The General Theory of Yacht Equipment, Incomes and Money:

Kukri

Kukri

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My tongue is only part way into my cheek:

If you have a new boat, all your gear will be new, and when it eventually starts to go wrong, you will replace it with even newer stuff. This thread is not likely to interest you.

If like me you have an MAB (Manky Auld Boat) or even, as I did for forty years, you have a HIWSBW (Hole in the water, surrounded by wood, into which the owner pours money*) it might.

The Theory states that yottiquipment comes in three types

Expendable (eg paint, sails, etc) These always get more expensive...

Modern (eg genoa cars, fully battened mainsail systems, headsail reefing, all electrickery) These gradually get cheaper

Ancient but indestructible (anything made of bronze, Taylor's cookers, Sestel compasses, Seagull outboards, Avon inflatables, CQR anchors, etc.) - Ebay is your friend!

Regardless of the foregoing, all yotties will naturally acquire a boat that consumes 90% of their disposable income...

*See a tolerably obscure book,"Sixty Years a Yacht Broker", by Herbert E Julyan, for more on this definition...
 
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IMHO yacht stuff comes in two types:

1) That which never works properly, or fails after 6 months, and you spend the next year arguing fruitlessly with the retailer/manufacturer over the warranty.
2) That which seems to go on forever, long after the availability of spares, which you spend half your life trying to source.

90%? More like 190%. Apart from that, you've got the situation well sussed, Minn.
 
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You forgot the exchange rate.

Boat money to ordinary money.
it's about £1boat to £3ordinary.


So £300 for a dress or pair of shoes is unreasonably expensive. But £900 for a new spectra halyard is good value.
 
I'm reminded of an American friend of mine introducing the concept of the "boat-buck", which is used to denominate equipment. 1 boat-buck == US$100. It does actually make some sort of sense!

Nick
 
Application of the prefix 'Marine' to any bit of hardware = price x 10.

Stainless bits sold in small packs are a) pricey, see above; b) one less than you need, or twice as many as you could ever use.
 
AndrewB said:
IMHO yacht stuff comes in two types:

1) That which never works properly, or fails after 6 months, and you spend the next year arguing fruitlessly with the retailer/manufacturer over the warranty.
2) That which seems to go on forever, long after the availability of spares, which you spend half your life trying to source.

90%? More like 190%. Apart from that, you've got the situation well sussed, Minn.
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In Andrew’s Category 2, I nominate my genuine original 1930’s Grabit boathook, as supplied to both Imperial Airways and Pan American flying boats and lauded by FB Cooke, which is intact save for the bronze split pin (not much call for 3/16” inchand a quarter bronze split pins nowadays!) It still works but I have substituted a stainless shackle.

(Missing the mooring buoy in a flying boat was a serious matter - an American sailing friend remarks that his father, having gone from Colonel in the USAF in 1945 to Fifth Officer in Pan Am in 1946, once had to strip off and swim for the buoy as the Boeing Clipper, with all four engines cut, started to drift towards a dead lee shore...)
 
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DownWest said:
Application of the prefix 'Marine' to any bit of hardware = price x 10
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Just had another example of that: stop solenoid for Vetus Peugeot based engine: £112 + VAT and shipping from Vetus. New non branded one from motor factors £6.99 incl VAT and shipping. That makes the ratio about 20:1
 
npf1 said:
Just had another example of that: stop solenoid for Vetus Peugeot based engine: £112 + VAT and shipping from Vetus. New non branded one from motor factors £6.99 incl VAT and shipping. That makes the ratio about 20:1
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As a devoted MAB owner can I ask why anyone wants to buy an engine with a stop solenoid? It's just something to get wrong. Surely the handle with a bit of wire is easy enough? If the wire breaks, string will do. I just don't understand why anyone would want such a thing - or anything on a boat that isn't really useful.

Having tracked down a slight leak port aft, it strikes to me that a MAB is the sensible thing. Having tracked down the leak, a bit of cotton and putty will put it right. Image the trouble solving osmosis!

MAB is the thing.
 
tillergirl said:
As a devoted MAB owner can I ask why anyone wants to buy an engine with a stop solenoid? It's just something to get wrong. Surely the handle with a bit of wire is easy enough? If the wire breaks, string will do. I just don't understand why anyone would want such a thing - or anything on a boat that isn't really useful.

Having tracked down a slight leak port aft, it strikes to me that a MAB is the sensible thing. Having tracked down the leak, a bit of cotton and putty will put it right. Image the trouble solving osmosis!

MAB is the thing.
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There is something very satisfying about using basic bits that one has in the locker to fix problems, rather than breaking out another thousand to get the bits that are probably not in stock and will leave you in some rough foreign port, along with several other AWB with similar probs.

I am actually building a MAB, well the design is old-ish. Very basic, virtually nothing that can't be fixed with simple tools and materials. But it is small.
 
tillergirl said:
As a devoted MAB owner can I ask why anyone wants to buy an engine with a stop solenoid? It's just something to get wrong. Surely the handle with a bit of wire is easy enough? If the wire breaks, string will do. I just don't understand why anyone would want such a thing - or anything on a boat that isn't really useful.
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They are very reliable and there is always the back up of the manual lever on the pump. means you don't have to deal with stiff and worn cables either. stop cables were introduced to replace levers on the engine or decompression levers.

We are always advancing so you are in "middle" tech territory so a bit of a softy really.
 
DownWest said:
There is something very satisfying about using basic bits that one has in the locker to fix problems, rather than breaking out another thousand to get the bits that are probably not in stock and will leave you in some rough foreign port, along with several other AWB with similar probs.

I am actually building a MAB, well the design is old-ish. Very basic, virtually nothing that can't be fixed with simple tools and materials. But it is small.
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All the boats that lacked an engine,running water out of a tap, electric lights seemed to give the best peace of mind.
 
my boats log book has an optimistic "things to do this season" section with only the one blank page now filled with scribble

it did get down to 4 items on there, now there's about 12 things on there, i keep completing them but other things replace them just as fast!
 
Wansworth said:
All the boats that lacked an engine,running water out of a tap, electric lights seemed to give the best peace of mind.
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Dunno about lacking an engine, the people I know that have cruised like that are usually a bit nervous. Coming into places down wind for ex.
I understand the Pardeys always asked for a tow when coming in, which tended to mean people left the day before they arrived :o
 
You’re right to some extent and some situation s are drought but the introduction of ani board engine is the root of all following evil.....maybe an outboard mounted inboard?
 
Wansworth said:
You’re right to some extent and some situation s are drought but the introduction of ani board engine is the root of all following evil.....maybe an outboard mounted inboard?
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As Hilaire Belloc remarks, somewhere in "On Sailing The Sea", "Auxiliaries caused the downfall of the Roman Empire - why trust one in a boat!"

I have always insisted on boats that can be sailed singlehanded without an engine or electricity. I may in fact have a crew, an engine and lots of electrickery, but I don't need them... it's well worth the peace of mind...
 
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