To steal a line from Dickens… “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness…” From where I sit those words have a lot to do with the current state of affairs where boats are concerned. I’m not sure if …
I’ll get this out of the way from the GetGo… Affordable IS important. So, back to the list: Affordable to build or buy Affordable to cruise and maintain on a tight budget The hard part when the word affordable comes into play is it means different things to different people. What’s affordable to a person …
This TED talk really struck a chord for me. It has nothing to do with boats and Need/Want lists yet everything to do with boats and Need/Want lists…
Such as it is. What I want… A boat that’s seaworthy Shoal draft (1 meter or less) That will dry more or less upright Affordable to build or buy Affordable to cruise and maintain on a tight budget Simple user servicable redundant systems Outboard motor Integrated wind vane self-steering A comfortable double bed at least …
There are times when reading the yachting press (in those rare times when my scum sucking zinio app actually works) that I feel that we’re not looking at boats anymore but some crazed rendering of the “Blind men and an elephant” sort… A while back when I was talking about the Columbia 26, a lot …
How things change… Back in 1996 when we were in the Canaries waiting for the the trades to kick in so we could sail to Martinique, our boat, “Loose Moose 2”, at 38 feet was actually larger than the average cruising boat. My guesstimate at the time was that the typical cruising boat averaged somewhere …
Most everyone wants a bigger boat… Well, in a sorta/kinda way. Face it, we all like lots of room to spread out in, gobs of storage space, and the extra speed a longer waterline gives us. That said, when it comes to paying for a night in a marina, a haul out, or the extra …
So, back to the Columbia 26. As the previously mentioned list shows, there is really not a lot I’d change but a couple of things do come to mind. Mainly the rudder, propulsion system, and rig. Today, because they are somewhat related projects, we’ll focus a little on propulsion and the rudder. Having looked at …
So, after giving the Columbia 26 a lot of thought, I’ve come up with a short list of things I’d do to make it just that little bit more VolksCruiserish… Interior DIY composting toilet Rebuild/replace the dinette with a Buehler inspired one Figure out a cunning plan to make the galley bettter (spelled add worktop …
I’m a big believer of the old adage of “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it” and that very much goes for the Columbia 26 MK2… That said, there are some issues that I think are needful to deal with if you’re going to make the C26 your VolksCruiser of choice and they are mainly …
