As it happens, my project lists have become so unmanageable it’s just time to circular-file them and start anew. Or, in other words, get a just-the-basics need/want list that makes sense. For starters, I’ll be doing something different and narrow the number of projects on the list to ten items because “ten” is a doable …
I recently had someone point out that (not for the first time) a VolksCruiser t-shirt would go a long way towards supporting the blog and that everyone is doing “merch” these days. As it happens, I was actually considering doing a t-shirt for a cruising oriented film as an ongoing promotion element. Of course, being …
Lately I’ve been thinking quite a bit about buying and installing an AIS transponder but stuck in the need/want and affordable/ not affordable tests. The bottom line being that I just don’t want to spend $700 or so for a transponder with all the needful bits. Here’s a solution for an alternative solution that would …
A good portion of yesterday’s toil aboard the Islander had to do with the AC electric side of things which left me hot, sweaty, tired and perplexed. Perplexed because I’ve always been a minimalist where AC on boats is concerned so making sense of a non-traditional AC system of the previous owner’s design left me …
It’s been pointed out to me recently that my interest in buying an old classic plastic catamaran could be all sorts of problematic. The fact that a small cat is small, has less room for stuff, and is disadvantageous in terms of carrying weight, is not something I was unaware of. The funny thing was …
While perusing the news this morning, I noticed something of a theme relating to size. First, there was a piece in the Times about Mega yachts, Fortune had an article about bigger than prudent profits, and then there was this palate cleanser about a 50,000-egg omelet, which sorta/kinda got me thinking about VolksCruiser size and …
So, the yearly Defender sale is with us again. There was a time when I really looked forward to Defender’s annual sale and did most of my heavy purchasing for the year during it. Nowadays, it just seems like a lot of stuff I neither want nor need selling for prices that are rather unimpressive …
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 …
It just came to my attention that West Marine currently has the Sportyak on sale. You know, this boat… It’s a great design as it’s light, pretty much indestructible, unsinkable, and cheap. It rows well and can carry two people with gear or groceries which is really all most people actually need in a dinghy. …
The other day someone pointed me to a couple of Craig’s List self-steering gears to illustrate the argument that it was impossible to sort out a cruising boat on a frugal budget. One of the gears was a Hydrovane for $4K and the other was a Monitor for $3.8K… Which, I suppose, means that if …
