Best place to buy sailing gear?

[zoidberg]

Just a little tongue-in-cheek, but having tried to post a light-hearted comment on a somewhat similar thread - and been thwarted by some sort of Bot 'because it's now closed' ( just like the NHS advisory services ), I'll plonk my pearly wurds of wisdom on here instead...

I've bought so much stuff from these exalted pages over the years that I could easily open a chandlery business.

Just like the Beaulieu Boat Jumble, there's stuff that goes round and round.... My old mate Mike Butterfield brought folding bikes to sell on the AYRS stand, year after year. Then he'd go round the other stands and usually bought a couple of different folding bikes! Until, that is, one of his mates reminded him he'd sold those very f'bikes just a couple of years previously.

We lost a valuable part of our eccentric society when that went 'tizup'.... just like Earl's Court. The world hasn't been the same since!

 

[LittleSister]

I may pick up the baton from your friend. A number of the items I've bought via the For Sale section on here over the years didn't get put into use for various reasons, so I should get my act together and recirculate them.

 

[Poignard]

I would like to think that the For Sale/Wanted section encourages people to subscribe to these forums.

Probably more likely to than posts about cars, old men's ailments, and what they're having for their dinners.

 

[LittleSister]

Speaking of getting my act together, I shall first have to read the book that Poignerd said, on the previous thread now in dry dock, he'd heard Wandsworth had bought. I'll ask Wansy if I can borrow the book from him once he's finished reading it (which I'll assume will be signalled by him buying a boat).

 

[Egret]

Buy from your local chandlery if you can - to keep them going - especially if they have one of those twiddly boxes full of bits of stainless steel where you can buy one bolt - and a box of service parts for old outboards - If you have to buy on line, buy from the local chandlery - otherwise what will you do if, like today, you need a clevis pin shackle to hold the mast up; a dinghy bailer and a halliard rope - now, not tomorrow - also so when the outboard finally gives up you can get another one within an hour.

Sad to see the last chandlery close at West Mersea. Anyone remember Harold and Polly Cutts.

 

[zoidberg]

Let's hear it for Old John Foulkes....

 

[GEM43]

It's twenty five miles to the nearest decent chandlery from here making online shopping invaluable, it all comes by courier. It also makes me think hard about what I'll need in the coming few days and I have to carry a comprehensive chandlery stock on board.

I find the East Coast online chandlers to be the all rounder best suppliers, not necessarily the cheapest. It is surprising how a relationship can be built up with online shops, it keeps me loyal to just a few suppliers. How stuff can be purchased online then delivered from 500 miles away in to my hand in less than eighteen hours still amazes me.

 

[Poignard]

Let's hear it for Old John Foulkes....

And Captain O. M. Watts.

 

[LittleSister]

How stuff can be purchased online then delivered from 500 miles away in to my hand in less than eighteen hours still amazes me.

I've told before about how I once ordered a small part I needed quickly, and hopefully the next day, from ASAP Supplies, who I'd had good service from before and who had a warehouse at Beccles, just 25 miles by road from where I then lived in Norwich. I was chuffed to see it had been despatched that afternoon, then in the evening that it had arrived in the delivery company's Norwich depot. Then to my horror before I went to bed it updated again to say it was now on its way to their Birmingham depot!

Fortunately, by the time I got up next day, it showed as having arrived in Birmingham, then been transported back, and was now in their Norwich depot again. It was duly delivered to me that morning, and i was able to get to the boat and fit it that afternoon.

I hope it enjoyed its mysterious night-time 320 mile round trip to Birmingham!

 

[[70521]]

How stuff can be purchased online then delivered from 500 miles away in to my hand in less than eighteen hours still amazes me.

Thankfully, we have moved on from the stage coach.

Along the quiet lanes of Cornwall and Devon vans, with names such as DHL, Parcel Force and Amazon, can be seen zooming along at speeds well in excess of 70 mph. And much like the influx of summer tourists from 'up north' the drivers have no idea what an indicator stalk or reverse gear is used for.

Sadly, unlike home* were there are laybys marked with white diamonds every few hundred metres the lanes of Cornwall and Devon have solid three metre hedges and grass growing down the middle of the roads. Which makes driving in summer more like a 'spaghetti western' than a enjoyable experience.

*home = the West Highlands of Scotland.

 

[GEM43]

Thankfully, we have moved on from the stage coach.

Along the quiet lanes of Cornwall and Devon vans, with names such as DHL, Parcel Force and Amazon, can be seen zooming along at speeds well in excess of 70 mph. And much like the influx of summer tourists from 'up north' the drivers have no idea what an indicator stalk or reverse gear is used for.

Sadly, unlike home* were there are laybys marked with white diamonds every few hundred metres the lanes of Cornwall and Devon have solid three metre hedges and grass growing down the middle of the roads. Which makes driving in summer more like a 'spaghetti western' than a enjoyable experience.

*home = the West Highlands of Scotland.

Home for me is West Devon, my garden looks across the Tamar Valley in to Cornwall, i live amongst the narrow lanes and indeed there is grass in the middle of the lane that comes in to the hamlet.

I don't find the problems that you describe with delivery drivers, in fact I've come to know a few of them and invariably get a friendly wave. It is just impossible to do 70mph down our lanes, some might touch 40mph which is way too fast. It is the people in cars who are incapable of reversing that are the menace, there are a surprising number of them.

The only notable two accidents in our local parish of late are 1) boozed up youngsters out of Tavistock crashing headlong in to my neighbours 4x4, they were fortunate not to die, and 2) a local retired resident on his classic motorcycle was knocked off it by a tractor coming out of a field gate with the front loader protruding well out in to the road.

If I find I'm being tailgated by an angry driver in the lanes the easy solution is to slow down, they soon learn.

 

[Cerebus]

Yes boat jumbles used to be great places to buy good equipment at reasonable or even cheap prices.

Ebay may still be good. I have not bought much in the last few years.

I am not familiar with other online or social platforms.

 

[ashtead]

The real issue buying online for clothes is that fit sometimes isn’t as expected. If looking for budget clothing Decathlon seem well stocked . I think for non clothing online via Amazon works well or direct -bought a windscoop the other day plus some pole springs (the scrubber pole tree) from online provider and was impressed with delivery and packing quality (loads of bubbly wrap )even if charge for delivery .

 

[seeSimon]

Home for me is West Devon, my garden looks across the Tamar Valley in to Cornwall, i live amongst the narrow lanes and indeed there is grass in the middle of the lane that comes in to the hamlet.

I don't find the problems that you describe with delivery drivers, in fact I've come to know a few of them and invariably get a friendly wave. It is just impossible to do 70mph down our lanes, some might touch 40mph which is way too fast. It is the people in cars who are incapable of reversing that are the menace, there are a surprising number of them.

The only notable two accidents in our local parish of late are 1) boozed up youngsters out of Tavistock crashing headlong in to my neighbours 4x4, they were fortunate not to die, and 2) a local retired resident on his classic motorcycle was knocked off it by a tractor coming out of a field gate with the front loader protruding well out in to the road.

If I find I'm being tailgated by an angry driver in the lanes the easy solution is to slow down, they soon learn.

Living as we do some 40 mile from the nearest "boat shop", and at the end of a bumpy track in the middle of darkest Kernow (home for 40 years now, and I was born here) we are these days totally reliant for most things on these "van men". Like it or not...
They have my greatest sympathy, and do a difficult job! Sometimes too fast, but we should perhaps blame their bosses (and our unreasonable expectations?) For at least some of that?

Even when they do eventually arrive, there's nowhere to park, and the house is up a very steep lane, too narrow for long vans. We were "black listed" by Tesco after they damaged their van for the third time!

That said, I do notice a great deal of bullying In the lanes these days...particularly when I'm using my wife's 2025 shiny little shopping car. Most van, 4x4 and posh SUV drivers will bully a little car into reversing for them.

Made worse by the current UK fashion/tax fiddle of folk using what should be commercial vehicles (crew cab Transits/Transporters and pickups) as family transport.

However...Not so when I'm driving my 20 YO Ford focus estate "boat/garden shed" , where most of the car is badly scratched and dented...even the roof...even the rust.... Cost £1000, 3 years ago...
Once they get close enough to realise most reverse promptly. If not my cheery hail of "I'm feeling lucky, shall I try to squeeze thru?" Usually does the trick .

My knowing the lanes well, and so stopping early...in the wide bits...is best. But sometimes it's hard to resist taking my revenge on a shiny new Range Rover or smugmobile Tesla.

On topic.
I find Decathalon sailing clothing to be excellent quality, at very reasonable prices.