff would not shift when out sailing.

I cooked for the most part out in the cockpit, both to keep the heat and smell out of the inside of the boat.  I had one fry pan, one large plate that just fit or nested inside the pan, one smaller plate that nested in the big plate, one large bowl, one smaller bowl and one measuring cup, and one coffee cup and one large glass.  These all nested together and took up very little room.  One knife, fork and spoon and one sharp knife was all I needed to finish my kitchen stuff.  I had 3 dishpans that nested and the other stuff nested in them.  I washed dishes in one pan, rinsed them off in the 2nd and the 3rd held them till they dried.

I used a large mouth jug for gray water and when it was full I dumped it in the dock side toilet. I did not want to dump it over the side of the boat.  There was fresh water dock side along with electricity so those were no problem.  I put a silver tarp over the boom and made a tent over the cockpit.  It cut the heat build up in the boat and made it very comfortable.  I made a wind scoop that went over the front hatch above the bow cabin and that moved air through the boat nicely.  A small fan would move air when there was no breeze.  I made a fish net door over the end of the plank that the dog respected. he could easily go over or through it.  With it up he stayed on the boat even when I was not there.  He also would not let anyone on the boat when I was gone.   No locks needed.

When I wanted to go sailing it took about 20 min. to take down the tarps and be under way. 8-)

It really is surprising how much stuff you really do not need.  I found I read more and got books on disk. No TV...did not miss it! Internet on my lap top got me my news and weather.  I could watch TV at the marina bar if I wanted.

What was really great, was that I went sailing almost every day and I think I used it more than I used my truck.

The one thing I did miss was a refrigerator.  I had a cooler that had a small cooling unit in it... it kept things cool not cold. I needed to put Ice in it once a week to help it along.

I put a small sign up that said BYO. You had to byo glass and plate and silverware when you visited. All in all though really did not ruff it very much.  And the dog loved it!!!

A compass rose rug.

With my web site the Digitalcompassshop.com I guess you could say I have a thing about compasses.
We have a few compass rose throw rugs in the house.  I really like them but there is a problem with these rugs.  I get wearied out if they are not pointed in the right direction.  It dose not bother my wife but it drives me crazy.  8-)

When we got new neighbors next door they liked one of the compass rose rugs and I told them where I got it.  They bought one. When I saw it my crazy quirk kicked in and I just had to turn it so the Long point pointed North.  Their house not built so any side of the house is to the North.

They had put the rug in their entry way and lined it up so the rug was pointed directly away from the door.  It pointed about North East.  I admit it looked nice that way , BUT IT WAS NOT POINTED NORTH!  They thought it was funny that it I had to turn it so it was right.

Now when they come over to our house he has to turn my compass rose rug in the bathroom so it is out of line.  It is now standard joke between us about my North fetish. 

Lazy Jacks have both good and bad points.

Lazy Jacks are lines that are on each side of the main sail that more or less catch and hold the sail over the boom when it is lowered or dropped.  One thing that is nice with lazy jacks is that when you drop the sail it dos not fall all over the cockpit and thus you have better visibility to drive the boat in to the dock.  If the sail is down just for a short time it is contained on the boom.  It makes putting sail ties around the sail to tie the sail to the boom quick when putting the boat away.

With that said, it makes putting a sail cover over the sail more work and it you are not straight in to the wind when raising the sail, the sail may catch on the jacks when you put it up.  Everything has advantaged and disadvantages.  On my boat I found that they were as much of a pain in the rear as they were a help.  When I replaced my standing rigging a few months ago I did not replace them when I stepped the mast.  I can say I really do not miss them and there are fewer lines I have to deal with,,

What is a Rigging Knife

I  have had many pocket knives in my life but the two I like best are my Swiss Army Knife and my Rigging Knife.  The Swiss Army Knife because of all the gadgets, but the one I use the most is my Rigging Knife.

                                                               A Basic Rigging Knife 

It is simple, functional, not bulky in my pocket and cheap enough that if I lose it overboard I do not have a heart attack.  The Knife can open packages, cut rope or fishing line, cut bate, strip insulation from wire...all the things you use a knife for.  It also has a Marlin Spike and it is used for getting tight knots undone, poking holes in thing, chipping up ice, and all sorts of things a sharp pointy object is needed for.  The last tool on it is a Shackle Key. Shackles on a boat with screw in pins can be a bitch to unscrew.  A shackle key lets you unscrew it with out having to get pliers.  It also has other uses ( I can open a beer bottle  8-) with it.). My Swiss army knife will not open a shackle ( but it will open a beer ).

Boats and Cat Litter Buckets

If you have a cat or cats you most likely get your litter by the bucket.  These buckets are great for the boater.  They are just the right size to fit through most boat hatch storage compartments and can be used to store lots of stuff.  They have snap on lids so stuff will stay in them and the stuff in them can stay dry.  With a marker I label the lids so I know what is inside them.  Extra lines, cleaning stuff, fishing stuff, tools, rags, etc..  Because they stack in the deep storage lockers of the sailboat rnest and keeps them the lockers neat.

You can use the buckets to bail with, wash down the boat with, set over wenches, use them to sit on and that is just a few things they can be used for.  We use them to put stuff in that we take to the boat when we go out.  They are easy to pick up and carry and they can be just be set in the cabin and opened when we need the stuff.

They fit or stack together when empty and the lids all fit in the top bucket so they store in a smaller space.

The biggest problem I have with them is I will put the lids that are labeled on the wrong bucket.  But that is my own fault.   The are free when you buy the litter and you can recycle them in your boat.  You can give them to other boaters if they need a bucket and not worry about them returning it. 8-)  One of my rules is never lend anything you do not care to lose.

With all the cat litter buckets on my boat you would think it was a cat boat.

The most used boating tool!

I think the most used tool or gadget I use on all 3 of my boats is a wet dry vac. I have a cheap one that snaps to the top of a bucket I got at Home Depot for about $20.  It is small enough to store easily and the bucket is used for other things also.

I use it in blower mode first to just get leaves and light dirt off the boat.  Then switch the hose to the vacuum hole and suck up little stuff the blower mode did not get rid of and I suck out the scup.per drains to make sure the are clear.  My boats are on a canal with big pine trees and other trees and I get a lot of fall out from them.

After using the Vac a quick rinse off with a hose is all that is needed most of the time.  If I do not do this I have a hard time getting the little heavy dirt to since out of the small holes in the gunnels.  I also use the vac inside the cabin to clean it and if there is any water in the bilge I can suck it out.  I took a piece of hose and snaked it down under the floor of the cabin and I can just put the vac hose over it and suck out any accumulation down there.  It eliminated removing access panels do get at that area. Fast and easy.

With the dinghy's, I bucket bail if there is a lot of water and vac the rest that the bucket can not get. I had two bilge pumps in our Livingston but they did not really take care of the problem and they also required a battery left in the dinghy.  The vac was just easier because the pumps did not get rid of the leaves and seeds so you still had to clean them out with a vac or bucket.  

Dog life vests, The can be expensive.

My dog loves to go boating but does not like getting in the water. I have to say he is a bit of a wimp and does not have great sea legs.  He likes to go to the bow and look out under the Jib as we sail as long as it is calm, but if it gets a little ruff he will hide in the cock pit against us.

Our last dog was just the opposite, he liked bow riding when it was wavy and ruff.

Dog life vests range from reasonably priced to big bucks. I found some dog vests that were reasonably priced (about $20) and functional. Bosco is not all that keen on having it on but We feel safer if he has it own.

The red wine stained th fiberglass

The woman was a few sheets to the wind and when she spilled the red wine all over the fiberglass in the cock pit.  I knew it would stain and there was nothing I could do about it but wipe it up as quick as I could.  Red wine is one of the few things that I normally do not let anyone drink on my boat.  It had been a few weeks, no a few months since I had put a coat of wax on the glass so I new it was going to stain.

I would know how bad it was the next day and there was little I could do about it, other than have a little more wine myself.  When I looked at it the next day I figured it could be worst. I washed the stain well with soap and water, the used some soft scrub, and then a Mr Clean magic eraser and got a lot of it out.  But I still could see the dang stain.

I had a bottle of  Flitz Cleaner that I have used on some tough stains on the fiberglass before and it took the rest of the pink stain out.  Flits is safe for fiberglass, plexiglas, and marble and it is also a non toxic eco-friendly cleaner.  Its not cheap...about $20, but it works and it is Eco-friendly.

Now the stain is gone I decided I should give the cockpit a good coat of wax. 8-(
I have found a good bee's wax containing wax gives a nice hard was surface, and then a coat of a canuba wax gives a great shine.  The canuba wax is a soft wax and wears off much faster. 

How to bumper a boat at a piling

When you tie up at a dock, there are times your boat will be next to a piling or ruff uneven surfaces.  I have tried to get creative to protect my boat, but using a fender board and two bumpers is the easiest and it keeps the boat safe.

A scrap board with a rope tie hole at both ends and two bumpers is easy.  See illustration.  Storage of the board is no big problem and it is a quick and easy way to protect your boat.

Boy had problem getting back on boat

It can be a bit of a problem getting back on board your boat from the water.  Boat ladders are great but they also take up a lot of room to store. A easy way to get back on a boat if no ladder is available is to just make a loop of rope that  that can hook over a tie up cleat with the other end in the water that you can put your foot in and use as a step.

I watched a fat boy try to get on board a boat he had jumped off of to swim.  He could not do it. His friends were not helping him and he was starting to panic.  I had him swim to my boat and use the ladder on my boat and then tool him back to his boat.

I showed him how to make a loop ladder.  Using it takes a little effort because your foot and leg want to go under the boat when you push down on it if the hull dose not go very deep. But it will give you a way to help get you out of the water.

Davis sells a Swim Stirrup, a pre-made loop type ladder that sells for about $25.00 that you can get, or you can easily make one.  It will take up little room and makes getting back on your boat much easier.
I do not carry this product at the Digital Compass Shop but I can order one for you if you want one and can not make one on your own.

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Spot touch up on your wood brightwork

All the gaffs and spars on the schooner were wood and I try too keep them in proper Bristol fashion.
It is a lot of work to completely refinish a spar, gaff or boom for just a few dark spots that develop.

The reason wood booms and such are varnished is so you can see a crack or deterioration in the wood.  If you paint them the paint hides these problems.  When the varnish gets chipped the wood can discolor at that spot.

What you need to do to just refinish that area is use a scraper or knife blade to scrape down to the spot and scrape and or sand the spot clean.  A little bleach on the dark spot may be needed to get rid of the discolored wood.  The scraped area edges need to be feathered up to the level of the rest of the varnish. When you re-varnish the scraped spot use a few thin coats starting at the lowest scraped spot and slowly build up the new finish so it fills the depression made by the scrapping and feather the last coat in to the old varnish.

If you take your time it feather in to the original finish and can hardly be noticed. 

Combo instruments

All the manufacturers are coming out with combo instruments and the price of these dual instruments is the same as single use instruments for the most part.  One thing I like about these are that it can give you a redundancy of instruments.  For example Standrd Horizon Matrix 2200 AIS/GPS is a VHF radio that is a 30w, with integrated 66 channel WAAS GPS antenna, Automatic identification system and GPS on the radio and it also has a Compass. It has  waypoint and GPS status pages. It is about $600.

A VHF Radio, a GPS, and a compass all in one. An other combo unit is the Humminbird Helix 5 Sonar / GPS combo. This guy has Chart plotting and is a dual beam sonar with a GPS.

These are just two samples of combo units. It makes safety sense to have back up systems if you go out of sight of land. If you are near land, the Smart Phones now can be navigation units: Phone, GPS, compass. I often use my I phone on the boat...it is quick and easy and it gives me basic information.
 digitalcompassshop.com

I still like the basics when I boat.  A magnetic compass, a hand held VHF and a depth sounder are the 3 things I use most.   Mainly the depth sounder.  I must be getting old...the new high tech stuff is nice but ...   

Hi cost of boat repair

I think all of us dislike the cost of getting our boats repaired and new equipment like electronics for our boats.  My web page :Digital Compass Shop  ( http://www.digitalcompassshop.com/) only carries things that I feel are good a good value and for the most part will be used. In the next few weeks I am going to be going over the things on my site to make it better.

I have come to the conclusion simple and redundant is the best way to go.  With much of the new electronics there are many things in them you most likely will not use. The features are nice, and there can be compatibility problems between items. Unless you put them in yourself that can cost you big bucks. Not to put you off from buying something from me, if you are putting in a complete system in the boat and can not do it your self, have the place you buy it from install it, and get a warranty on the installation (in writing).  Also a system all from one manufacturer will give you less problems.

On repairs in the boat, there a lot of things that you can do your self.  One thing I check regularly are hose connections...to through hulls. Hose clamps rust away, and many stainless steel hose clamps that are sold may not have a stainless screw in them.

Your batteries: they need to be in a non-conductive battery  box with a lid on them. That way if something falls or is put on them there is no short out. I also like to see a switch that will disconnect the battery from everything be near the battery. That way when you check the batteries for water or clean the terminals or work on other electronics you can be unplugged from the boat.  There is enough power in a battery you can do light ark welding with it.

LED lighting. It is the way to go. I have replaced all my lighting wit LEDs.  You can pick up inexpensive LED fixtures at dollar stores, or an auto parts store or marine stores.  I just wired them in to the boat fixtures that were all ready on my boat and remove the incandescent sockets. My running lights use almost now power.  The cabin lights are now brighter and produce no heat to speak of and I even put in Red LED's  in some fixtures for night vision. Cheap, solar powered yard lights will light your cockpit all night and are not even even tied to your boat batteries.  LED's are just the way to go.

I have found that a good quality oil base paint works well on a older boat. The surface painted does not have to be glass smooth to get a nice finish and because it is not supper glossy like many high gloss marine paints the small imperfections do not stand out.  You get a nice pain job at a lot less money. And when the paint surface is wet it is as glossy as the marine paint.

Concrete Beach Ball 8-(

I admit some of my friends are strange.  One I have has a warped idea of what is funny.

Where he found a concrete ball I have no idea, and it is about the size o a beach ball.  Karl painted it like a beach ball and put it in his yard near his mailbox.  It is about 2 or 3 feet from the mailbox and it just begs for some one to kick it back up towards the house.  He keeps the grass around the ball clipped so it looks like the ball is just sitting there.

I have to admit that it is funny to see someone kick it.  There foot just stops and they crumple over. Unique words often come out of there mouth also.

He also has a few drinking cups he has filled with concrete and they are siting around.  The look you get when someone try's to pick them up is also priceless.

As I said, I know a few strange friends.

Just put a 3-prong plug on my Trolling Motor .

On our little 21 foot sailboat we use a 55 thrust trolling motor to move to and from the dock. It is more than enough to do the job, and it is quiet, and no gas has to b stored on the boat. The only down side is that it is a pain in the back side to attach the leads of the motor to the battery and take them off when done. It is really not a big deal, but it is time consuming. Also the leads that attach to the battery can be very hot after using the motor.

What I did was to attach a heavy duty 3 prong 110 electrical plug to the trolling motor cord ( Male ) and made a short pigtail cord with a heavy duty female end on it that attached to the battery. With the 3 prong plug you can not plug the motor in the wrong way. I wanted the female end pigtail coming out of the battery box so there was no open contacts that could short to anything. It works very well and it is quick to just plug and unplug the motor.

Make sure you use heavy duty plugs... a lot of current flows through them and the could get hot.

I made 2 pigtails...one for the deep cycle battery for the motor and one for the battery that is for everything else on the boat. That way I can use that battery if needed and it just takes unplugging one battery and plugging it in to the other. Again it is fast and easy.