Best Luxury Upgrades to Add to a 30 Foot Boat?

[SmartMove]

Originally Posted by Ann T. Cate

Under the heading of luxury items: the best quality image-stabilized binoculars you can buy. Both of you will use them, and enjoy them, and easy to find room for, too.

+1 on that! I got my husband a pair a couple of Christmas' ago. He thought it was a very extravagant gift. I can't believe how much he uses them (me too) we love them.

[Andrew Troup]

Hmmm,... "best quality image-stabilized binoculars you can buy"

or, in the immortal words of Homer Simpson

Mmmmm!....

I've got to say, Ann.. you've got me thinking.

I don't generally get enthused by things to which the term "technology" has recently been constricted, but this one could find a chink in my luddite armour, I reckon.

Apart from the obvious safety benefits, I'm struck, reading your post, how large a part of the joy of sailing is simply looking.

Like at a musical or even more at a drama performance: decent binos make the cheap seats into something else.

And so often, when sailing, it's just not practicable (or safe, sometimes) to get close enough to be able to see what there is to be seen.

(Like, for instance, almost any west coast of any landform for a thousand miles in any direction from 43S 172E)

[JanetGroene]

Not exactly a luxury but I like to have a single-burner electric hotplate, also known as a buffet burner. It tucks away in little space when we are not hooked up. When we are paying for electricity anyway it's a wonderful convenience to have a burner that can be used in the galley, on the dock, in the cockpit, allowing easy, thermostat control when used with a skillet, coffee pot, corn popper, pressure cooker, ad inf. For this reason I don't have these items as separate electric appliances. They would just be dead weight when we are not on shore power. (The noise and stink of a generator is something we avoid if at all possible.) If you use all ferrous cooking pots, single burner induction burners are also available but are heavier than the inexpensive hotplate. I also had a butane buffet burner at one time. It was portable but expensive to use and cartridges not always easy to find.

[Jim Cate]

Andrew, a couple of years (or three or four...) we bought the cheapest Canon stabilized binocs then available. 10x30 and about 300 bucks then. These are not waterproof and the optics are not really top quality, but they are really useful for an old fart with old fart eyes. I appreciate the extra magnification relative to my 7x50 Fujinons and their light weight as well. Don't appreciate the lesser light gathering power and poorer resolution, but I use them preferentially most of the time in daylight. They have so far been trouble free save the "rubber" coating going tacky and then coming off.

A worthwhile gadget IMO.

Cheers,

Jim

[SecondBase]

Thank you all for the superb suggestions! They have influenced me quite a bit as you'll see.

Update:
Memory foam purchased (kingsize). Foam left uncut so it can go to the cockpit "outdoor room" dual use.
* *****Added luxury- sleeping outside
Anchor alarm - handheld gps: purchased- Garmin
Single electric buffet burner: purchased.
Speaker upgrade: purchased- Polk Audio
Phifertex hatch shades: samples from sailrite came in
Beanbag: purchased
Coffee hand grinder: purchased
Flameless candles: purchased

Most of the rest of the suggestions like "better food than restaurant for equal price" I've adopted wholeheartedly.

A few more luxuries to come: * ** *

****Added luxury- Inflatable island that seats 6 yet folds away.

* *****Added luxury- Granite galley counter (graniteresources dot com recommended by a recent periodical).

* *****Added luxury- Teak bar (box made from reclaimed teak grates of previous boat). Milk crate-sized, portable.

[mrohr]

Interesting thread,I have very few 'luxuries" aboard but many items that make my modest craft comfortable. Hundreds of little tweaks over an eight year ownership of the current boat the sum total of all make my life aboard "luxurious" ,i.e. comfortable and meeting my personal needs and cruising /sailing style.I have always said that one does not sail a boat but rather that one wears it, sorta like a good marriage where everything works well and there are no hard edges or unpleasant surprises.Cruising is an exercise in values clarification and one must answer what one MUST have onboard as well as what one can do without all the while realistically recognizing what the tradeoffs are.
A boat my be your home but will never be a house, those that try to make it so will be spending an inordinate amount of time tied up to a dock and writing checks. I will be sailing by in " comfort".

[TheOffice]

Stern seats really open up the cockpit. I added them to my 35. Lots more elbow room!

[Greg4cocokai]

I never would have thought of myself as being spoiled but except for the A/C and hot tub (waters 84-90 anyways), I guess I am!

Only thing not mentioniond that I could not live without is the Dive Compressor.

[SecondBase]

Originally Posted by mrohr

many items that make my modest craft comfortable. Hundreds of little tweaks".

Would you share a few that have most enhanced your comfort?

[sailcruiser]

Some niceties I've added are:

A set of insulated Tervis cups with lids (I like beverages cold), pressure cookers (fagor futura), a nice set of stainless nesting pots with removable handle (saves a ton of storage), upgraded the radio am/fm w/mp3 support, sport-a-seats, custom mattress with Frohli system.

All I'd recommend and considered luxuries on board. Up next are stern rail seats and possibly a folding wheel but that remains undecided for now.
SC

[mrohr]

Originally Posted by SecondBase

Would you share a few that have most enhanced your comfort?

Sure just some: Stern seat (google :stern perch),very robust dodger w pockets inside for sunglasses etc.,auto pilot,large bimini,extra large mans dress shirt white, ( cost $1 in good will store)Folding swim ladder on stern w line to deploy if alone,cfc reading light over my bunk ,chain pawl ( no windlass),art work on bulkheads,small folding camp seat modified to fit securely in compaionway( can snooze in it underway while out of the weather and enjoy the heat from the kettle of tea brewing below,Coast guard work suit that is a PFD and can be used as a sleeping bag yet will not chill the wearer if a bump in the night requires attention on deck at O'dark thirty.Cuban fishing reels (more easily deployed and therefor more likely to be in water catching fish) ,propane ( camping gas) 1 pot gimbaled stove that can be viewed from cockpit and with the pots to fit (think asparagus) I use this as much as my fully gimbaled stove with oven.
Almost forgot :bean bag chair or pillow with about 2/3 of styrofoam beans removed,Cd player with speakers topside and below, overall handy craft that I have total confidence in that includes light air asym and 160 genoa on roller ,
solent stay ,weather cloths that give my low freeboard some privacy for solar showers. An understanding wife! A readily accessible rum locker.



So one goes on expecting less and less;and a trifle may become a source of satisfaction .Perhaps this is truly living.---------Vito Dumas

[Andrew Troup]

mrorh

+1 on the chain pawl (ideally built into the bow roller): it's unreal how much stronger this makes even the puniest foredeck crew.

Cuban fishing reels: does this mean "yo-yo" style handline drums? if so, +1. Again

And loaded with decent strong line, that you can retrieve with a sheet winch if you hook into a big dorado or tuna...

And thanks for the tip about destuffing a 'bean-there' bag... I've slept in a few quarter berths which the frames and stringers rendered about as ergonomic as the punishment wing of a Congolese prison.

I also really like your tips about companionways and cookers visible therefrom.

The boat currently taking shape on my drawing board has an oversized "harbour and sheltered waters" hatch, like the tailgate of a big old estate car, with an undersized offshore opening within it, whose lower part in lieu of washboard is permanently attached on hinges, so it swings up and latches shut.

(It's an aluminium build, so it's relatively easy to make such a large hatch sufficiently robust)

That lower part has a concave bench seat for the watchkeeper, and the upper opening is dimensioned so their body will largely block the opening. (Pear shaped opening, so the hips get an easier time of it....)

This way when they lean forward with their arms folded across the top of the opening and lean their head on their hands, the warm air from the cabin will be applied to the majority of their body, and not much will escape.

However it's cunningly designed to be just slippery enough in the right places so if they (inevitably when they, in my case) fall asleep, they slither into the cabin and hang from their tether, feet scrabbling for the sole like a small, snared, furry animal, to encourage future compliance with standing orders.... Bwah hah hah hah ha !

[Bash]

I'm loving this thread!

I used to race an Olson 30 where an MSD was considered a luxury. If you needed to use the head, you were going to have to settle for a bucket.

[Andrew Troup]

The best luxury upgrade I can think of would be to re-equip the boat without any of the items which specialise in failing in remote places.

I'll start the bidding:

SOLENOIDS !

[mrohr]

I forgot to mention a galley salt water foot pump.Frees one hand and makes fresh water last much longer.

The three most useless items aboard a boat: !. an umbrella
2 . a stepladder
3. a naval officer