Gludy
Active member
OK - its been a few weeeks now since I have had my first boat in Swansea Marina. We have spent every weekend on her and I have listed every job I want to do. The only problem is that the job list grows every weekend, it never gets smaller.
Social life in Swansea is great, the boaters are very friendly and helpful but because we are there every weekend, all other social life has ceased!
I have been a very good boy and not taken her out yet - I am working through the boat putting lots of little things right. It is in doing this and discovering just how parts of the Marine industry works that I am amazed at how some parts of the industry just rip people off.
My boat was maintained by a volvo mechanic who was paid to see all aspects were ok. Yet I find that even the basics such as topping up the batteries were not done - result is two new batteries.I think the principle he worked on was to encourage things to go wrong and charge the bills.
The boat is OK, and once I have worked through the jobs I will have a good understanding of most of the vital aspects and be able to carry out first line maitainance. That will give me at least some experience before taking her out to sea.
I am, I think considered a coward, in the Marina for not going out each weekend but frankly, for me, I do need to get a good understanding of all the aspects of the boat and really enjoy doing it. This totally contrasts with DIY at home or my car - where it takes wild horses towing me to get me to do anything.
The rib and 6hp Mercury arrived a few moments before I left last weekend. I am glad of the advice of the forum because it is a very zippy boat indeed. I cannot imagine what it would have been like with a 25hp on her.
I am probably going to upgrade the chart plotter/radar/fishfinder to the new Raymarine daylight colour HSB system. Just saving up the pennys at present.
So despite having been nowhere in it, despite spending hundreds each week on many little things, despite the large number of things I have done wrong and had to learn from bitter experience .... I am enjoying it very much. Does that make me totally bonkers?
Ah, yes .. the better half ... she is now adopting after the first weekend on it which she described as the worst of her life and I think, is also enjoying it. She is well into buying little things for it like an electronic egg boiler and has laready changed all the bed covers etc to new smarter looking sets. She is also into doing lots of little things that, I have to admit, make the boat look better. In fact, I am bef=ggining to feel harrased when I have to open up the engine covers as it disturbs the 'look' of the saloon. So she has imposed new 'tidy rules' such as I can only work upon one job at a time and must clear up after each job before starting the next. The problem with that is that in starting a job I see others all around me that need to be done before I can properly finish that job - hence each job gtrows and more items end up on my to do list that I had when I started the job.
Anyway that is my progress report to date. I know I am totally mad but it appears I am not alone in that.
Paul
Social life in Swansea is great, the boaters are very friendly and helpful but because we are there every weekend, all other social life has ceased!
I have been a very good boy and not taken her out yet - I am working through the boat putting lots of little things right. It is in doing this and discovering just how parts of the Marine industry works that I am amazed at how some parts of the industry just rip people off.
My boat was maintained by a volvo mechanic who was paid to see all aspects were ok. Yet I find that even the basics such as topping up the batteries were not done - result is two new batteries.I think the principle he worked on was to encourage things to go wrong and charge the bills.
The boat is OK, and once I have worked through the jobs I will have a good understanding of most of the vital aspects and be able to carry out first line maitainance. That will give me at least some experience before taking her out to sea.
I am, I think considered a coward, in the Marina for not going out each weekend but frankly, for me, I do need to get a good understanding of all the aspects of the boat and really enjoy doing it. This totally contrasts with DIY at home or my car - where it takes wild horses towing me to get me to do anything.
The rib and 6hp Mercury arrived a few moments before I left last weekend. I am glad of the advice of the forum because it is a very zippy boat indeed. I cannot imagine what it would have been like with a 25hp on her.
I am probably going to upgrade the chart plotter/radar/fishfinder to the new Raymarine daylight colour HSB system. Just saving up the pennys at present.
So despite having been nowhere in it, despite spending hundreds each week on many little things, despite the large number of things I have done wrong and had to learn from bitter experience .... I am enjoying it very much. Does that make me totally bonkers?
Ah, yes .. the better half ... she is now adopting after the first weekend on it which she described as the worst of her life and I think, is also enjoying it. She is well into buying little things for it like an electronic egg boiler and has laready changed all the bed covers etc to new smarter looking sets. She is also into doing lots of little things that, I have to admit, make the boat look better. In fact, I am bef=ggining to feel harrased when I have to open up the engine covers as it disturbs the 'look' of the saloon. So she has imposed new 'tidy rules' such as I can only work upon one job at a time and must clear up after each job before starting the next. The problem with that is that in starting a job I see others all around me that need to be done before I can properly finish that job - hence each job gtrows and more items end up on my to do list that I had when I started the job.
Anyway that is my progress report to date. I know I am totally mad but it appears I am not alone in that.
Paul
