A couple of VolkCruiserish thoughts...

Lately I've found it interesting how the tiny house brigade has recently discovered that boats are excellent appropriate-sized dwellings. The real question is...

What the hell took them so long?

Anyone familiar with boats and cruising watching the tiny house movement evolve has found it something of a frustrating experience. Partly because they've been re-inventing the wheel on one hand and partly because while they mostly preach simplicity, frugality, and cutting ties with out of control consumerism, the tiny house movement has mostly become just about selling stuff.

Which is not to say there are not folks doing the right thing and fighting the good fight but it is important to realize that to a large number of folks, tiny houses are simply a means to expand their bank accounts, impress their friends with how hip they are, or indulge their consumerist habit in a way that seems socially acceptable. Or, in other words, just the same old same...

Which brings me around to the whole VolksCruiser thing and the kind of traps that lie in wait if you're not careful.

Fact is, the whole VolksCruiser thing kind of falls apart if you go the same old same route because, whether you like it or not, the same old same where boats are concerned is very much married to what I can only describe as a predatory greedheads wet dream.

Of course, walking a different path and avoiding the same old same is no easy matter. It's complicated and it requires constant vigilance because a lot of what those predatory greedheads are selling seems not only sensible but desirable and, mixed with a constant onslaught of peer/media pressure to conform, it is sometimes nearly impossible to resist.

Then there's always the fact that conforming and following the herd is just so easy.

More tomorrow...

maybe we should actually be talking about value...

Maybe we're talking about stuff all wrong...

Forget the money. Seriously, as anyone who has taken a couple of college level economics classes knows, money is really just an artificial construct and, at best, is simply a means of counting virtual beans. Now if you stop to think about it, what exactly does a pile of virtual beans (or oil futures/pork bellies/whatever) have to do with the important things in your life?

Now, on the other hand...

What we're really talking about here is getting the most value for your boating dollar and the only real way to measure that is in terms of value.

Money just confuses the issue...

So, here's a question...

Two boats in an anchorage, both about the same size with the same comfort level and doing the same stuff. How would you rate their non-monetary/real world value if one cost $100K the other $10K?

Something you might want to check out

There's a really excellent post over at The World Encompassed which you might want to read...

In the "we'll take inspiration where we find it" department...

Something to send to those folks telling you a 28-foot sailboat is too small.

a blog you might want to bookmark...

I get quite a few letters of the "But-it's-no-longer-possible-to-cruise-old-school" sort so here's a link to Speedwell of Hong Kong which shows it's not only possible but being done in some style.

Nuff said.

Just why exactly are you here?

OK, I have to admit that VolksCruiser services a certain, shall we say, niche group of folks somewhat outside what passes for the sailing and cruising mainstream...

But, who are you really?

More importantly, what would you like to see more of on VolksCruiser and why?

As they say comments are open...

a conundrum...

Have you noticed that almost no one still makes manual windlasses anymore and, that the few who do sell them for more than their more-expensive-to-build power versions?

Curious that.

Taking control with a nod to responsibility...

The other day, a reader who often drops me mail to let me know I'm an idiot, directed me to a thread on a forum regarding a woman's decision to buy a cheap RV stove for a couple of hundred dollars instead of a "proper" marine one for a couple of thousand...

Silly man.

First of all, the word "marine" seldom, if ever, impresses me because I've worked in the marine industry and I've had up close and personal experience with a lot of crap it produces.

Secondly, the only real advantage to a marine stove is that it has a thermcouple which turns off the flow of gas in the event that the flame is blown out. This is a good thing in practice but does not guarantee safety nor is it a high priced component which would justify the much higher price of the marine stove. Used correctly, which translates roughly to "never leave a lit stove unattended on a boat doofus" will insure that you don't go boom in a rather spectacular way.

The thing is, whatever gear you put on your boat is your choice and you're in control. The downside is that also means you're responsible for whatever turns out as a result. Which means you might want to take some care in how you install said stove whether it is an RV, camping, or gold plated marine stove.

Lately I've been doodling my next boat and, as the galley is such a central part of life on a boat, the stove is a very important part of the puzzle. I expect I'll be using the Camp Chef as they are cheap (street price around $230), everyone I know who is using one loves them, they're easily/cheaply adapted to being gimbaled, and maybe most importantly unlike marine stoves, spare parts are readily available from Camp Chef inexpensivley.

Just saying...

Big Frelling Skrowl...

Yes, a thirty foot Skrowl...

"Un bateau de 9m pour l’habitabilité d’un 11m, les performances d’un 10m, le coût d’un 8m et le temps de construction d’un 7m..."--- Yann Quenet

Does anyone know where I can find plans for a TARDIS?

My current project onboard "So It Goes" is revamping the stowage system for tools and other associated objects of boatbuilding mayhem.

It is not an easy job...

Fact of the matter is, I'm pretty close to losing what little sanity I still possess and, I suspect, if I don't sort out a means of making my tools more accessible in an organized manner I may be in the market for an abode with padded walls.

Either that or I'll just build myself a fifty foot cargo schooner and put a real workshop in the hold... Which, I'm sure you'll agree, at this point in my life, would be pretty much bat-shit insane.

On the other hand, I could simply throw all my tools overboard and create a new reef and spawning habitat for Lion Fish. But then I'd be at the mercy of incompetent, unscrupulous, and greedy marine tradesmen which would force me to get a real job...

So, you can see how the current project is of some importance.

More on this all important to VolkCruisers sanity conundrum as it develops...

Small boats, small problems...

Some Muscadet goodness...



Oh, and speaking of small, Mariah of Comet Camper fame is doing another Tiny Transition and Downsizing class you might want to take advantage of...

Just the sort of testing/writing we need more of...

Practical Boat Owner tests the junk and Bermudean rig the way it should be done...

Good stuff and you can read it online here.

a small suggestion for the new year...

Time's a funny thing...

Way back when, I woke up one morning knowing I wanted to move on to a boat...Funny how shit like that happens.

The thing is, at the time, living on a boat and cruising was in no way a popular or hip thing to do. In fact, if you were doing it almost everybody you knew would have thought you were bat-shit crazy. On one level or another I suspect they might have been right.

Back then there was no real cruising community, no companies that catered to the needs or wants of cruisers, and no peer pressure of the "there is a one true path" sort to tell you you're doing it all wrong. So, everyone pretty much made it up as they went along.

Now I wake up and it's 2015 and, thinking about it, I'm just a little bit surprised that I'm still around to enjoy it. I've been lucky but, then again, a lot of my friends have not and the changing of the year always seems to add to the list of people far better than I who no longer grace Earth with their presence. But, as Captain Cloud once said... "The end, is always a new beginning..."

I digress... the point I'm here to make is if you actually want to go off and sail around the world (or just live afloat someplace out of the way) time, as they say, is a wasting and if you're going to get with the program you'd better get with the program sooner rather than later.

Which leads us to my chosen mantra for 2015...

Don't Wait...