Sailing knife

[Twister_Ken]

Boatergeists

Also known as bilges. When I got deep down and dirty with mine when the engine was out, I found about £3 in loose change, a pocket torch (heavily corroded), countless nuts, screws, etc, and a girt big screwdriver which is the perfect length to act as a dipstick for the diesel tank.

Oh, and about a bucket and a half of black gunk, that smelt like the private parts of a 3-week-dead camel.

Deep bilges - don'cha love them!

 

[claymore]

Re: Sailing knife - lifesaver?

I've seen these and always wondered if they were there to repel boarders. They look so large and aggressive - modern whitewater canoeists have taken to looking like action man as well our police - what on earth do they put in all those pockets?

regards
Claymore

 

[claymore]

Re: Boatergeists

I wonder if there is only one that we all share or whether we get our own personal one.
A friend of mine had been using his boat for a little liason and thought he'd hidden his condominiums somewhere safe - anyway - the boatergeist shifted them to the anchor locker where they were found by his wife as they were cleaning the boat out for the winter - 2 days later his liason told him she was pregnant.
This story did not have the happiest of endings

regards
Claymore

 

[qsiv]

Re: Sailing knife - lifesaver?

Ah - but if you really,really need to cut a spinnaker free in a hurry they are most useful. See me after class to discuss the £400 or so that a new halyard costs, thats all!

 

[Mirelle]

Re: What are they used for?

A very good question!

I use my knife for cutting rope and twine. I have an elderly boat which uses rather more "sticks and string" than modern ones, and uses old fashioned three strand coradge which the owner can easily splice. Furthermore, on this type of boat, one quite often lashes things - for example, the mainsail is lashed to the boom and the gaff, both anchors are lashed to their chocks on the foredeck, the dinghy is lashed to the coachroof, sundry coils of rope are lashed up in the forepeak, and so on, and a knife is useful both in making a lashing of the right length and in cutting it in an emergency!

Very occasionally, one may find oneself in an emergency where a rope, or indeed clothing, has to be cut. I can remember two such events in thirty years.

This does not stop me having a Solingen sheath knife by the mast, a very swish Japanese sheath knife in the bag of sailmaking kit, an Opinel clasp knife in my pocket and of course a Leatherman in the chart table drawer!

 

[claymore]

Re: Sailing knife - lifesaver?

Hmm - if anyone came near my halliards with a knife they'd bettter be nifty with the footwork! £400 - what are we using here?

regards
Claymore

 

[ccscott49]

Re: Boatergeists

Trouble is in my case the only place ypou can see my bilges without a lot of carpet and floorboard removal is in the engine room, so the lost nits aren't in there and I've looked in all the other bilges aswell, definitely boatergiests and if theres only one, he's a right busy bastard, coz now apparently I've lost six, yes six tins of varnish??? I'll get some exorcist down when I get back, I'm fed up with this! I already tried garlic, lost that aswell!

 

[Mirelle]

That\'a an Opinel

Very sharp, completely lockable blade. Drill a hole in the handle for a lanyard, but make the lanyart long enough to loop round your wrist, not round your neck, and keep it in your pocket.

 

[ianwright]

The trouble with knives is,that unless you shackle one to a body piercing ring you (I) can never find one. My solution is to keep buying them until all the places that you might look for a knife has one in it. This works until you (I) put one back in the wrong place when eventually the chart table drawer or cutlery drawer jam shut owing to being over full with knives.

IanW.

Vertue 203, Patience

 

[qsiv]

Re: Sailing knife - lifesaver?

14mm spectra x 50M - I've just got the invoice in front of me ...

Oh and I see 25M of 8mm dyneema sheet wasnt too cheap either - nor the spectra jib halliard.

Never mind - when I think of the sail across Biscay last in 38 knots I'm pleased they were replaced!

 

[plopp]

Re: Think of your Market

I have two one is where I can never find it but the other is on a bend of cord around one of those fancy hand nuts that hold my old nasa echo sounder in place!hope never need it panic does strange things?

 

[plopp]

Re: Bottles

Not a27

 

[alant]

Since some knives are actually used for cutting ropes (mainly synthetic these days) how about a 'hot blade' to seal the ends at the same time.
Also, make sure that the blade length is acceptable to any authorities - otherwise it's an offensive weapon.
Maybe a 'leatherman' which can be carried on aircraft - mine goes into baggage hold & always concerned about it being pinched - removable cutting blades which could be apart from main 'knife' perhaps?