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.

stuff you need to know...

Sailing With Josh (a blog you really should be reading) with some seriously needful thoughts on living aboard.

Check it out.

A book you really should read...

Enough said...

Just a quick thought...

Lately I've been thinking a lot about the process of simplification and why so many of us seem to have so much difficulty with the process...

It really should be simple, shouldn't it?

As it happens, Mariah of Comet Camper Blog fame/infamy actually teaches a class from time to time on the nuts and bolts of how to downsize and simplify your life so you can be a happy camper in your tiny house, camper, or other small living space not unlike a boat. From what I hear it is a very good class and well worth taking. From where I sit most of the really good living on a boat advice I've come across on the web in the last year or so has come from the Comet Camper Blog so you might want to bookmark it and give it a read on a regular basis... She does make a heck of a lot of sense.

On the other hand, if you wanted to take a class to learn about how to cruise and live on a boat you'd find that you'd actually be taking a class not so much about simplification or downsizing but mostly about buying stuff...

Expensive stuff as it happens. Lots of expensive stuff.

Just the other day I read an article that used words like simplify, downsize, and make do with less, but the real subject seemed to be more about making room for a new bigger watermaker, an interior makeover, and a proper SSB/Ham radio installation which is hardly downsizing or simplifyiny but all about making things less simple and spending money.

So...

Maybe it's more than time that we look a lot more closely about the words we actually use...

SIMPLIFY :  to make simple or simpler: as

a)  to reduce to basic essentials
b)  to diminish in scope or complexity :  streamline (was urged to simplify management procedures)
c)  to make more intelligible :  clarify 

Not exactly rocket science is it?

Stuff you need to know...

Off Center Harbor has a truly excellent two part video on sail trim featuring Carol Hasse that you might want to check out... It's well worth the price of admission.

A little further education...

There are a couple of ways to look at the need/want thing but it mostly boils down to looking at it with a positive approach or a negative one... If you start with a negative slant the whole need/want test is all about not being able to have something you want while, on the other hand, the positive approach becomes all about working through the process to sort out what you actually need.

Me, I simply try and sort out what I need and avoid thinking about stuff I might want. Working on the need first level long enough I find that most of the stuff I actually want tend to be things I need.

That said, sometimes you need a bit of outside help to get with the program but no one as yet is doing a VolkCruising class... though to be honest we are thinking about it and would love to hear from readers if they feel there is a need and if so what would you be interested in having it cover?.

In the meantime, you might want to consider a class like the Tiny Transition and Downsizing class being taught by the Comet Camper's Mariah which, while not about boats, is very much about living and thriving in small spaces like boats.

an educational conundrum...

I find it interesting that in the sailing world so much emphasis is devoted to having the best of the best and how little emphasis there is the the process of learning how to use it...

So, just why is sailing education so unpopular here in the states? People take classes to learn to ski or scuba dive but as for sailing it seems to be more of a I don't need to take any stinking lessons attitude.

Most of my French friends who sail and cruise went to Glénans or a reasonable facsimile and most of my British friends have done RYA courses...

And, you know what? It shows.

Really.

Most folks flying the stars and stripes however never take a class and if they do it's the bare minimum requirement that gives them a piece of paper to show the bareboat folk. Sort of a somewhat problematic state of affairs...

I suspect, part of the problem is that there is not a good umbrella educational system akin to the RYA in the US of A but that does not mean there is not a good local or convenient class that folks could take... you just need to ask around.

That said, learning how to do something right is never a bad way to get started, especially for folks of a VolksCruising bent.