Today I dropped a few hundred dollars on boat jewelry. Boat jewelry is a pretty fluidly-defined thing, as most boat stuff is. For me, it’s that gear aboard that is just a little bit more expensive than it absolutely needs to be.
In some areas, such as, say, personal comfort or aesthetic, I can do without. Take my water system: basic, un-pressurized, running off a foot-pump. The shower: a bagful of water with a spout. The oven: non-existant.
But when it comes to sailing gear, I draw the line; it might mean a few jewelry purchases, but the boat is primarily a sailing machine, with everything else secondary to that. At least, that’s how I justify it.
I recently picked up a beautiful mainsheet traveller for a song. A proper Harken ball-bearing high-load mainsheet traveller with high-purchase controls has been on my “when I win the lotto” list for, well, forever. Now I had one, less end-controls, so… I went out and bought myself (er, bought THE BOAT) the appropriate Harken Carbo AirBlocks and offshore Cams to complete the deal. Jewelry; I could have done with the crappy old phenolic bearing-less blocks I had kicking around, but really… this is a sailing machine. A machine. Seriously.
Another semi-guilty purchase: a Spinlock XAS double ropeclutch for my reefing lines. Mainsail reefing, being a potentially do-or-die proposition, deserves the best gear. Ahem… Of course, I could have gotten away with a couple of (essentially free) hand-made teak cleats and a couple bucks worth of stainless fasteners instead of a $125 clutch, but…. boat jewellry.
The last purchase today was a VERY beefy stainless 10″ Seadog foredeck cleat. I had another (slightly less beefy) cleat ready to install forward, but the one I found today was a perfect match to the other side of the boat… and SO much more burly.
I belay my anchore rodes to these cleats, people! They NEED to be the heaviest-duty available!
Or some rhetoric like that. At least this boat will be about the sturdiest sailing machine out there…
December 7, 2007
boat jewelry
December 4, 2007
Suzuki sailboat
I installed my new mainsheet traveler today. It came from the same sorce as that awesome pair of crazy-cheap winches; superseded J-120 raceboat eqipment. It’s almost comicly large, sper heavy kit, bt it looks great in the cockpit! Abot the only thing worse than no traveler at all is a crappy failing ndersized traveler, and this one is none of that. It’s a Harken “Big Boat” unit, sized for “50′ to 70′ boats”; definitely overkill.
I need to make up some end-controls yet, as it came without. In lieu of on-track controls, I’m going with off-track ones to get maximum travel. This meant I needed some sort of end-stop to keep the car from sliding right to the end of the track and spitting bearings everywhere. It took me a bit of head-scratching to come up with something…
In the end, I went with a pair of Suzuki Samurai front leaf-spring bushings, mounted with 3/8″ bolts through stainless compression posts. Chris and Cory would be proud…
November 30, 2007
guilty? I’ll try not to feel it…
This was a short work week. I caught this cranky horrid cold over the weekend, and it knocked me out for Monday and Tuesday.
So here I am, again, feeling a little behind on projects, but an opportunity has come along for a little stress-free vacationette, and I’m taking it.
Tomorrow I’m sailing with a friend and client over to St. John aboard his hot-rod Newick 38 trimaran. I’ve often wanted to go for a ride on this rocket, and despite being offered numerous opportunities, I’ve always bowed.
I’ll stay at the owner’s place up on the mountain tomorrow night, then catch a ride back to Tortola with another sailing friend, aboard his lovely little Rhodes-designed Swiftsure 33. This is the same boat I sailed to Antigua a couple years back, a real little gem.
I hmm’d and haw’d a little bit, guilting over the time spent away from my work, but I’ve got to face it; I’ve been burning both ends of the wick all summer now, almost a year (!) without any sailing at all, and it’s time to get out and remind myself what I’m really actually working towards…
November 21, 2007
score!
Yesterday was a good day. Just before lunch, a sailing friend from the WEYC dropped by. He said he was cleaning out his storage unit, and had a few bits of boating hardware to get rid of, and wanted my opinion on what it might be worth.
Among the things he mentioned were a pair of winches, which interested me a bit. He brought them over half an hour later. A pair of Harken 44 self-tailing winches, the old style with the roller-bearing stripper, freshly re-built and in factory boxes. They’d come off the raceboat he crews on, to be replaced by the newest/lightest/greatest by a manager with plenty of his owner’s money to spend.
“I figure they’d be dear to someone… what do you think they’re worth?”
“Oh, I dunno,” I replied, “How much do you want to get out of it?”
“Well, for you, say, $50 each? I mean, they’re just taking up space in my little container…”
I had the cash out of my pocket and the boxes carted off before he had a chance to reconsider. $100! For two 44 ST’s? Yikes! I wouldn’t have expected these winches, used, to go for less than $500 each… New 44’s are around $1400 apiece..
I used to kid my friend Marty for switching out his 42’s for used ex-powered 48’s, but after sailing with him before and after the switch, I’m convinced that otherwise “oversized” winches are just right; sooo much less effort and hassle, less wraps, quicker sheeting, etc. The only drawback, of course, is the crazy expense of new winches these days, easily the single most expensive pieces of hardware on any boat.
Now my standart Lewmar 42’s can move back onto pedestals for secondary use; stays’l, spinnaker, etc. What a score!
