The initial emails on the last post tended to fall into to two categories. The first being the “You’re an idiot” sort and the second is “It just can’t be done because you need to buy lots and lots of stuff!” zone.
For the moment, lets just address the “lots and lots of stuff” argument…
How much stuff do you really need?
The fact of the matter is that most boats for sale these days already have an impressive amount of gear aboard and the CAL 34 example appears to come with everything needful in terms of safety requirements, navigation instruments, and other needful gear. Granted, I’m sure something or other might require replacement or upgrading but there is a big difference of fixing what needs fixing and just going on a consumerist joyride because buying stuff is fun or you need to impress the neighbors.
The thing is we’re talking volkscruiser here. What we are not talking about is taking an older classic plastic boat and turning it into a work of art, morphing it into something it is not, or turning folks green with envy. What we’re doing is just making a good boat good a bit better and a workable platform for going to sea in an acceptable level of comfort and safety.
So, mostly, we only fix stuff that needs fixing and we only replace stuff when it can’t be fixed. Which, from where I sit, seems to make all kinds of sense. It makes sense in terms of budget and it makes sense in the overall scheme of things because we live in a finite world and throwing away perfectly good stuff is all kinds of bad for the planet.
I’ll be the first person to admit this is not a path for everyone and I certainly don’t believe that for a second everyone should do the volkscruiser thing I’m simply saying it is doable if you want to do it. But… and there is always a but isn’t there, if your path to happiness involves buying stuff the whole volkscruiser gig just ain’t for you.
Worth thinking about…
Next up a couple of really simple things.