All the wrong questions...

One of the things I've noticed with the advent of YouTube cruising video channels is that they seem to inspire all the wrong questions about getting a boat and sailing off into the sunset. Which is hardly surprising as most of the YouTube videos seem to fall into the cinema faux zone. Which is not to say there isn't some information to be gleaned from some but they are mostly covering a non-existent sanitized reality.

Now, books on the other hand...

Books can be just as bad or worse than a YouTube video but most of the books that have become staples are just about the best investment one can make if you need information you can count on. So here are some books that I have on the book shelf aboard "So It Goes".

•  World Cruising Routes by Jimmy Cornell
•  World Cruising Handbook by Jimmy Cornell
• Tropical Cruising Handbook by Mark Smaalders and Kim des Rochers  
•  Self Sufficient Sailor by Lin and Larry Pardey
• Cost Conscious Cruiser by Lin and Larry Pardey
• The Voyager's Handbook by Beth Leonard
• Spurr's Boatbook Upgrading the Cruising Sailboat by Daniel Spurr
• Cruising as a Way of Life by Thomas Colvin
• Practical Yacht Joinery by Fred Bingham
• Blue Water Countdown by Geoff Pack
• The Sailors Sketchbook by Bruce Bingham
• Cruising World's Workbench by Bruce Bingham
• The Complete Riggers Apprentice by Brion Toss
• The Sailmakers Apprentice by Emiliano Marino
  
• Practical Junk Rig by Hasler & McLeod
• The Chinese Sailing Rig by Derek van Loan
• Seaworthiness by C.A. Marchaj
• The New Cold-Molded Boatbuilding by Reuel Parker
• Buehlers Backyard Boatbuilding by George Buehler
• The Windvane Self-Steering Handbook by Bill Morris
• Self-Steering for Sailing Craft by John Letcher Jr 
• Voyaging on a Small Income by Annie Hill
• The Captain Nemo Cookbook Papers: Everyone's Guide To Zen & The Art of Boating in Hard Times by Hal Painter
  

I actually, as our waterline attests, have a lot more books of the boatbuilding/design/cruising ilk but the list are the ones I pick up on a regular basis for problem solving or inspiration and they've earned their place on my bookshelf.

Even more important is the fact that they have all saved me a lot of money over the years and even made me money from time to time which is why they're still on the boat and continue to be.

For starters, I'd make an effort to get a used copy of "Spurr's Boatbook" and Pardey's "Self Sufficient Sailor" as the books that will answer most all of the needful questions you might have. I'd then follow up with Annie Hill's great "Voyaging on a Small Income" as it's the most reality based book you'll be able to find. I'd also make a point of getting a copies of "The Riggers Apprentice", "Sailmakers Apprentice", and "Practical Yacht Joinery" as they cover just about anything you'll need to sort out during a refit or when you need to fix something.

I'd also recommend a copy of Hal Painter's "The Captain Nemo Cookbook Papers: Everyone's Guide to Zen & The Art of Boating in Hard Times" because life is just too short to take things too seriously.

As for the others on the list, they are all worth reading but more of a "get them when you need them" but still highly recommended.

I'm sure everyone else will recommend something from Nigel Calder who has written good books and I'm sure I have a copy of his "Boatowners Mechanical and Electrical Handbook" somewhere on the boat or it may have been purloined by someone I loaned it to (and folks wonder why I no longer lend books or tools) but to tell the truth I've never actually found it all that helpful and I'd much rather have a copy of John Muir's "How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive" as a problem solving aid if I was having mechanical issues.

Lastly, another book some speak highly of is "Sensible Cruising- the Thoreau Approach" by Casey & Hackler which was sorta OK but not a book I'd recommend.

Worse than fingernails on a chalkboard...

I've been following the build of a Bolger design of late and it's akin to fingernails being dragged across a chalkboard to me.

Admittedly, it's a very common mistake that's being made but I find that the misuse of epoxy just drives me batshit crazy.

Epoxy is great stuff but it is expensive and it would be great for users to do a little reading on the subject on how to use it. "The Gougeon Brothers on Boat Construction" is a veritable tome on how to use epoxy in boat building that's actually free that should be on everyone's bookshelf or computer. If tomes are not your thing System Three has an excellent booklet entitled "The Epoxy Book" (also free) which tells you just about everything you need to know to use epoxy correctly.

While not free Russel Brown has written an awesome book "Epoxy Basics: Working with Epoxy Cleanly & Efficiently" that taught me a lot and I've been working with epoxy and glass for going on fifty years now. 

So, do me a favor read a bit and and up your game and upgrade your technique as it will speed up the work, save you a chunk of change, and keep me from muttering obscenities when I see troweled on epoxy that needs hours of sanding to fair up.

Just sayin'

 

Swimming against the stream...

Back in the dark ages, when I was living on a CAL 20, I went to a lecture by Herman Daly who really blew my mind with his thoughts on economic growth. Sadly. he passed away recently.

I mention this here because his take on economics has a whole lot to do with my thoughts on living within a finite resource envelope, growth for growth's sake, and the process of swimming against the prevailing current.

I'm pretty sure that if I had not found myself in a economics lecture all those years ago I'd be going along with the great unwashed hordes thinking that one can buy one's own slice of happiness by spending more for a bigger boat. Which makes Daly one of my major influences in terms of boat mindset.

I'd seriously check out some of his books and lectures if you have the chance.

Some required reading...

The popularity of the Bermuda rig has caused a general lack of knowledge on most other rigs and how to rig them. Luckily for us a few books are all you need to sort out that problem.

Phil Bolger's "103 Sailing Rigs" talks a lot about various rigs and their variations in a common sense manner and well worth reading. It certainly opened my eyes where rigs are concerned.

For me Derek Van Loan's "The Chinese Sailing Rig" is the best book (Booklet?) going for converting a Bermudan rigged sailboat into a Junk rig. It's simple, clear, and it's brevity make for an easy to follow "cookbook" that makes conversion dead simple. Detractors of the book will argue that it is dated and does not include current thinking in sail design and construction but that is easily found on the JRA website but the basic conversion info is exactly what you need for a successful conversion.

 

Hasler and McLeod's "Practical Junk Rig" is an excellent tome on the junk rig and there is a lot of needful information. That said, it's a hard read (for me at least) and you really have to dig for that needful content. That said, it is a book you want but for starters the Van Loan book is the way to go to get started. 

It's also expensive (the Kindle version is $47.49 which is akin to piracy) so you'll want to keep an eye out for a used copy.

John Leather's "Spritsails & Lugsails" really needs to be on any Lug Nut's bookshelf. Sadly, most folk these days look at Sprits and Lugs as some sort of dinghy sail only and miss the fact entirely that they are powerful rigs that would make a lot of sense for boats in the VolksCruiser size range.

"The Gaff Rig Handbook" by John Leather is the bible for devotees of the Gaff rig and well worth a space on your book shelf. The gaff rig has a lot going for it and, mostly, suffers from the fact that most Gaff rig folks are unwilling to bring an excellent rig into the current century.
 

More on the practical side "Hand, Reef, and Steer" by Tom Cunliffe is the one book I'd choose if I was limited to a single gaff rig boat. Cunliffe is always an enjoyable read and has walked the talk more than most.

"The Rigger's Apprentice" by the late Brion Toss is a book that changed my life in the way I look at boat systems. It contains everything you need to know about sailboat rigging and makes all the rigging jobs you might encounter doable.

All of these books went a long way to color my thinking of what sailing rigs should be. Sure, I have a few issues with a few bits of the various author's opinions but in whole they're mostly spot on and needful if you're thinking of adapting a Bermudan rig to junk, lug, or gaff.

a book that's still well worth having...

For some reason or other I found myself reading "Voyaging on a Small Income" by Annie Hill and realized that it's still the best book out there on the subject. Sure it's a kiss dated here and there but the bulk of the information contained within it's covers is just as valid as it was as the day it was first printed.

Fact is that most of the questions people ask me regarding the whole VolksCruising gig can be answered by just reading Annie Hill's book.

Are not books wonderful?

Regarding a pre-ARC Atlantic crossing of note...

I'm currently reading about a transatlantic voyage in the 60's on a Gunter rigged Westerly 22. 

Color me impressed.

a boat with a lot of resources...

Checking Craigslist this morning I saw there was a Pearson Triton being sold off at a marina in the San Francisco Bay area for $750. You might say it caught my attention. 

 

It's a great design, Dan Spurr used the Triton as his main example of how to fix up a small boat for cruising in his "Spurrs BoatBook Upgrading the Cruising Sailboat"which amounts to a great how to do it guide.

James Baldwin circumnavigated his Triton twice and now is an awesome resource on how to make small boats better and a great resource on all things Triton with an excellent website and a wonderful YouTube channel.

The going price for a good to excellent Triton seems to be between $10K to $28K so a fixer upper for $750 that's floating right side up and appears to be in OK condition is certainly a good candidate to check out.

What I particularly find attractive about the idea of refitting and cruising a Triton is that all of the brain work has already been done for you. Between Spurr's book, James Baldwin's books , articles and videos you pretty much have the answer to any issue you'd encounter in the project.

For example take a look at one of the Triton refits on Baldwin's Atom Voyager channel;

I'll be honest and say that if the Craigslist ad was down here I'd be there with money in hand as fast as I could get there as it would be a great boat to fix up and resell for a profit...

Another book you really should read...

I mentioned this book by Keith Carver a couple of years ago but "Sailboat Cowboys Flipping Sail Post-Sandy: The Art of Buying, Repairing and Selling Storm-Damaged Sailboats" is still an excellent read on the subject of buying boats cheap, fixing them up, and selling them for a profit.

As it happens I just read it again this morning and it still holds up well and the advice contained within is still spot on.

Better yet, it's a great book to use as proof of concept when someone is telling you a cheap fixer-upper is nothing but a money pit and your dreams will all in tears. 

Just tell them to go read "Sailboat Cowboys Flipping Sail Post-Sandy: The Art of Buying, Repairing and Selling Storm-Damaged Sailboats" and let you get back to working on your DIY refit.

 

A book you might want to check out...

I just read this and it has a whole lot of good common sense information that will save you some serious money.

Need I say more?

a better than most cruising narrative...

The other day I came across a book that I hadn't heard about of the cruising persuasion. In point of fact, this one...

There's a story told about what happened when Stanley Kubrick decided to make a horror film and started reading books of the horror genre. Apparently, according to his assistant, Kubrick would read a book for a bit and then throw the book across the room against the wall in disgust. This process went on for weeks and the assistant just got used to hearing the thump of flying books as being the new norm around the office.

I get that. But, in my case, it's not horror fiction that hits the bulkhead but what passes for books of a cruising or nautical bent. Most books of this ilk I come across these days are, well let's just say they lend themselves to being hurled with extreme prejudice, against the nearest available bulkhead.

Orca on the other hand, looked somewhat interesting. So, fully prepared to be disappointed, I downloaded the first couple of chapters to my Kindle and found myself enjoying it. So much so that I bought the book and read straight through it.

It's a good book and the best cruising narrative I've read in the last couple of decades. Real people, real cruising, and it will leave you wanting more. A really good read with a surprising amount of depth and humor. Well worth your money and time.

The fact that it is tailor made for the VolksCruiser fraternity is just icing on the cake.

Oh yeah, regarding Kubrick hurling horror novels against his office wall, this continued until he came across a copy of The Shining by Stephen King in case you were wondering.

$2.99 you need to spend...

A couple of days ago I saw there was a book on Kindle that looked like it might be interesting...

This one in fact.

At $2.99 it was something of a no-brainer so I downloaded a copy to my Kindle and read it in a couple of hours.

It's an easy enjoyable read and contains a lot of information that flies in the face of what a lot of people say. Stuff, as it happens, that actually needs to be said.

Whether you want to flip boats or not is unimportant as the real meat of the issue is simply how to approach boat work and get the boat up-and-sailing in a timely, affordable, and seaworthy manner.

In short a whole lotta good advice for just under $3.

That said, surveyors and boat brokers will really hate the book. Of course, from where I sit that's just the cherry on top.

Do I really have to say more?

a book you need to read...

Fatty Goodlander has a new book out...

I'll let Fatty tell you more about it.

Nuff said,

A book you need to read...

This weekend I bought a copy of "Get Real, Get Gone" and read it.

It's a good read, makes a whole lot of sense, and should be right at the top of anyone's reading  list who wants to sail off into the sunset on a small sustainable budget.

Need I really say more?

A book you really should read...

Enough said...

a book you need to get...

I bought "Tiny Floating Homes" by Chris Troutner and read it over the weekend.

It's good.

You should read it.

Need I really say more?

Boatfolk of modest means...

Since we're ramping up to T-Day and the world continues to continue to do a very good imitation of a rocket propelled turbo-charged wicker basket hurtling towards hell I'd just like to say this...

It's a great time to be a a member of the boatfolk tribe of modest means!

Sure, things tend to be expensive if you, excuse the pun, buy in to the current consumerist kool-aid on offer but, if step back apace and look at the bigger picture, it's way better than most folks can imagine...

A few weeks back I picked up and dusted off Lin and Larry's "Cruising in Seraffyn" (you can get a used copy on Amazon for a penny) and re-reading was both enjoyable and eye-opening. So much so I immediately dived into "Seraffyn's European Adventure" (a used copy will set you back less than a dollar), and, I expect, I'll be re-reading "Seraffyn's Mediterranean Adventure" later this week as well and will, more than likely, have rolled through the entire series by New Years... What can I say they're enjoyable and still have a lot to teach me.

You'd pretty much have to live under a rock not to realize that while L&L have a lot of fans they also have a lot of quite vocal detractors (most of which I doubt have actually read their books) who seem to be quite threatened by their blasphemous ideas and, even worse, their  impressive level of seamanship.

But, I sorta/kinda digress...

The thing is, small (under 38-feet) seaworthy boats have never been more affordable to folks of modest means, the tools/skills are easily accessible, and the needful things to outfit are currently selling for pennies on the dollar. Even better is that the condions will continue because the marine industry, while greedy and tunnel-visioned, can't really see us and as a result we're not even on their radar and that alone is a lot to be thankful for...

So, 2016 sure looks like a good year to just go off and sail away.

Just saying.

on VolksCruiserish budgets.....

Since I began writing Boat Bits and VolksCruiser I've gotten a lot of mail on the question of whether it's possible to build or buy a boat and cruise cheaply...

The problem is the answer is complicated and has a lot more to do with the person asking the question than it actually does about the cost of sailboats and cruising.

So, the question everyone should be asking is can I make the changes to my lifestyle and the way I live to do the gig?

For instance, I've recently been reading a really good book (Eat Bacon, Don't Jog) about diet which makes a lot of good points and, I'm pretty sure, if I adopted much of what it says I'd be better off. The snag is, to adopt it I'd need to give up some things and make some serious changes in how and what I eat. I'll be honest in saying I just don't think it's going to happen. That said, it does not mean I can't take advantage of a lot of the stuff in the book it's just that I won't get all of the benefits... Hey. what can I say but I love to bake bread and cakes.

For a lot of people reading VolksCruiser who are unwilling or unable to adopt the sort of gung ho commitment needful for living and thriving on a VolksCruiserish budget, I'm sure there are still a lot of ideas that might help you make whatever budget you're doing go that little bit further.

Of course, for those folks who want to sail away on $500/750/1000 a month the answer is of course you can providing you can make some changes and get your head into the game. Luckily for us is that most of those changes are actually pretty minor and, in most cases, simply amounts to losing the excess baggage you're not really using anyway.

Still, not everyone is willing to make those changes and give up whatever falls into the bread and cake category for you... Trust me, I understand.

So, anyone care to share your bread/cake issues?

A great dinghy building book...

I've been reading "Building the Uqbar Dinghy" and it really is a great book for those who want to build a good dinghy in a weekend... Yes, really, a weekend.

Fact is, I like the dinghies so much I'm pretty sure I'm going to build one in the very near future. The only problem being which dinghy (there are plans for a six, seven, eight, and ten-foot dinghies within the book) I'll choose. I suspect it's a toss up between the eight or ten footers but the six-footer is truly sweet and, as we've successfully cruised for years with a six-foot Bolger Tortoise, to say I'm tempted would be something of an understatement.

Lot to be said for a dinghy that does not take up a lot of space and only weighs 35 pounds.

What really struck me about the book was how well Redjeb Jordania made the building process simple. I suspect the fact that he's taught a lot of dinghy building workshops gives him an edge on making the content of the book tyroproof.

Better yet, I just noticed the price has come down for the Kindle format version and four complete boat plans with step-by-step information on how to put them together for less than $10 is some kind of serious deal...

A book that should be part of every VolksCruisers library...

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 this" sort of projects anywhere to be found. All of the improvements and projects are DIY doable on a budget. Another is nearly all of the projects  (the cassette rack being the glaring exception) and ideas have stood up to the test of time and still make all kinds of sense.

As for the new better raising and lowereing system for our mast, that's covered so well (pages 32-36) that there's no need to look any further.

The one downside of the book is everytime I pick it up I find another perfect solution to another issue aboard so my job list never seems to get any shorter...

Getting real...

I just started rereading "Cruising in Seraffyn" and I'm finding the rather stark contrasts with what passes for cruising today somewhat entertaining...

Of course, times were different then and cruising had an element of a no-safety net enterprise.

Just something to keep in mind next time someone you know throws a hissy-fit because their air conditioning needs to be repaired