My research into alternative boat stoves continues…
Here’s someone who is seriously rocking the beer can stove envelope!
Boat systems
A stove with VolksCruiser written all over it…
Stoves for boats are silly expensive. Not only do they cost more than they should, most of them don’t work all that well either. Here’s a better and more affordable than most single burner alcohol stove… It costs over $250… While this beer can stove costs pretty much zip. How To Turn A Beer …
A book that should be part of every VolksCruisers library…
I’ve been working on a better mast raising/lowering system for “So It Goes” and rereading all my various go to boatish books for whisps of cunning plans for ideas. Have I mentioned of late what a great book Bruce Bingham’s “The Sailors Sketchbook” is? One thing I like about it is there are no “Buy …
A book that should be part of every VolksCruisers library… Read More »
Always a good read…
The new issue of Practical Boat Owner has a review /article about he Etap 24i that caught my attention. First off, it is a good review and not the usual regurgitated advertising copy we take for granted in American sailing rags. Secondly, I’ve always really liked what Etap is doing with their boats and it’s …
Sometimes a little historical perspective is a needful thing…
Being an old fart does have a few advantages… The other day I was reading an interchange between folks who simply did not understand the reasons behind the thought process in terms of boat, gear, and cruising choices of Lin & Larry Pardey. The logic (or lack of) seemed to be that no one should …
Sometimes a little historical perspective is a needful thing… Read More »
Money,money, money…
OK, I’ll admit stuff costs too much… Just the other day someone mentioned to me he was going to forego a self-steering gear because he’d have to pay in excess of $5000 to get a good one and if he could not have “the best” he’d simply make do with a used underpowered, prone to …
a couple of notes regarding engines and suchlike…
Lin Pardey recently took to a cruising forum to counter some of the misunderstanding going on regarding the whole engineless thing… The thread is actually worth reading as Ms Pardey makes sense and reading a lot of the posts will give you some understanding about how elusive common sense is when discussion of engines, basic …
a couple of notes regarding engines and suchlike… Read More »
1 to 50…
Jay Fitzgerald (whose book should be on every VolksCruisers bookshelf) has mentioned that boat size should reflect muscle power and as far he could figure that 1 to 50 was the ratio that made sense. Offhand, I expect he’s pretty close to being right on the money… So, what does that work out to in …
a different headspace…
Just about everything we do on boats is pretty simple so, every once in awhile, I find myself marveling at how difficult people make it or think it all is. It truly does boggle the mind… It’s not like the information is not readily available either. Most everything you need is either on the web …
Where’s Spock when you need him…
Logic is a funny thing… Especially when it’s connected with boats. For instance, a friend recently wrote about changing a gaff cat rigged boat into a junk schooner. His reasons for such a conversion were listed as the single sail was too big to be easily handled, possibly better balance of the schooner rig, and …