Are people becoming useless

Well I hand out out with a bunch of long term liveaboard cruisers and most of them fix stuff themselves sometimes dipping into the collective pool of knowledge for help and diagnostic ideas. I have always fixed my stuff if I can, partially because it made good economic sense but also I like knowing ' How Stuff Works'.

But cars are getting too complex for me to do much with beyond an oil change. Fortunately the boat engine is a simple old Perkins.

Like the OP I am bemused by the people who cruise in far away places but have to call out a marine engineer to adjust their fan belts. Better still are the ones who pay someone to fly out and fix their boat because they don't trust the locals.

So are people becoming useless. It is not as simple as 'becoming'. You need to learn to puzzle out ' How Stuff Works' and how to use tools. I was lucky growing up in a garage with access to lathes and welders and a father who knew how to use them. I picked up stuff by osmosis. Also in days gone by more stuff was 'fixable'. I can remember the dismay when the radio I listened to Radio Luxembourg died, but it was easy to spot the tube that did not glow and was blackened go down to the TV repair shop in the High Street and buy a new one. Try and find a TV repair man today never mind diagnose a fault on a modern coms device.
 
Last edited:
I don't think skills have reduced; they have simply changed. The sort of people who thirty years ago would have thought nothing of taking the head off their Escort to give it a decoke now pay the garage to service their Polo, and get on with configuring a new router and NAS before writing a new blog entry. It's too easy to assume that the skills of our your are the pinnacle of human attainment ... when I rebuild my Herald engine an older friend of mine was slightly dismissive because I wasn't scraping in white metal bearings using engineer's blue.

I've just changed a toilet float valve, by the way. And what a horrible, nasty, flimsy piece of **** the replacement was. I give it three years.
 
TQA said:
I am bemused by the people who cruise in far away places but have to call out a marine engineer to adjust their fan belts.
Click to expand...

I know of a (v rich) skipper who was in Ushuaia in the Beagle Channel. His satellite broadband failed. The nearest Thrane engineer was in Panama. He paid the engineer's air fare - approx $4000

The engineer came on board, waggled the plugs for fifteen minutes and got it working again.

Then he flew home.
 
Sitting eating dinner the other evening the phone rang. Neighbors wife, could I help her with a flat tyre?

She was 15 minutes up the road in a lay-bye outside a school, not the school lay-bye she originally told me on the phone.

Ford focus, reasonably new. It took all of about 3 minutes to jack the car, change the wheel and get the car on the road again.

She reckoned she had a puncture, I could tell by the 3 magnificent distortions of the inner rim that she made a habit of hitting Sussex potholes and it was asking too much of the tyre to maintain pressure against the rim.

Beyond me how some people make it past adolescence! Damned elf and safety will supersede natural selection ensuring that everyone survives and the human race will get more thick as time moves on!
 
GrahamM376 said:
Surprisingly big bangs from a bit of weed killer and a couple of other ingredients and some metal pipe or, bin liners full of oxy and acet. Try doing it these days and your collar will be felt big-time! Much of the fun has gone.
Click to expand...

Were you at school in Yorshire with me by any chance? :)

We knew our days were numbered even in the 60's when our elecrically triggered explosive experiments featured in the local paper. At our next "bomb club" (I kid you not!) meeting deep in the woods an adult voice suddenly rang out "OK lads, we've got you surrounded". One of the gang shouted "split" and we all scattered in different directions. We knew those woods like the back of our hands and, luckily, the police did not. When we met up later we had all got away but that was our last meeting.

Richard
 
pvb said:
Interesting theory! I used to play with Meccano, built plastic kits, built balsa planes, built RC boats, etc, as a kid. Then lots of DIY car work. I've always loved taking things apart and putting them back together. As a result, I can confidently tackle almost any job around the house or boat. A lot of younger people just grew up with the telly on, and never developed any practical skills.
Click to expand...

That's me through and through too. The only downside I find is that having a good working knowledge of things also means you know how they can fail. That sometimes plays on my mind when less knowledgeable (ignorant?) people can continue worry and carefree.

It's easy to be lazy today too. One of my secretaries asked if I knew how to replace the brake bulb in her car. I told her that if she still couldn't do it after reading the handbook then I'd help her. She managed!
 
One of my pleasant memories from the days of work is of the day when a young work partner failed to remove the nuts from the punctured wheel of a car belonging to a receptionist. Although he was a foot taller than me and a lot younger and heftier, he had given up and was calling the AA when I applied my puny muscles to the brace and took the nuts off with no trouble at all.
 
Resolution said:
By wonderful coincidence, yesterday I took a lump hammer to my computer......................in order to destroy the hard drive before taking it off to the skip. VERY satisfying!
Click to expand...

Running the drive over a "Sea Searcher" magnet does an excellent job of erasing it, if not quite as entertainingly.
 
I was proud of myself recently......

I had previously got a Volvo engineer / dealer to replace both belts on my D4 as a) I was new to that engine. b) it "needed" a special tool to release the tension on the compressor belt. The "engineer" just used brute force and ended up replacing it incorrectly.

So I tried to track down/borrow the Volvo specialist tool used to clamp the tensioner with no joy.

So, I fabricated one. And it worked a treat!!

I am used to doing as much as I can - so far this year I've replaced the cabin headling, fitted a new Lewmar Cabin Hatch, fixed a failing Eberspacher, replaced all the seacocks, fitted a electronic chain counter, fitted a GSM Alarm system along with other general maintenance.

Certainly I am a bit of a "freak" at my marina, where most people have limited knowledge/skills to do any of their own maintenance.

Personally, doing the maintenance/improvements is one of the reasons I have boat. In fact when I had fixed all the things on my previous boat - and fitted all the other new toys I wanted, I knew it was time to change the boat!
 
Last edited:
Folks it's as simple as this, (and I'm sure many of you are in the same situation). If I did not do it all myself I simply would not have a boat as I could not afford to pay someone else to do all the work.
 
Keith-i said:
That's me through and through too. The only downside I find is that having a good working knowledge of things also means you know how they can fail. That sometimes plays on my mind when less knowledgeable (ignorant?) people can continue worry and carefree.
Click to expand...

Well, as someone with 30+ years knowledge of maps and electronic navigation techniques, I find people's reliance on electronic navigation rather worrying! And their faith that charts are accurate is a bit of a concern, too.
 
I'm certainly NOT going to boast of my varied craft skills. Not because I don't have any ( except they're usually somewhat less than Master Craftsman Exhibition standard ), but because every time I finish a home DIY project - like building and fitting a new oak door frame to receive an ill-fitting internal oak door Milady bought in a fit of misplaced confidence, or opening up and lining out a loftspace to create a new room, or levelling and laying the new solid plank flooring - Milady simply adds another task to the 'Urgent' and 'Soon' list.

So I've learned the hard way to be not very good at DIY. That way I don't get asked quite as much.....
 
RichardS said:
Were you at school in Yorshire with me by any chance? :)Richard
Click to expand...

No, nearer to Stockport but setup with friends very similar much to neighbours annoyance. Found my school reports after my father died, silly sod had kept them maybe to shame me at some point. Chemistry master, term after term commented "apparently only interested in explosive compounds" which about summed it up.
 
Here's a bit of "keep it going" DIY, which may be useful if anyone else finds themselves in the situation. Morse throttle contol cable bust and we were heading for a marina. The break left us with just tickover but working gears. Our cables being solid core, the ends would push against each other to close the throttle but obviously wouldn't open it. After scratching head for a few minutes, the solution was to wind a few turns of bungee around it to open the throttle, using pressure on the morse to close it. Managed to berth with no problems. Photo below.
 
oldbilbo said:
I'm certainly NOT going to boast of my varied craft skills. Not because I don't have any ( except they're usually somewhat less than Master Craftsman Exhibition standard ), but because every time I finish a home DIY project - like building and fitting a new oak door frame to receive an ill-fitting internal oak door Milady bought in a fit of misplaced confidence, or opening up and lining out a loftspace to create a new room, or levelling and laying the new solid plank flooring - Milady simply adds another task to the 'Urgent' and 'Soon' list.

So I've learned the hard way to be not very good at DIY. That way I don't get asked quite as much.....
Click to expand...

I seem to have forgotten how to build cupboards, shelves, cabinets and other storage through a similar process. Every time I built a unit it would instantly fill with 'stuff'.

Minimallist? Round here? Never! :(
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top