Lists of Lists

[Charlie]

Hello All:

I'm sure that many of you are going thru the same thing that I am. List after list after list of things to do on your boat not to mention work, home, family,etc. I decided that I would start making up lists of everything on the boat the name, model number, where it is stored(that is important since I am one place and the boat is another). I started with the sailing rigging. Halyard length, Jib sheet length, forestay length, etc. I'm happy to share this list, which is rather generic, and if anyone has things to add to it I wouldn't object to putting it on the list. Eventually what I see is a number of lists that members could go to and customize to their own boat by adding or deleting items. Sometimes it is just easier to take someone elses list and make a few mods than to make your own. Some of the items you might not know -- for instance how long is your forestay -- I don't know -- but I am gathering prices for redoing my standing rigging so it would be nice to know. Next time I get to the boat I will see if I can get some of those measurements. With a list I might write it down. W/o one it'll just be a nice thought that I forgot about while daydreaming about sailing when I should have been working.

Rather than reinvent the wheel I thought I would ask if any of you had a list that might be useful or modified to be useful.

Here is my first list:

VESSEL PARTICULARS.doc

I have this in Excell format so email me if you want it that way

[Lynx]

Not about to tell you. It really depends on how old your boat is and where you will go cruising and what you "need" to go cruising.

First go through everything with a very fine detail and replace what is bad.

A few good book ideas are -
Cruising Encyclopedia Vol II
Why Didn't I Think of That
Cruising on a Budget
Sail Away by Paul Chard and wife
Go through these, Mark what you want to do and make a wish list. Put some water miles on your boat. A few months latter, Go through your wish list and see if you still want to do them.

[S/V Elusive]

A "List of Lists" ... hummm

There is the ever-popular "To Do" list ... and, unless you are rich and have lots of others work on your boat, it always gets longer, not shorter.

I have a list of all the places I could possibly stow something on the boat. And this is a boat built to go cruising, so there are LOTS of places. I then assigned a quasi-mnemonic letter number designation to each place. Then the INVENTORY List!!! whoo hoo ... Hint: do not attempt to do a complete inventory until you are real close to leaving - it just won't stay the same. When you are close to leaving - then, using your LIST of locations, burrow into each location and record what you have there. Oh, and remember those things you were looking for four weeks ago and then decided to go buy new???

I have a LIST of documents needed, their numbers, contact info, and expiration dates. I use an EXCEL spreadsheet for this (and most other lists) with conditional formatting that allows me at a quick glance to see what is due or nearing a due date.

I have a list of all equipment that is part of the boat: Serial numbers, model numbers, sizes, when purchased (and sometimes where), replacement/rebuild kit numbers, consumables (i.e. filter elements, special oil types, belts, etc.). This is in an indexed WORD document. Real handy to have when you visit someplace and you think: "... is that the size of ????? that I need?"

Food lists - wow ... let me give you a hint on this: pick specific places to stow things, and except for seldom used items, forgetaboutit. Keep a running list of things you want to get next trip ashore/to market. But don't try and keep an inventory.

Although technically not a list, there are my logs. While living my 'tied-to-a-slip' life, the only log that I keep up is my standard boat log. Anything significant that I do on boat, any trip I make, any significant event or sighting or radio contact, goes into the log.

All these lists are 'short-cutted' and on my 'desktop' (this is Microsoftese and means I can click on a little icon on my screen and the list opens up). ALL important files (including pictures) are backed up and easily transported on one of those nice little (about the size of a tube of lipstick) USB drives (1 GB).

Now isn't this WAY more than you wanted to know?

[Charlie]

Thomas:

What you have is what I am looking at doing. I started by just going through the rigging. Next I'm going to go thru the systems and write down make model etc. From there storage areas. I am also diagraming my boat on a Cad program so I can have different layers for plumbing, electrical, storage, etc. I also bought a label maker so that I can attach a label to the items that tells where it is supposed to be stored. Right now the boat is mostly empty so I am figuring on labeling as I add things to the boat. To some this may sound anal but I live 1000 miles away from my boat and this may be an ongoing condition b/c I want to cruise but the family isn't keen on passages. So it may be I move the boat with friends and then the family meets me. Then we secure the boat somewhere and leave it for a few months. All the more important to thave the lists. I'll share some of my lists as they get created and try to make them as generic as possible.

[S/V Elusive]

Charlie - yes .. I pulled the diagram of the boat from the owner's forum site and that gives a general outline, but won't show specifics of each storage area - the mnemonic descriptors should also have a key so that you don't forget what they stand for (in Excel, you can use the 'notes' feature for a particular cell).

You'll find that over the course of years, you'll need to make specific diagrams of each system (I use Visio for that). Having an overall is fine for the major systems (which hopefully you won't have to mess with), but for the specifics, like the 'forward head plumbing and electrical', the 'fuel distribution', and maybe 'mast sub-panel' or the 'navigation sub-panel', you'll want separate diagrams and layouts for them, rather than a more complex all inclusive diagram.

In MY opinion, every boat is different and while the generic IDEA can be passed on for use by anyone, more specifics for one boat, probably won't translate well to another.