Keeping crap off the boat

[Auzzee]

There is one woman and one man on my boat. There are two pairs of men's shoes on the boat and twelve pairs of women's shoes (and I only wear the men's). Removing the crap is the easy part...tolerating the other sort of crap, after the fact, is the difficult bit.

[Tayana42]

I don't know how you do it. It seems to me there is a one way current bringing stuff onto the boat and no reversing stream to flush it out. Even when we make the effort once every year or two to remove unused and unnecessary things there always seems to be more than we started with. When we set up the boat to cruise we brought aboard lots of stuff we thought we would need but didn't. Spares for spares, gift items for village children, books, art supplies, pet supplies, bedding for guests, enough oil and filters and coolant and impellers and ... for 9 changes, 27 life jackets of various sizes, forty kinds of glues and patching stuff, tools I know how to use and tools I've only read about. And of course I need lists of what I have and lists of where it is and lists of the lists I've made.

Then there's all the new stuff. Inflatable SUPs, bags and bags of tote bags, hats of every variety, thirty kinds of sun block because each grandchild is sensitive to a different ingredient, toys, squirt guns, shell collections, snorkeling gear and wet suits for everyone we know, children's books that they are now too old for...and they don't live on the boat and only visit for short times a few time a year. Much of this hasn't even made it onto the lists. I could go on and on.

So, since I can't ever stop the growth of stuff on board I guess I'll have to move on to larger and larger boats just to contain the stuff. I think about 300' waterline would do for a while.😘






S/V B'Shert

[Lizzy Belle]

Originally Posted by Auzzee

twelve pairs of women's shoes

Please tell me this was in jest and there's only 4 or 5 or so?

I might be overdoing it a little in the KISS department, but I own:

- 1 pair of booties for winter (ugly and cheap UGG lookalikes, thrown out when sunny and warm enough) OR 1 pair of flip-flops for summer (thrown out when it gets colder)
- 1 pair of sailing boots
- 1 pair of no-idea-what-the-English-term-is 'summer boat shoes'
- 1 pair of shoes for dressing up as a land lubber

As to the clothes:

- A bunch of T-shirts
- 2 pairs of jeans
- one skirt
- one summer dress
- one pair of cut-off jeans
- two warm sweaters for winter
- weeks worth of underwear
- scarf and hat for winter and summer hat & cap

I'm staring at what passes as a 'woman's closet' on my female only boat ... but that's really it. It all fits in my one tiny cabinet

Back in the day, on land, I had a room larger then my entire boat -- just for clothes, shoes etc ... Haha, how things have changed

[bobnlesley]

Take a two year overland trip two-up on a motorcycle before you ever start sail cruising, you'll then wonder what all this fuss about 'too much stuff on the boat' is all about; we've still got acres of locker space.

If you want to do it scientifically might I suggest:
Before your next trip, repair/check all systems ahead of departure and bring aboard a red marker-pen; with the exception of first-aid and tool kits (these remain sacrosanct) mark anything you use on the trip with the red marker and upon your return offload everything without a red mark on it. Repeat for the next trip, but using a blue marker-pen, a green one for the third trip, yellow marker on the fourth, etc, etc. etc. If you're ruthless, then inside a year you should be down to first aid and tool kits, a credit card and a shared multi-coloured toothbrush.

[Rustic Charm]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

I install it
Seems for me at least a lot of crap is "improvements" awaiting installation

yep that is my problem frequently. As mine has been up on the slip for six months and I emptied it and took everything home, I decided not to return ALL those things waiting to be done and I also kept old ropes at home for use on tieing down rubbish on a trailor. I was surprised how many old, damaged ropes I was collecting and I still have plenty. Made a lot of room that did.

[Siberianhusky]

When the boat comes out of the water in the fall I take everything off to boat, I mean everything. Takes a few trips to the boat with the truck in the spring to put everything back on.
LOL I even bring the stove home (origo alcohol it would stay if it was propane)
There is some sanity behind this, condensation can be a problem with a tarped boat and temperature changes over 5 months, clutter and kyfe removal is the added bonus.

[Sandero]

Lizzy you are really cutting to the bone! WOW.... shoes? I have a newish pair of Sebagos... a pair or two of cheapy plastic/rubber croc /clogs... several pair of sailing boats (for guest...) and the deck shoes I wear almost every day. At home I have shoes I never wear so I stopped buying them.

[dwedeking2]

Sell your car. If you have to carry whatever you buy from the store to the boat on foot, you'll buy less.

It's taken me three times in my life to go from having stuff to moving long distance with only a back pack and duffle bag but finally I'm to the point where I don't purchase items without going through a "do I really need it" decision process. Hell, I just turned down free furniture cause "I'll just have to figure out how to get rid of it" when I move onto the boat full time.

[Hudson Force]

We have two children that grew up on board since infancy. The youngest moved off the boat twenty years ago and we still haven't filled the void left from all their stuff removed.

This may be the solution. raise two children aboard and then send them off with all their belongings. You'll bask in the extra space for decades!

[dwedeking2]

and the quiet

[hamburking]

Originally Posted by Tetepare

Pull everything off. That way you can clean while it's off. Do it annually.

+1!

If you don't know where everything is...then its no use when you need it.

Sailing is 80% knowing where stuff is on your boat.

[hamburking]

Originally Posted by dwedeking2

Sell your car. If you have to carry whatever you buy from the store to the boat on foot, you'll buy less.

That is so true. I didn't have a car for 20 years. You don't buy "heavy" stuff. The heaviest stuff is water. You buy concentrate. You buy powders. You buy ingredients, not already prepared. I also switched to hand tools, and ditched all the power tools. Hand tools are so much cheaper, lighter, smaller...and need no electricity. I love my eggbeater drill! Its amazing how little we actually "need"...and its so wonderful to get rid of the rest.

[El Pinguino]

When cleaning out the boat be aware of Ping's First Law of Ballistics.

If I find a wobbledegromit for some unknown bit of kit I just put it away again....

If I chuck it over the side I know that the instant it reachs its maximum altitude and starts heading towards the seabed 5000 metres down I will remember exactly what it is for... and sure enough , I will need it the very next day.

I did have a clean out last year and put the entire insides of the boat in the 1st mate's garage in Auckland..... some of it is still there and now I am getting 'when are you going to take away the rest of this stuff... ' demands.

[chuckr]

We do an inventory about every 2 years -- as full time liveaboards we really do not accumulate a lot of stuff except spare parts. And we got tons of those and still looking for more. We have excel spreadsheets so we can find stuff - ie where did I store those extra joker values, where is the extra fuse to the engine shut off switch?


It also lets us keep up on really necessary disposable spares like filters, we got some dirty fuel in one of our tanks and went through 3 filters in a matter of a few hours. We took a quick look at our inventory list and knew how long we could keep that up - Some parts we have carried for a long time and hope we never have to use them but we know if we do need them we will have it - like a spare fresh water pump - ever have one fail and you can't find one? or how about a dripless shaft bearing - try finding one in Cartagena or Tunisia.


Isn't it really how you use the boat- for weekend close to a chandlery you can load up on personal crap like 27 pairs of shoes - for long distance liveaboards we can skip the shoes and load up with boat parts

[RaymondR]

Originally Posted by dwedeking2

Sell your car. If you have to carry whatever you buy from the store to the boat on foot, you'll buy less.

Don't work.

I ride a pushbike and spend most of my time either anchored or on moorings, that is I have to dingy to and from the boat, and I have a terrible clutter problem.

The damned stuff sneaks on one handful at a time and the next thing you know the boats overflowing.

Regular savage clean outs are the only solution but the problem then becomes finding good homes for all the stuff you take off, marina laundries seem to be good places to "disappear" stuff.