The Cruisers Essentials List

[barnakiel]

Originally Posted by ChrisnCate

Large wire/bolt cutters

Essentials or nice-to-haves?

What do you want them for?

b.

[barnakiel]

Originally Posted by s/v Beth

A number of people have proposed a systems approach. (...)

I think this is one way to go. Otherwise a less experienced project manager (a.k.a. aspiring cruiser) can dive head first into details and never get to the 'gone cruising' stage.

My own interpretation of your list goes:

Level 0 - the Bare Essentials:

1. the boat
2. the crew

In this particular order. For as we all know some boats get places without crews (especially the ARC boats ;-) but crews hardly ever get anywhere without their boats (unless they are avid readers of the 'Liferaft or Bust' thread at CF ;-).

Level 1 - the Essentials:

1. the boat
A. seaworthy

2. the crew
A. competent

For given the above, a crew can undertake a voyage and address resulting emergencies. Much as we know staying at home saves us the emergencies as much as it saves us the pain of listening to laymen talking about lack of need for the bucket.

And so on and so forth. Somewhere at Level 6 we get to the check book, at level 12.5 to that bucket ...

In summary: I like this approach, but (?) we may be better off staying with the 'lists' method.

b.

[Celestialsailor]

Originally Posted by RabidRabbit

I dont understand this list, who cruises with a bucket? If you have a wife/girlfriend the bucket wont cut it. And if you don't, good luck with bringing a nice female back to the boat. Dont most of us have this stuff, plus way more? I am in no way dumping on this list idea, I'm just confused as to why its important to list the few items needed to be totally bare bones suffering. Its odd because of the 50 boats near me now, I am the poor guy, and it shows. But after reading this and simple sailing, I feel like the guy with the fancy gear,gadgets.

...A funny story for you rabbit...I was looking at a Rafiki 37 one time with an odd stern railing. It had a loop on the upper and lower rail. I asked why? The owners wife ducked below and came up with a toilet seat that snapped onto the lower rail. She told me that there was nothing more satisfying than taken a healthy dump while on watch.

[atoll]

Originally Posted by Celestialsailor

...A funny story for you rabbit...I was looking at a Rafiki 37 one time with an odd stern railing. It had a loop on the upper and lower rail. I asked why? The owners wife ducked below and came up with a toilet seat that snapped onto the lower rail. She told me that there was nothing more satisfying than taken a healthy dump while on watch.

who needs a bucket!

[s/v Beth]

What is the propane there for atoll- do you get cold while relieving yourself?
Or do you like cooking up dinner at the same time??
Saves time I guess! But only for a bachlor He He..

BTW- the bolt cutters, or some way to cut away a rig is probably essential. I have a hacksaw with good blades. What do you guys think?

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by Celestialsailor

...A funny story for you rabbit...I was looking at a Rafiki 37 one time with an odd stern railing. It had a loop on the upper and lower rail. I asked why? The owners wife ducked below and came up with a toilet seat that snapped onto the lower rail. She told me that there was nothing more satisfying than taken a healthy dump while on watch.

Hmmm, I've been planning to install a composting head on our Rafiki-37, but perhaps this would be a simpler solution .

[Celestialsailor]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

Hmmm, I've been planning to install a composting head on our Rafiki-37, but perhaps this would be a simpler solution .

...only underway...hopefully!

[atoll]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

Hmmm, I've been planning to install a composting head on our Rafiki-37, but perhaps this would be a simpler solution .

the 4 girls loved it on that trip,especially when the stern got slapped by a big wave..................

[s/v Beth]

Originally Posted by atoll

the 4 girls loved it on that trip,especially when the stern got slapped by a big wave..................

Isn't that called a bidet?

[barnakiel]

Originally Posted by s/v Beth

BTW- the bolt cutters, or some way to cut away a rig is probably essential. I have a hacksaw with good blades. What do you guys think?

Yep. Hacksaw an option. And serves more than one purpose too.

I asked because we have at least two pins on each screw that can be simply pulled out with any piece of string (we use the ring type pins).

I can imagine it is not that easy if they are of the split type. (But one can always replace the split ones with rings and so skip the heavy and clumsy cutter.

b.

[Wotname]

Originally Posted by s/v Beth

..............
BTW- the bolt cutters, or some way to cut away a rig is probably essential. I have a hacksaw with good blades. What do you guys think?

Not so sure about the hacksaw replacing the bolt cutters.

Now I have never sat cold, wet, tired and fearful on pitching rolling deck with waves washing over me and the wind making it had to see while the broken mast is trying its best to bash the hull to bits but I reckon if I ever had to, I would want bolt cutters, not a hacksaw. Honey, pass me another blade.....now hold this wire still......no, this one.....

[foolishsailor]

I dont know about you but i sure wouldnt want to try and cut stainless steel rigging on a broken mast in the dead of night in heavy seas with the mast doing its best to punch a hole in my boat.

Bolt cutter for me are an essential safety item.

[svpattyd]

The bucket can be used for many things. Laundry is one. A plunger is great for laundry, un plugging drains, and we use it to check the prop. You attach the plunger the boat hull. You can hold on and check the prop or something on the hull under the water line.

[jm21]

Originally Posted by gjordan

It would be interesting for someone to take this list(in almost any one of its forms) and priced it out for a mid 30s size boat. Ill bet it would be shocking. Just a thought.____Grant.

That's probably true...but I was thinking of this more as a list of stuff to look for when buying a used boat. A lot of the items are expensive (or expensive when taken as a whole) but don't add much resale value to the boat.

[David_Old_Jersey]

Newt,

I attempted (and failed!) to get folks to create something similar on the $500 a month thread (part II) in this post:-

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...tml#post917798

As I said in that post - was happy to upload something to the Web - so here it is (a Webpage, albeit created using Excel):-

DOJ's $500 a month Equipment list.

Unsurprisingly there are more than a few similarities with your list - I have divided things into 3 headings:-

Essential
Nice to Have #1
Nice to Have # 2

The bucket is on the Essentials list . When I can be bothered will add some ballpark numbers against each item.