Those Simple Ideas Liveaboards Have to Improve Life

[Roy M]

SUGRU (Top 10 DIY Miracles You Can Accomplish with Sugru) is an amazing product with gazillions of uses. It's a putty that you form with your fingers that sticks stuff together, protects from sharp edges and hard impacts, and becomes your favorite go-to solution to everyday life improvements. I, especially, like using it to protect my noggin from those acorn nuts that one finds around deck hatches on the boat.

[Tayana42]

Plastic spring clips like these from Home Depot http://www.homedepot.com/p/BESSEY-As...14PC/205512956 are useful for many things. Holding laundry on lifelines, clamping glued projects, attaching extra cloth to the bimini as the sun gets low, drying gloves, holding flashlights on rails or lines,etc.

Another tip is to have two long spring grabbers. http://www.homedepot.com/p/Husky-25-...UT25/204765594. One to use when you drop stuff into the bilge or under the engine. The other one is to reach the first one when you drop it in the bilge or under the engine.


S/V B'Shert

[mwells]

I noticed in a earlier posting in this thread, that Goosebumps mentioned having a manual windless. I have a 27 foot Hunter; most of my sailing is single handled. Pulling the anchor manually has been a struggle; might be related to age................

I'm interested in finding out who is using a manual windlass and what manufacturer etc. I prefer keeping it simple and not having to run wiring to the bow.........like to hear thoughts from others.

Mike

[hamburking]

Originally Posted by Hudson Force

This topic has a huge potential for interesting responses. I'll toss this one into the mix.

When I have an old cylindrical fender that no longer functions, I cut the ends off and slit it lengthwise to produce a tough rectangular pad that I can use for protection against chafe or form a cushioning mat. I also keep an old fender cut in half to slip over the propeller and foot of my outboard when I raise the foot at a shallow dinghy dock. This keeps my prop from damaging other inflatables or knocking against rocks.

I use old fenders as swings hanging from a backyard tree. Far superior to anything you can buy at a store. Kids love 'em. My old jib sheets make a nice line for hanging them too.

[Goosebumps]

Concerning stainless steel on yacht, I use car polish mixed with vim, after 9 years liveaboard on cat built in 1987, my Ss shines as new.

[Goosebumps]

Maybe good simple idea to organize the information we get as reaction to this topic in an accessible form.

[zengirl]

Originally Posted by 1oldbuzzard

Re. Fenders, Dinghy, non skid, Oh my,

If you have a fender that leaks I have filled them with expanding foam. It makes it pretty firm at first but useable but after time the foam will start to crumble and the fender will be more flexible.

Once I had an old inflatable dinghy that was well worn at the aft end of the pontoons. I got a syringe and injected "tool Dip" at a point where it leaked so I didnt make a new hole. Then I rolled the dink around to distribute the stuff, added a little air to force it into the leaks from the inside and let it harden. Voila.....

I once painted the inside of my anchor locker with truck bed liner. 2 coats. Just put it on with a roller. Easy. I could only find it in black but I looked at the company website and it is used on the decks of fishing boats and comes in other colors. I bought a gallon of white and it comes in a kit with the roller. I used it for my whole deck on my 32' sailboat. About 110.00 for the whole boat.

Was deck slippery from it? Thanks

[wrwakefield]

Read The BoatGalley.com


-Bill
SV Denali Rose

[redhead]

On our old boat all the lockers, cabinets and drawers are built of wood and very deep. Once I put something in I couldn't find it, too dark. I'm in the process of painting them with white mildew inhibitor primer and then white gloss paint. Now that its lighter I can find what I want immediately, the contrast in color makes it much easier.

Added benefit is I can wipe it down when I need to, much easier to clean.

[jheldatksuedu]

One of my best good ideas is using 3 liter pop bottles to store food stuff, basically anything that can fit in the larger opening. Unfortunately I notice the green dollar store with a tree where I buy these just switched to 2.75 liter with 2 liter size caps. Luckily I already have a good supply. If you see them someplace else let us know. Everything from sugar, flour, powdered milk, macaroni, oats, and a couple dozen more goes in them. The caps are 1.5 inches in diameter with a 1.125 inch opening. The bottles are almost indestructible, I've used the regular pop bottles for backpacking water bottles for many years, crush them flat to pack them out and then blow them back up to refill many times, and never had a failure.


I describe these and lots more on my website.

Good ideas.

Check out all the screw on ends I've made for my boat hook pole. I like these kinds of threads. The manual windlass I use is a Simpson Lawrence 555, I have 2 of them on the boat, one on the stern, I bought the 2nd one mainly as parts for the main one, but decided a good place to keep it would be mounted and useful. I keep an anchor and chain ready to toss off the stern if it looks like I'm going aground with no other hope. I also often anchor bow and stern in a river. I want to find a Fortress 55 or 85 as a kedge anchor, something I can row out and manhandle but large enough to grab and pull against. I have far too many anchors right now but haven't decided which ones will not travel with me.

My dingy outboard, when I'm not rowing, which is my normal mode, will be a trolling motor head and a separate weedeater motor permanently connected to a tiny 12v car generator. The generator can also do lots more stuff. The main thing on a live aboard boat is to make things serve as many purposes as possible, and have things store away small and be simple.

Jon

[Cadence]

Originally Posted by skipmac

Good ideas. I think lots of people don't understand that an AC switch will work for DC and vice versa, as long as the switch power rating is adequate for the load.

I also keep a collection of those connectors (wire nuts) on board for another use. When installing new lights or other electrical stuff they are handy for temporarily connecting the wires for testing or just to keep the wires out of the way until you're ready do a proper, permanent connection.

Thanks for the tip on wire nuts as a cap. I'm not that positive on the switches since DC tends to arc on contacts as AC doesn't as much. Someone smarter than I may be able to comment. It seems relay contacts are crowned for one and not for the other. I know, relay what the hell is that?

[grantmc]

Originally Posted by mwells

I noticed in a earlier posting in this thread, that Goosebumps mentioned having a manual windless. I have a 27 foot Hunter; most of my sailing is single handled. Pulling the anchor manually has been a struggle; might be related to age................

I'm interested in finding out who is using a manual windlass and what manufacturer etc. I prefer keeping it simple and not having to run wiring to the bow.........like to hear thoughts from others.

Mike

I don’t have a windless, manual or otherwise, and I have a 26 foot boat and often sail single handed. Like you Mike I struggled with the anchor. You may have noticed that some people have a buoy tied to their anchor, particularly in congested anchorages. It helps to prevent others from setting their anchor and rode over yours, plus it has the benefit of always knowing where your anchor is in relation to your boat.

But the biggest advantage is that when the anchor gets stuck, pulling it up by the buoy line directly is usually very easy because the angle of pull is different. After needing to do this a couple of times I found it was much easier to pull up the anchor directly by the buoy line than pulling everything up the conventional way. It is also much lighter because you don’t have the weight of the boat pulling on the chain and you’re pulling on far less a length of chain. Basically you’re just pulling on the anchor plus the length of chain equivalent to the depth where the chain is.

In the picture they’ve included a weight on the anchor buoy. I’ve personally never bothered. A couple of issues though are that using this system makes anchoring a tad more complex, and you can experience tangles.

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by mwells

I noticed in a earlier posting in this thread, that Goosebumps mentioned having a manual windless. I have a 27 foot Hunter; most of my sailing is single handled. Pulling the anchor manually has been a struggle; might be related to age................

I'm interested in finding out who is using a manual windlass and what manufacturer etc. I prefer keeping it simple and not having to run wiring to the bow.........like to hear thoughts from others.

Mike

I'm finally getting a windlass on my IP38, I have a Rocna 33 I believe and 50' of 3/8 chain rest rope rode.
That sometimes is more than I can manhandle, I have occasionally used my Genoa sheet winch to get the thing up, works better than you may think.
Not for all chain rode of course

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by Cadence

... I'm not that positive on the switches since DC tends to arc on contacts as AC doesn't as much ...

Exactly.

When it comes to switches, the big difference between AC and DC is that AC naturally has "current zeros" twice a cycle (120 times per second), whereas DC doesn't.

As you open the contacts, you'll draw an arc until there's a current zero which obviously means it extinguishes. Assuming the current and voltage are somewhat in phase, the voltage across the contacts at the time will also be relatively low. This gives the ionized air formed by the arc some time to dissipate before the voltage rises to a maximum, and so the air gap should hold.

With DC, there are no current zeros. You have to break the current by separating the contacts across so much air that the voltage isn't enough to maintain the ionized path. This means that the AC rating of a switch would be much higher than its DC rating (if given).

[jldunn86]

Originally Posted by Hudson Force

This topic has a huge potential for interesting responses. I'll toss this one into the mix.

When I have an old cylindrical fender that no longer functions, I cut the ends off and slit it lengthwise to produce a tough rectangular pad that I can use for protection against chafe or form a cushioning mat. I also keep an old fender cut in half to slip over the propeller and foot of my outboard when I raise the foot at a shallow dinghy dock. This keeps my prop from damaging other inflatables or knocking against rocks.

most excellent...thanks