Double Standards when it comes to the boat!

[Nostrodamus]

I will hold my hands up and fully admit to having double standards here.

We are continually reassessing what should and should not be on the boat for space. Do we really need this or that and why should my wife need more that one dress and one pair of shoes.

When it comes to boat bits things are different. I can't seem to throw away a bit of old line, an old pump or nearly anything boat related. We have got so many pieces of old line (I have hidden around the boat).

Is it just me who hoards old boat bits and lines "just in case" or can you easily throw things away?

 

[Robert Wilson]

I never throw away "old line" and rarely any bits of wood. Not all of it is on the boat, of course, but my "ex-car chandlery building attached to the side of the house" attest to my "borrowers" mentality.
And will I ever need all those miscelaneous screws, washers, nails, bits of tube etc etc that reside in that BIG tin on the end of my work bench? WORK bench - ha ha; no room for work with all the clutter!

On the boat I seem to have more torches than Halfords, and tinned food - just in case I get marooned, becalmed, impounded or even have visitors!

 

[Talulah]

You reach the state where you have so much in the way of spares it's quicker and easier to go and buy another one instead of rummaging around looking for the one you know you have.

 

[Downsman]

It's necessary to have some self discipline here folks. I decided that all 'spares' would have to fit into a cheap plastic tool box. When the box was full anything else went ashore to the dustbin. Strangely, I now have three cheap plastic tool boxes on board...

 

[JumbleDuck]

You reach the state where you have so much in the way of spares it's quicker and easier to go and buy another one instead of rummaging around looking for the one you know you have.

Are you me?

 

[Sandy]

Camelia is now 1/2 a tonne lighter as I've removed all the junk that came with her and was not used last summer.

 

[dancrane]

Camelia is now 1/2 a tonne lighter as I've removed all the junk that came with her and was not used last summer.

Well done. I wish I could focus the same anti-hoarding/hoping mentality to a dinghy, where weight is a perpetual issue. Our flat's airing-cupboard holds a big tool case filled with cleats, blocks, shackles, odd bits of line, even one or two tools...and I've a rucksack crammed with excellent rope, none of which is quite the right diameter/length for any job aboard...

...there's a shoe-box filled with sailcloth, needles, thread, patches...and several large, heavy bags containing paint-pots, acetone, epoxy, paint-stripper, GRP repair & gelcoat filler.

It's almost possible that the bits which maintain/service the boat, weigh more than the boat. Their cost and the time I've spent sourcing and using them, far exceeds that which I've spent afloat. Madness.

 

[RAI]

I discovered a good way of getting rid of some of useful junk - simply give it away to others on the pontoon. I have increased my stock considerably that way.

 

[Tomahawk]

There is also the exchange rate.. Boat money and other money..

£300 for a halyard is a bargain.
£90 each for spinnaker shackles are cheap (=£180)
£120 for sailing boots is good value…


£300 for a dress is a wast of money
£90 for shoes, what are you mad, you do't need to spend that much
£!20 fo a jacket is way too much…



This is First Officer talking not me

 

[Blueboatman]

Its a good question.

Oddly I thought there wasnt really much stowage aboard my boat when I bought it, Completely crackers, there is oodles of it.Which is just as well really.

'Tis a brave man who removes the spare alternator, starter, oars, a sail, corkscrew, er...

I have never used the natty collection of winch covers though...which continue to gather dust in 'a safe place ashore'..RESULT

 

[johnalison]

I am entirely consistent. My boat and my garages show precisely the same level of entropy.

 

[Vara]

Have just conducted a purge on Vara and removed 2 boot loads of stuff that hasn't been used for 2 years, some of it goes back 25 years to previous boats, haven't thrown it away though, now got a congested shed!

 

[JumbleDuck]

I am entirely consistent. My boat and my garages show precisely the same level of entropy.

My garage/workshop is so full that fitting an extra M6 nut requires major reorganisation, and so disorganised that there are probably cars, boats and native tribes undiscovered in its depths. My desk is probably somewhere under the pile of papers in front of me as I type. But put a sppon the wrong way round in the box of the boat and I'll start twitching. Entropy? Helium liquefies spontaneously in there.

 

[Spyro]

Not so much junk on the boat but I tend to take it home and it lives in the garage......just in case. Funny thing is despite the appearance of being a disorganised mess I know where everything is and can usually lay my hand on it, now ask me to find the butter in the fridge that is another matter......

 

[Tam Lin]

I can identify with a lot of these posts! I have no garage at this house so bought a shed. So much stuff in it I went and bought another shed for storage but I still can't get into my first shed! Time for a serious clear out, I'll start today! After all, do I really need all those old sockets and light switches etc? They are probably there because they were replaced as they were not working properly in the first place.
Also identify with going to buy something instead of spending time looking for it. If something new comes into our house it has to be put in a safe place otherwise it is lost for ever!

 

[john_morris_uk]

We have a major opportunity coming up as Serendipity is COMPLETELY destowed at the moment. The yard insisted that EVERYTHING was removed from her when she went in for repairs. It's all stowed in a room in the yard and took me over two days to achieve. I am full of good intentions regarding putting back only what's really required.... Time will tell as I always know that there are no shops out at sea and mending and making needs materials. Am I really going to throw out the sheet of gasket that 'might be needed'? Etc etc

 

[Tomahawk]

Sam here.. Tomahawk is totally empty to do a bit of internal fibre glass work… (dust in teh bedding goes down badly)..

I wonder if we will manage to keep her so empty.., I weighed stuff as it came off….. best part of 3/4 of a tonne !!!!

 

[Tidewaiter2]

I have read this Thread-a blinding light has shone on me- I AM NOT ALONE

Fortunately, our Eldest Son has just bought his first home-a fixer up in E13, so all my screw and fixing hoards are with him, as are the decorating rollers, spare tins of emulsion, etc, etc, plus my last decent cordless drill- No2 Son has the other one already, and the tiling gear.

Unfortunately, SWMBO took up woodturning on retirement, and I can't see the space I gained in the wood/chandlery store formerly known as the garage-all these chisels and billets of wood suddenly turned up.

I remember when we sold our 20', there was 6" of daylight under the transom when cleared for sale, and the saloon of the 37' was full up!
Took two days to unload and reload/stow all that!

I think the more you cruise, the more you realise what can go wrong, so keep old impellers, belts, torque wrenches, long sockets, spare halliard lengths,warps, lamp wicks and so on JIC you get stuck.
My claim to sailing fame is that I nearly lent a long socket to Saint Tom of Cunliffe up the Beaulieu- the advance guard of our Club Rally said " Wait for Dick to get here, he'll have a 3/8ths Gribley thread long socket for Westermann's boom end".

Alas, T2 is a slow sailer in light winds, and he had found one in a mates shed by the time we got to the mid river pontoons:distress:
Woe, Woe, and thrice Woe

 

[Ripster]

All sounds too familiar. A typical thing for me is needing a part I thought I had, but couldn't find at the time even after 30 mins of searching all the places I thought I would have put it. So went to chandlery bought two, one as a spare for the future. When choosing a clever (won't lose it again) place to keep the new spare, the place I chose immediately uncovered the one from last time that I had lost!

 

[JumbleDuck]

I can identify with a lot of these posts! I have no garage at this house so bought a shed.

I have just taken on a new rented store/workshop. About 30' x 15', two levels. This could be a very good thing or a very bad thing.