Stuff that works

A 12-volt boat…

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 …

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a quick thought…

I’ve always liked Colvin’s junk rig boats as they were in a sorta/kinda evolutionary step that never really made the jump to the next stage and, as a result, have a lot to tell us about sailboat design. Someone has an idea for a boat or rig and designs a sailboat based on that idea. …

a quick thought… Read More »


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on planned and premature obsolescence…

Practical Sailor just put up an excellent article on windlasses that you really should read which touches on the subject of planned/premature obsolescence which happens to be a big part of why I’m promoting the whole VolksCruiser thing.  It’s not just a cost thing. Sure the driving force for most folks is about affordability but …

on planned and premature obsolescence… Read More »


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Two exercises in simplicity that won’t cost you $5K…

I’ve always liked this windvane self-steering gear… Back in the day it worked very well for a lot of cruisers.  Sure it can be improved by making t more complicated but for a well balanced boat and a sailor who knows what they’re doing it does the job just fine. Pretty much anything you need …

Two exercises in simplicity that won’t cost you $5K… Read More »


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