What to take, toss, sell or store

[Nivels]

Left Brain:

Sounds like you are having a good time

Mike,

I have three 12" bags, two 18" bags, and plus cases for saws and drills.....

Matthew

[serah]

As for our knives, we are hoping to mount them on a magnetic block as well (just moved on to the new boat a few weeks ago). Currently, they are in the standard henckels knife block. They were secured to a rail with a bungy on the old boat for "gentle sailing", and popped into the pantry locker for rougher weather. No rust at all on this set, which has been aboard for almost two years. Granted, they all get near daily use which helps. (And we are in a rust rich, damp place in the PNW)

We have the stainless magma nesting set. 5 years and still going strong, and meets my foodie quality requirements. (And horror or horrors, not just one, but two cast iron items: a 10" pan we use almost every day, and a dutch oven. Heavy, but worth it. We make up for it with no kitchen appliances apart from an immersion blender)

Any new Mugs cups, or wine glasses, have the requirement to fit into our cup holders, which is tough, as they are a bit narrow.

Sent from my XT1034 using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

[Canibul]

I've got a bunch of the DeWalt 18 volt cordless stuff, including two drills, a small circular saw, and a recip saw. I'm torn about what to do with them. The problem is that the batteries don't last forever and they've gotten expensive. A hundred bucks each. Well, for much less than that I can buy a corded drill and use it til it dies and then buy another one. With a 2kw inverter and plenty of solar etc. I wonder about the hassle of buying, storing, charging etc. all those DeWalt batteries.

They're convenient, yes, but when the batteries let you down you're out of luck trying to find one remotely. You can just about always find an ac powered tool anywhere.

The size and mass of the DeWalt stuff along with the batteries and charges is also almost twice that of ac corded tools.

[oldragbaggers]

We've always used Corelle for our everyday dishes, both at home and on our boats. The stuff really is darned near indestructible, it's lightweight, takes little storage room, and there are some very pretty patterns so it looks quite nice and like "proper" dishes. You can carry service for 12 of Corelle in less room than service for 4 of any other type of stoneware dishes. The only down side of it is that if you are unlucky enough to break a piece it will shatter into a million teeny tiny shards that are very hard to clean up. Luckily for me this has only happened once in the past umpteen years, at home but never on the boat. (Looking for wood to knock on).

We treated ourselves to the Magma nesting cookware set for this boat. In addition I will carry a non-stick wok with cover, our Calphalon everyday griddle (essential for making pancakes, tortillas, and flat breads), a muffin tin (first time with a boat oven). a bread pan, Corningware casserole dish, and a couple of cookie sheets. We no longer eat meat and don't fry anything ever, so that eliminates the need for any roasting, frying or grilling tools. We each have our favorite mug for morning tea and drink mostly water. Heavy plastic glasses, bicycle type water bottles, and a few Lexan wine glasses for the occasional celebratory glass of wine will round things out. Essential in our kitchen is the tortilla press and tortilla warmer.

I use a lot of the large and medium round Rubbermaid storage containers for soaking beans, always having cut up fresh veggies at hand, and proofing bread dough. They do great double duty as mixing bowls, You can carry quite a few of them nested inside each other taking up no more room than one bowl.

As far as appliances I will have a mini-food processor, immersion blender, and coffee grinder (for flax seeds).

[jangann]

Ha! House is under contract. My family thinks I'm nuts but you guys will get it. Now the inspection!


An Ocean Lover in Maine.

[Bulawayo]

Originally Posted by Nivels

Thanks Bulawaylo!

Looks like the jigsaw stays with us. We have the bulkier (non lithium ion) ryobi cordless with flashlight, charger, vacuum, impact driver, and drill. Thanks for the response, looks like all of the tools will be keepers for now. Minust the ax, wedges, and chainsaw

As far as hand tools go, do you guys WD-40 them and put them in plastic bags? We don't deal with rust here in Colorado, so I need some tips to keep my wrenches shiny!

Thanks again,
Matthew

Hi Nivells, sorry for the delayed response - been looking for our next boat. We keep our power tools in a waterproof box with bags of silica gel (big bags). They also get regular checks and regular use. Hand tools we keep in soft bags - the tools are grouped and are wrapped in rags - all liberally sprayed in WD-40. After donkeys years of cruising the majority of my tools are still unmarked. Yeah, some have rusted despite my best endeavours - and I still use them but have those in yet another bag and try to use those as my go and grab tools. I think we have stayed rust free as when the tools go away we clean them and spray religiously with WD-40 on each and every surface - they are then wrapped in rags also liberally sprayed with WD-40. We dont use plastic bags as they would trap moisture. It is messy to do but has kept my tools in good order. Our only tools that have really not lasted well are those we keep in the dinghies and those we accept that we have to replace every every couple of years. We only use the basics in the dinghies so we can change the spark plug or pull the carb off and clean the float. All my spanner sets (open, ratcheting, angled and closed), my socket sets (standard and long reach) and specialist tools (impact, socket driven drivers etc) are branded by Gedore so are a reasonable quality. Many people forget to carry items like the large headed driver to open their sail drive oil drain - we use a Gedore large flat head socket driven driver for this. All our soft bags are zippered shut and are made of a lined heavy duty cordura and have never leaked through as the inners are quite wet with WD-40. Once a month I inspect all my tools - it takes about an hour so is no great issue to do. We are also not dependent upon any single tool - we have altarnatives. Having dropped a vital tool over board years ago we learnt that lesson. We often read that others manage on board with one screwdriver and a pair of pliers - I am not sure how those guys manage that but good luck to them when they get some where remote and need to change an injector or a water pump.

[Bulawayo]

Hi Sailfish - we did similar and experienced a nightmare tenant as well.We also had several years of an excellent reliable tenant. Ours repairs from tenant No.1 also cost us a pretty penny. We sold that property and subsequently bought investment properties that held no sentimental value to us. We bought with the sole purpose of letability and placed the properties with a specialist management company. The income is lower as a result but our investment is secured (so far!) and is guaranteed by insurance to be maintained. We also purchased a store room (20'x8') that now costs us zero to retain and we can keep our sentimental and 'we cannot sell that' items secure for the future. When you have spent thousands of dollars buying a 1.5 ton safe that you cannot sell because it is to heavy to move you simply cannot walk away from it. Similarly, years ago, on our travels, we bought a rose wood dining room table and chairs. We were mad to buy it, but we also could not sell it due to being large and heavy plus we love it. What to do with all the family photo's of when the kids were young? Souveniers from our dead parents and our own early years that we want to pass along to our own kids? Until they have their own properties we want to keep these safe for them. We understand most people have families nearby that they can store items with. In our own situation we are misplaced as we, and our families, have been ejected from our own country by our 'beloved' President (Robert Gabriel Mugabe) and are therefore scattered all around the globe.

[SV Sailfish]

Bulawayo - Yes... bad tenants are no fun. My remaining properties are now with a "hard as nails" property manager and they are located in a state in the U.S. that still favors landlord rights. (and that number is shrinking rapidly) Thanks for your info on property conversion and storage ideas. I too still have stuff in the US that needs to go to kids someday.

I hope the challenges with your home country and it's current political climate get worked out in your favor.

Oldragbaggers - Thanks for the cookware and storage ideas. Much appreciated!

And Mike... how ya doin on getting gone???
Cheers!