Filling your boat with 'Stuff'

[Matt341]

We changed boats a few months ago and thought that swapping the stuff from our old boat would be easy as we "drastically" cut down on how much gear we had when we bought that boat 4 years previously. Wrong! The car was full to the roof and the empty boat was now sitting at least half an inch higher in the water (even though the water and fuel was still full). . . . . .!

Currently there are lots of empty lockers and cupboards on the new boat, unfortunately don't think it will stay that way.

 

[Kwik Decision]

Sorry bit of thread drift, what do you use the climbing ropes for? I've got a climbing rope on board as well, I thought it would come in handy for going up the mast, so I replaced my main halyard with the climbing rope, (didn't want to risk damaging my halyard) spent a fortune on ascenders/descenders, and found out I'd bought the wrong type of climbing rope. the rope I have is so stretchy, it's impossible to use the ascenders on, it's like trying to climb up a rubber band. Apparently there is a non stretchy version of climbing rope as well, who knew?

Climbing rope is designed to be stretchy, so when you take a fall, there is plenty of give in it; reduces the shock load on both you and gear you've placed.

Abseiling ropes, or cavers' SRT ropes are low stretch, as is (hopefully) your main halyard. I've climbed our main halyard a few times using SRT ascenders, without causing any damage.

Old climbing ropes may be good for mooring or anchoring, where some stretch is beneficial, but I don't know how long they would last in a marine environment, particularly in sunny parts of the world where uv could be a problem.

 

[oldsaltoz]

I suspect we all end with gear aboard that there 'just in case'.
It's a good idea to remove everything that is not bolted or fixed the boat at least once a year and decide again what is critical what is handy and what is a waste of space and unlikely to be used.

All the time telling yourself that weight will effect the performance, this is more noticeable in heavy weather when you really don't want or need complications.

It's also important to keep the bow and stern light for best performance.

Good luck and fair winds.

 

[ghostlymoron]

Tinned food seems to multiply in the food locker - especially tinned tomatoes. I think every time someone goes shopping they say "Oh and a couple of tins of tomatoes, they're always useful". On the other hand you can never have too many pot noodles.