speaking of tools...

One of my goals this week is to get out all my tools, organize them, and sort out a better stowage plan. Which doesn't sound like much but it really is a Herculean task.

That said, I do have a cunning plan of sorts.

More about that later.

a couple of new tools for the tool locker...

I recently bought a pair of Toughbuilt sawhorses from Lowes as they had a two for $50 price and free shipping to the USVI.

Such a deal.

Looking at them now that they finally got here (it took a month) I'm quite impressed and thinking since the two for $50 is still active buying another pair would be no bad thing.

The really nice thing about the sawhorses is that they fold up and can fit in otherwise unused space in the cockpit lockers. The downside is that they are heavy suckers.

Which puts me into the need/want conundrum... do I really need another pair?

It's a foregone conclusion that I'll be building another mast for "So It Goes" in the near future and not having four bombproof sawhorses makes for a great spar bench. Plus I'll be needing to haul out sooner rather than later so it would seem that a second pair of these sawhorses would pay for themselves within the year. Even better is that they'll save me time in the future not having to deal with the hassle of buying materials and making temporary saw horses and tables.

So, having passed the need/want test I guess it's time to get another pair.

A sweet ride...

I saw a Kirie Elite for sale in Edmonds Washington  state going for a silly price ($1.2K).

I have something of a sweet spot for this particular design as I saw it at a Paris boat show and it just felt like it would be a great boat. It was quite roomy for its size, had a huge aft double, and it was no slouch in terms of speed.

It was everything I liked in the Harlé Tonic design but expanded out to a 30-foot envelope. Sadly, it was also more expensive than I could afford at the time.

Now at a reasonable price with a diesel engine that works "OK" it just might be one of the better VolksCruiser deals going.

about those papers you need...

Here's a question. Is a five-year USCG documentation for $375 better than a $130 five-year documentation?

So, in yesterday's mail there was an envelope containing a notice that my USCG documentation will expire soonish and that I should renew it. As it happens the notice was not from the USCG.

The actual sender of the notice was someone calling themselves the National Documentation Portal and went to a lot of trouble to make their notice look like it was from the USCG. So much so in fact, that you really have to look closely to see it's not from the Coasties.

The idea is that you'll assume that they are the USCG and you'll renew your documentation with them. The problem is that when you go to their site (which sorta/kinda looks a lot like it's the USCG) you find that there's a big difference in cost.

The cost for you to renew your documentation with the actual USCG is $26 a year which adds up to $130 for a five year renewal.

With me so far?

Now if you were to go the the National Documentation Portal and renew with them, the cost is $375 and that's some serious fuckery.

So, what exactly do you get for that extra $245? 

All they do is file your information which they had you fill out and pay the fee with your money and pocket the rest. The labor/hassle on your part is the same whether you use the USCG site or theirs. 

Sadly, be warned that there are a lot of folks running this sort of grift and, while it's legal, the USCG should really do something about it.

In the meantime, the cost per year for USCG Documentation renewals is $26 a year and if you're paying more you're being scammed.

and don't forget the bolt cutters...

I find it kind of funny that people who I don't even know, write to the blog and are hesitant to state a budget when asking advice on various boats.

"Do you think a fixer upper Cascade 36 would be a good boat to get?"

I then ask what it costs, how much the boat is selling for, and what sort of budget they have to work with. In this case, I get a response that tells me the boat is selling for $5K and the engine does not work. As far as their budget is concerned, I get...

"Money's not an issue."

At this point I lose interest because money is always an issue and, if you're reading a blog dedicated to helping penurious folk go cruising, I expect you know very well that money is a rather important issue.

Refitting a classic plastic and cruising it is a deadly serious exercise in creative frugality. You really have to be honest with yourself (and me if you're asking for advice) about what sort of tools you have in your tool box. And yes, dear reader, money or lack thereof is most certainly an important tool in the grand scheme of things.

For instance, in the buying and selling of boats one does themselves a huge disservice if you feel you have to pretend you have more money than you do. Just think about that for a moment. Now, what sort of deal am I going to give you on a beat up CAL 34 if you spend half your time telling me how much money you're going to spend on it? A guy tells me he'll replace all the instruments and take it to the yard to get an Imron paint job done. This tells me two things: 1) the guy has a lot of money to spend or he's just dumb as a bag of hammers; or 2) the best of all worlds for a seller of boats, which is the potential buyer is both well heeled and stupid.

Face it, the last person you want to impress with your excellent stock portfolio or Rolex is the guy selling you a boat.

The same goes for cruising. Everyone cruising has a pain threshold where spending is concerned.

EVERYONE.

Working in the marine trades in the Caribbean, you quickly learn that a lot of folks with all the best stuff and the appearance of a comfortable monetary situation are much more likely to have their credit cards declined or do a runner before paying their bills.  Like I said, everyone tends to spend more than they can afford and that's something you really need to know.

Going out to dinner with a bunch of cruisers can burn up an entire months' volkscruiserish budget if you all wind up in some touristy eatery where the burgers are twenty bucks and a beer is going for $5 a bottle. Even worse is when the guy and his wife who had the lobster and the umbrella drinks decides that the group should just split the check instead of each paying their own part of it. Been there done that but could not afford the t-shirt after subsidizing some lobster and Mai Tais.

Which is all a long winded way of pointing out that the most important thing is knowing what you can and can't afford and having the fortitude to tell folks that this is what you can afford when needful.

As it happens, I saw something the other day on Werner Hertzog who has been a great influence on me in a surprising number of ways. His 24 bits of advice really resonates where the whole VolksCruiser thing is concerned.

Especially the bit about bolt cutters.

income streams and chicken shit in the cockpit...

I just saw that there was a boat currently selling eggs in St Thomas and thought it was kind of cool if only as a source of non refrigerated eggs. Combine that with the high cost of eggs from the local super market and it starts making real sense. Though, to be honest, I'm not sure having a half dozen or so chickens is doable on a 34-foot boat. 

Just another income stream to add to the list of possibilities.

One of the big issues with VolksCruising budgets is that the expenses of cruising are a lot like a death from a thousand cuts. A dollar here, twenty there, and and some pocket change adds up to a real budget killer by the end of the month.

Most of us think in terms of a single income source and too often that source is whatever you have in the bank. For most of us,that amounts to a rather too-finite number and it's amazing how quickly all those little expenses nibble away at it. We're all pretty good at budgeting the big numbers but in my experience it's the incidentals  that give me those WTF moments at the end of the month.

So yeah, selling eggs, busking, refrigeration work, rigging, or selling sailboat fishing kits all make sense as small income low profile side hustles. Which together might just be enough to keep you cruising.

I'm pretty sure I'll get someone writing me to mansplain that everybody knows sailboats and cruising is an expensive endeavor that small side hustles can't fund the operating costs of a a proper cruiser and its crew so if you don't have deep enough pockets you should just stay home. Sure, I'll grant that it's good advice for cruising and sailboats in the consumerist modus operandi but it's a tried and true method where VolksCruisers are concerned.

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'

 

an almost cunning plan...

There's a J-29 up in the frozen north that I've been thinking about quite a bit. For those unacquainted with the design it looks something like this...

It, like most of it's J-Boat brethren, is a boat designed and built to be competitive so you may be wondering why the hell am I looking at it?

Well, you might say, I have a sorta/kinda cunning plan for a boat of this ilk.

For starters there's not much of an interior so it would be very easy to do a new performance cruising interior and as long as we're installing a neat little galley we might take the opportunity to do a new mast step while we're at it.

A new VolksCruiserish rig spelled junk or lug would make for a neat testbed and as there are quite a few J-29s about it owned by folks who'd enjoy sailing against a J-29 with a different (some might call it freakish) rig it would be an awesome educational endeavor and I'd enjoy it.

As the boat in question is selling for not very much I'd expect to be able to the needful mods and suchlike to keep the finished boat a kiss less than $10.5K.

The only issue that keeps me from jumping on a plane cash in hand to get is the fact that the J-29 has almost six feet of draft and that's not going to work for my cruising plans.

So it does go.

That said if draft is not a deal breaker for you the J-29 is a pretty great candidate for a performance VolksCruiser and you might want to keep an eye out for a good deal on one.

 

on the most important propulsion system available to us...

This bit of news got me thinking about electric propulsion, various mindsets on sailing and what passes for the norm where sailing is concerned. 

Now, as someone who spent over a decade obsessed with getting affordable electric propulsion to work as a sustainable system aboard "So It Goes", it's safe to say that I've spent a lot of time thinking on how best to get a boat from one place to another. All those years of study resulted in a strong belief that the answer is not electric propulsion. Just to be fair I'll add that it is not an internal combustion engine either.

Some years ago we were in the BVI and having a drink next to a couple who'd just sailed down with the  Caribbean 1500 rally who were quite proud of the fact that they'd only motored for 48-hours. Yesterday I saw that Mads of Sail Life fame spent something like that under power on his way to the Canaries. I suspect that both are an example of the current mindset that the only way to get someplace is to point yourself where you're going full speed ahead. A mindset that's a bit off where wind power is concerned.

One of the things I love about sailing is harnessing the wind to your purpose is both fun and requires some lateral thinking to get you where you want to be. In my experience pointing at where you want to go is seldom the best way to get you there.

Sure, some form of auxiliary propulsion allows you to point your boat dead to windward and current but it is seldom, in my experience at least, a comfortable way to go. As far as being needful to always making forward motion towards your destination the fact that you might sit becalmed for a day or so is not a major tragedy in my thinking as it's just part of a voyage or should be.

Wind power is the most evolved form of propulsion available to us and has the added advantage of being simple as well as inexpensive. Granted, there is a learning curve but nothing too difficult but with the added bonus of being fun.

Sadly, too many these days miss the whole fun element and every time the wind is not blowing you directly to where you want to go the answer is to turn on the engine/motor and thrash to windward instead of enjoying the chance to build your skill set and gain a couple of extra points in your course. For far too many the fact that they have an engine/motor that can be turned on at will is the biggest obstacle in learning how to get the most of of your interface with the wind.

For someone on a budget being able to use the wind to your advantage whichever way it happens to be blowing is a vital tool in your tool kit. Plus it will save you a lot of money in the process...

Need I say more?

and in the "hardly surprising" department...

I'll be honest and admit that I really hate being surprised, especially where boats are concerned. Maybe it's that I grew up on horror films where surprises were always sort of horrific. On the other hand, it just might be most of my surprises have been of the negative sort so color me somewhat gun shy where surprises are concerned.

The funny thing is that, reading other boat folks blogs and suchlike i see that they also talk about surprises on boats and it's never ever a happy occurrence. More often than not it's a problem and unbidden problems are going to be expensive.

It's just the nature of boats and cruising.

For instance if I sail off to some place new and don't check about the rules, costs, and politics of visiting there I'll find that there is going to be a surprise of some sort just waiting to happen. Or, if I jump into a project without some due diligence beforehand there will be some consternation in the mix to bite me on the ass.

Lucky for us we have the internet which makes it pretty easy to do some homework to find out what to expect whether you're cruising or taking on a boat build or refit.

Nothing keeps surprises at bay as well as a bit of homework and due diligence.

Need to know what food costs in St Thomas, Hawaii, or Guam?  Go to Costuless online and see what your grocery bill should cost. Pretty much anywhere you go in the world will have chain stores with online shopping so you can get an idea of what you'd have to pay for groceries. More importantly, it gives you a base line so that you'll know when some stores are on the high side.

Same goes for projects. I always check to make sure that what I'll need is actually available to finish a project as having a half completed project can ruin your day/week/month/year. Nearly as important is knowing what things you need for the project should cost. I've noticed that a lot of boat blogs and YouTube channels tend to share affiliate links for gear and materials that are on the high end of what they should cost so before you start buying epoxy and suchlike from Amazon it might be a good idea to do some cost comparisons before you buy stuff.

Seriously when that $300 dinghy project winds up taking two years and costing you $1200 you really can't blame it on a surprise.  The same goes when arriving on some island with wall to wall Megayachts expecting to find stateside bargains as high prices tend to go with the neighborhood.   

Sadly, these days, common sense is often in short supply but it's a learnable tool that will go a long way to extend your budget as well as improving your quality of life.