Why Mr Zip's your friend...

I've bought quite a lot of metal stock from Online Metals. Nothing big but over the years I've spent quite a lot of money with them on a variety of boat projects. 

Which is why yesterday, when I saw that I needed a couple of feet of 2" aluminum angle for a mast project. I got online, opened my account, and with credit card at the ready proceeded to buy the needful. They had what I wanted (two 12-inch pieces of said aluminum angle) that cost $23.54 which was a little bit high in my opinion. That said, the cost was not all that bad so I stuck it in the cart and prepared to close the deal.

The next thing I see is that they're charging me $163.00 to ship a pound of aluminum to me down here in America's paradise.

Seriously, WTF?

So, I called them and pointed out that in the past they'd sent small packages via USPS for a reasonable cost. I also mentioned that the two 12" pieces of aluminum would fit quite nicely in a flat rate box or envelope.

Nope they said, metal is heavy and we no longer ship anything via USPS and $165 was what I had to pay.

Which is wrong on a lot of levels but what bothers me the most is the lady on the phone assumed I was stupid enough to pay $163 to get something worth $23.50 which would be insane.

The really scary part is that I commonly see cruisers with blogs bitching that they had to pay silly money to get stuff shipped to them. The worst example was a guy complaining that he'd paid over $100 for two O-rings that would have cost a buck from a hardware store but since he bought them from a marine supplier for $21, he wound up with the most expensive O-rings the world has ever seen. So, yeah, I guess there are enough people out there willing to be fleeced that it is now SOP for companies to do this sort of fuckery.

I then spent five minutes online to find a metal company willing to send via USPS and came across Speedy Metals which sold me the same metal for $16 which was cheaper than their online price (I've made a note to call them in the future rather than buy online) and more importantly $7.50 less than Online Metals. The real savings, of course, is not having to pay that $163 UPS shipping charge.

I'll just mention that FedEx and UPS are not only stupid expensive for getting stuff down here but they are, more often than not, slower than the USPS as well.

Mr Zip rocks!

Anyway, since I'm not insane and can do basic math I won't ever use Online Metals ever again.

Need I say more?

a plastic water bottle and a boat...

The other day I found myself listening to someone going on about their stainless steel bespoke water bottle as a must have for the cruising sailor. I was not impressed.

The argument that an expensive water bottle is good for the environment is somewhat dubious in that its fabrication requires energy which is, more often not, provided by fossil fuels so not exactly as green as we'd like. Worse in fact, because do you really think someone who requires a designer water bottle is going to drink water from the tap?

Some years ago at a charter yacht show the organizers provided show attendees with "green" reusable plastic water bottles because there had been some complaints about using single serve water bottles. Of course, I found the fact that they were filling the reusable water bottles from single use disposable water bottles sorta/kinda defeated the whole purpose of the exercise.

I'll add another point regarding the bespoke designer stainless steel water bottles and say that the person hyping them had an affiliate link so was making money on any that were sold. It's just another link in the chain selling you stuff you don't need for a profit.

My choice of water bottle is reused soft drink bottles. I've mostly kicked my soft drink habit but still, from time to time, have a bottle of ginger ale. Being loathe to throw plastic away to go into landfill for like forever, I'll save it and reuse it as a water bottle. Aboard "So It Goes" we keep a dozen or so water bottle of this ilk and they're a much more green solution then that bespoke designer stainless steel water bottle.

They're also, for all practical purposes... free.

Which, sorta/kinda brings me around to an interesting but somewhat stupid sailboat design you might want to check out. It's the Sterne 25 and it's built of eco-friendly materials like bamboo, basalt, jute, linen, and plant sourced resins all of which I think is a goodly thing.

It's a cool boat for sure and as a test bed for greener materials it certainly makes sense. The downside, for me at least, is that in a world with thousands and thousands of excellent already built sailboats going for near giveaway prices,

 why are we still building new boats?

That CAL 27 or Chrysler 26 (for example) going for cheap are most certainly a greener solution than most eco-friendly designs coming down the pike with the added advantage of being a whole lot more affordable. 

One issue with greenish materials is they've recently become a hip commodity and as a result materials known for being readily available and cheap are, all of a sudden, all kinds of expensive and difficult to get. For the last few months I've been trying to find a good source for jute (AKA burlap) to use for a dinghy build I wanted to do. The idea of replacing fiberglass with burlap was very attractive until it became hip and now is selling for more than fiberglass. Made worse by the fact that I'd need to buy a bolt of cloth rather than a few meters. The sad fact is that building green has been co-opted by consumerism and folks wanting to make a profit don't give a shit about the environment.

The real bedrock way to be green in this messy world is to use less rather than more and whenever possible, reuse, repair, and recycle.

That might make a great t-shirt as well...

Something to expand your skill set...

 

A $1000 VolksCruiser...

 Here's a boat you might want to check out...

Now, for me at least, the Chrysler 26 comes pretty close to checking all of the fields on my what makes a great VolksCruiser list.

1. It's cheap and I've seen good boats going for $1K.
2. It packs in a lot of livability into a 26-foot envelope.
3. It has a draft of 2' 3" with the board up and 6' 2" when you need to get to windward.
4. It has enough displacement and ballast to get you where you want to go right side up.
   
5. Halsey Hereshoff designed it and he's a  designer I trust.
6. It was designed to use an outboard and 6HP is all you need.

The only disadvantage is that it is a small boat and not for someone who requires a lot of less-than-needful-stuff. But that's a problem with any 26-foot boat isn't it? 

A few minimal projects (the galley for instance) would make it an even a better cruiser for not a lot of money or sweat.

So, all in all, it's a great example of what you need in a small cruising boat and well worth considering.

 

about toilets or something similar...

 The other day I noticed that the going rate for a popular faux composting toilet was a kiss over a thousand dollars and my initial reaction was...

"Are we really that stupid?"

Apparently so it would seem if people are willing to spend $1000 for what amounts to a bucket, a jug, and a toilet seat packaged together. As the saying goes; "There's one born every minute.

The scary part, for me at least, is that the so-called composting toilet is about $400 more than what I consider the gold standard of MSDs the LAVAC. I'll go on record if I had to have a marine toilet aboard a boat of mine the only toilet I'd ever consider is the LAVAC. Need I say more?

That said, in my estimation, the only marine head that actually makes sense is the misnamed composting toilet. Misnamed because they really don't actually compost waste but simply hold the contents in a sort of stasis until it can be taken away or dumped overboard where legal.

Which is not to say that they don't work very well as we can attest to having pooped regularly into one for over a decade without ever having any negative issues at all. The fact that our toilet is the DIY variety and only cost about $100 says a lot about how DIY is often the best way to go and often better then the manufactured variety.

My dad once gave me some great advice a very long time ago regarding interpersonal relationships which also applies to basic toilet design...

"You never want to stir that shit up"

A pithy quote that cries out to be emblazoned on a quality t-shirt if there ever was one.

Since we're speaking of toilets on boats, I'd be remiss, not to mention that the current Latitude 38 has a marine toilet survival guide of sorts that is well worth reading.

 

Monique is no longer with us...

 A bit of sad news from France as we lose a much loved circumnavigator and arctic voyager.

A film I'm looking forward to...

A  50-year old Wharram, a wonky boom, and three women on a mission.

They had me at 50-year old Wharram.

There's more info on their website and Kickstarter page.

Maybe just use a little less...

For going on decades, I've been an advocate for electric propulsion. While I'm enthused that electric propulsion is no longer a freak show, I do have some reservations about an all-electric boat.

I grew up at a time where if you were on a boat, electricity was hard to come by and something of a luxury. I still tend to think of electrics on boats being somewhat 'iffy'.

Sure, we can now throw money at a bunch of solar, install a shitload of lithium batteries, and have an electrical system that will support a medium-sized village but, the question remains do we really want to?

Take a look at this solar array...

Having had electric propulsion on a similar sized boat (34-feet) I grok that the array is just about big enough for someone's idea of what normal power consumption should be for a modern convenience based lifestyle. The problem arises by the simple fact that a 34-foot boat is just not designed to carry a thousand watt array. Sure, it's possible but I shudder to think about sitting out a hurricane or big squall with that kind of windage over my head.

Then there's the vicious consumption spiral of adding an air fryer or whatever is the current must-have-amp-hungry-appliance on the must have list which requires even more solar. Which, as we all know, is the gateway drug to a bigger boat.

Throw in my general distrust of anything electrical on a cruising boat and you can see why I seldom think the answer to any issue on a boat is more power of the electrical sort.

Which is all a roundabout way of saying I'm currently considering adding Starlink to the boat but jumping through all sorts of hoops to justify it in our energy budget. Since I really don't have room for another 200-watts of solar it would seem the most obvious solution is to use less amps elsewhere and tighten the belt energy wise.

I expect I'll be moaning more about the process in the not too distant future.

Something that pisses me off...

So there's this guy who wants to buy a (new to him) boat to sail off into the sunset. As it happens, he also has a YouTube channel that has quite a few followers and more often than not his videos are both entertaining, as well as educational. 

Just to be fair, I'll point out that his last boat rehab/refit was sometimes painful to watch due to his rather steep learning curve and boat building skills but in the end he got the boat launched and cruising in a reasonable amount of time and it floated right side up.

He's a guy who learns from his mistakes which is one of the most important boat building skills and surprisingly rare. Thus armed, I expect his new boat will come together successfully in a reasonable amount of time and within a sustainable budget.

Apparently, there are a lot of people who don't share my opinion that his current choice of project boat makes sense as his comments sections are rife with naysayers telling him that he can't, it will all end in tears, and if he takes on the project they'll go watch some other channel more attuned to their idea of how to choose a boat.

From my experience, naysayers have seldom, if ever, built or refit a boat. There basic mindset seems to be "If I can't do something, nobody can" so they spend their time telling people how to live their lives and take exception when you go your own way.

The sad part is that the naysayers (AKA assholes) exert a relentless pressure that can be a real obstacle to getting a project completed. Back when I was building the first Loose Moose, I was getting so much negative input about the rig that I lost confidence and found myself in a depressed death spiral that turned a two-day job into a month-long stasis where almost nothing got done.

The project in question is a Wharram cat, that for me at least, seemed like a pretty good boat to fix up. Sure it looked like a dog's breakfast that would require some money and a serious application of hard work but it looked doable. Just for the record, I've built a Wharram, know how they go together, and have finished quite a lot of boat projects, so I have some idea of what I'm talking about. If his project boat was up for sale here for twice as much as he paid, I'd have bought it in a second.

Wharram cats are designed to be both affordable and easy to build. While they may not be the flavor of the month, they are good boats. Why they seem to offend so many is a mystery to me but then you just can't fix stupid.

Anyway, check out the project because I expect it will be a fairly interesting, educational, and entertaining series. I know I'll be keeping an eye on it and rooting for a successful end because I just love to see naysayers pissed off.

OK, I'll admit it...

I've got a bad case of bowsprit envy! While perusing the Craigslist I saw a fifty foot Bugeye going for $16.5K.

Now, I'll be the first to acknowledge that I can't really afford to cruise on a fifty-foot vessel no matter how much it's a work of art and sexy as hell. Adding in the fact that the sparred length is a whopping 65' and that's just going to make haul-outs, marina visits, and incidental cruising expenses a lot more than I can afford.

But, still, the prod on "So It Goes" at two feet compared the the magnificent bowsprit on the Bugeye makes me feel just that little bit embarrassed.

So it goes...