He called me the Junk Maker

I like making things and as a kid I was always making something out of the junk I had or found. When MacGyver came out on TV I thought it was great. I brother called me the Junk Maker and a few other not so nice things. But he and his friends would often come to me when they needed something. One of his friends who became a dentist said I was always outside of the normal box looking in. I was not sure what that meant but I liked it. 

I liked that friend of my brothers because he was just a little different also. In Dental School he had to make a set of faults teeth as a project and he made them for his dog. When his dog had them in he had a loony people smile when he looked at you. He had to take his dog in to show how the teeth fit when he turned in the project. Everyone but the instructor thought it was great, but when the dog smiled at the instructor, the dog won him over.

If you own a boat and you are limited by income it really helps if you can fix, repair and make things. I have almost always been limited by income to just go out and buy things. I also have found I can make neat stuff out of what others pitch out. My X was never sure of some of my “Dan Things” even if they worked. She was an “In the box person”.

With boat stuff there is often multiple ways of doing things. I have found that “old classic” ways of doing things on a boat is much better than new modern stuff that comes on boats now. 

Being able to fix or re-engineer something on your boat to take care of a problem or to solve a problem lets you boat on a budget and still use your boat. I like thinking out of the box to do things like that. Hay…the boat still floats or should I say whatever floats my boat. 8-)

Boat Propeller Pitch

Boat Propeller Pitch

The type propeller on your boat motor can make a big difference on how the boat performs. The propeller that comes with the motor may not be the best for your boat. Two blade props and the pitch of the prop can make a major difference.

As a rule, a 2 blade prop is more of a speed propeller and a 3 blade prop is more of a power propeller. Somewhere on the prop is usually a pitch number for the prop.  A 12 pitch prop pushes the boat forward 12 inches each turn. How they come up with the number I have no idea, but it gives you a way of comparing different props. 

Because a two blade prop has less mass and less blade surface it can be turned faster by the motor and it cuts into and pulls the boat faster through the water. A 3 blade prop  has more surface area for the same diameter as a two blade prop and has more pushing force as it turns.

I have two trolling motors, one that is a 40 thrust with a 3 blade and a 45 thrust with a two blade. The props are the same diameter and they are interchangeable between the motors.

I use the trolling motors for the most part, to move my sailboat from the dock to open water and back after the sail. It is a small but heavy boat so I used the 45 thrust motor on it. After I lost the two bladed prop in a weed mat one afternoon I put the 40 thrust motor on the boat till I could order a new prop.

I found that the 40 thrust motor worked as well or even a little better at moving the boat then the 45 trust motor did. My first thought was that the 45 was on its last legs and was time for replacing. Then as a lark, I put the 3 blade prop on the bigger motor to try it out. I did not want to buy a new prop for a motor that was on its way out. To my surprise the 3 blade prop on the 45 made a noticeable difference in moving the boat. The motor was OK, and  the 3 blade prop made a big difference.

So what I had found was the 40 thrust motor with the 3 blade prop worked as well as the 45 thrust with the 2 blade prop. And by putting a 3 blade prop on the 45 thrust motor I got better results with the little motor on my sailboat.

The weight of my boat has a lot to do with it.  Both motors on the dinghy with stock props work great. The power thrust difference is noticeable in the dinghy between motors. But the props make the difference when they are used on the heavy sailboat. I would not have thought the prop pitch and type would make that much difference.

If you are not happy with how your boat is handling, try a different type of prop on the motor before you go out and spend big bucks on a new motor. Go to a dealer and ask if you can try a few different props on your boat to see if you get an improvement. If you don’t get better results he will be more than happy to sell you a new motor. 8-)

The Fiberglass Resin Stayed Sticky

I was ask by a friend who was working on his old boat what I would suggest doing to bet it back so he could use it for fishing. It was a boat that was to a point that it could be junked or fixed. It needed a lot of work, but a new boat is a lot of money.  He decided to work on it since he had it and he owned it outright. 

I gave him so fiberglass material that we had siting around for about ten years and some other stuff that would let him work on the boat to help him out. His dad gave him free labor and advice and the fix up began.  

He bought laminating resin and did the fiberglass work that needed to be done. He called and said that the resin set up but the surface was still just a little sticky after two days. What had he done wrong? He said he could not sand it because it was sticky. 

There are two types of resin for fiberglass work. Laminating resin for laying down and building up layers and finishing resin for the top coat.  The sticky surface lets you get a better bond between layers when you are building up the fiberglass layers. For the surface of laminating resin to harden up you need to cover the surface so air cannot get to it. Finishing resin has a wax in it that floats to the surface and forms an air proof coating on it so the surface will cure and then it can be sanded. 

There are sprays that you can get to spray on laminating resin to it will dry tack free. It then can be sanded so you can finish it.

Finishing resin can be used to build up and layer glass, but you need to let it cure and sand between layers to get good bonding of layers. No sanding is needed between layers when laminating resin is used. You just let the layer cure and add another layer.

You Will Use A Smaller Sailboat More Often

I have fund you will use a smaller sailboat more often. You buy the boat to use so get one that you can use with out a lot of work. Sailing a small boat is as much fun as a big one.

I always wanted a big sailboat so I could just leave the Rat Race and go cruising and live on the boat if it came to that. I could just head for a horizon and leave everything behind. There are a few Big Problems with a large boat though.

Big boats have fewer places you can dock or moor them. There is more upkeep on a big boat. Big boats may take more than one person to sail. Big boats have height and depth constraints. It takes more to get everything ready to sail on a big boat.

Affordability was the main reason I got my 21’ boat. It was my Poor Man’s Yacht. I figured I could always up size as my income got bigger. It was big enough to go costal sailing, had a small cabin, I could get her in places easily, and my dog and I could sail her without any other crew. What I quickly found was that I used my boat much more than any of the other sail boaters used there bigger boats. If you live on your boat it is hard to go sailing in it. Getting it ready to go is monumental. 

After a hurricane down in the Keys, I did have to live on my boat for a month. I made do, but a 25’ or 28’ would have been totally live aboard-able where my 21’ was just adequate for the dog and I. The dog loved it. 8-)

Not long after I met the Love of my life and she came with a 37’ boat. That boat was comfortable to live on with two adult people, two cats and a dog. As time went by we had to move on land because finding a marina where we could live on the boat became almost imposable and way to expensive. We wound a house where we could dock our boats out back and have a real house. We still have his and her boats an we still sail the 21’er regularly. (Big one is a lot of work to get ready and we have to motor ½ day to get to water we can sail her in. 8-(  …)

So Bigger is not always better. You get the boat to sail and you can sail a smaller boat more often. I think a Mini Yacht is a better buy…and it can get you to your horizon in it.

Anchor Chain Holding Plate

Anchor Chain Holding Plate You Can Make

A chain holding plate on the stem of the boat helps both when you anchor and when you pull the Anchor up. If your boat does not have one it is a nice addition if you go on the hook a lot. A simple chain holding plate is a notched plate that you drop a chain link into so it is held fast.

The illustration below is from Sail Magazine and this one is simple and functional and can be easily made by do it your self-er’s.

   

When you are pulling in your anchor, you can drop the chain in the plate to take a rest as you pull it in. If you pull chain in as the boat bow goes down and catch the chain when the bow goes up the boat will almost pull the chain in for you. It will decrease the amount of work you have to do.

You still need to tie off the chain with a line to a cleat after the anchor is set just in case the chain pops out of the notch in a bad swell.