what is the best gadget on your boat?

Salty John said:
Battery top-up jug. You fill it with distilled water, place the special spout in the battery opening and press. The water flows out until the right level is reached and then it stops. You can buy them in most auto shops in the USA; I've never found one here. Ideal for difficult battery locations.
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I suspect it's a different market. I haven't owned a non-sealed battery for many years. I haven't topped up a battery with distilled water since about 1987!
 
AntarcticPilot said:
I suspect it's a different market. I haven't owned a non-sealed battery for many years. I haven't topped up a battery with distilled water since about 1987!
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Me I use a fairy liquid bottle with small plastic pipe pushed into the press to close cap. Simple ... pull up cap to open, insert pipe into battery hole ... either upend and squeeze bottle or just squeeze ... when level ... stop squeezing. Simple.
 
WE have a toilet gadget fitted by a previous owner. Its a largeish plastic soap dispenser type container with a pipe fixed to its snout that runs in turn through a little (gas) valve to control flow and connects into the incoming toilet flush water - though exactly where and how I havent yet discovered.

The container is filled with Elsan fluid which means that the flush water becomes a diluted blue colour and totally avoids the horrible rotten eggs smell I have had in previous boats. It also avoids the oultet pipe gradually building up an internal deposit.

The loo on our boat is now just as pleasant and odour free as the ones at home.
 
Reply to Refueler

Why not just thread end through mast cleat and stopper knot there ? That's what I do.

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Ah yes! I wondered who'd be the first to spot that!

The mast cleats don't have holes through them.
 
Refueler said:
Me I use a fairy liquid bottle with small plastic pipe pushed into the press to close cap. Simple ... pull up cap to open, insert pipe into battery hole ... either upend and squeeze bottle or just squeeze ... when level ... stop squeezing. Simple.
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Yes, if you can see into the battery holes from a safe distance, no problem - pour from the bottle. But if you had batteries tucked away so that to see the level you had to stick your head inches away, you'd like the flow control battery filler. At about $10 they've always been a 'must have' on my boats.
 
Barnac1e said:
A stainless steel, 2-LED, solar cell, garden light that cost peanuts and makes the perfect anchor light.

Anchorlight.jpg
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Barnacle, where did you get that impressive light from?
I have bought a couple of non stainless steel garden lights before, and they didnt last too long. But yours really looks the business.
 
Small plastic tray with three stick-on drink can holders attached, and a rectangle of non-slip rubber mat glued on the bottom. Stays put on the galley top in any sea (tested in F8 in mid-Atlantic) and allows passing of several mugs (of appropriate base diameter) up into the cockpit without spills. Olivia's idea, not mine.
 
Bajansailor said:
Barnacle, where did you get that impressive light from?
I have bought a couple of non stainless steel garden lights before, and they didnt last too long. But yours really looks the business.
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From the German manufacturer Wagner - the UK sales office has a web site and the model I bought (in Switzerland) is the 'Lugano' shown here.

I shortened the ss tube stem and epoxied the plastic base that normally goes into the ground onto the mast arm so that the lamp housing can be removed at any time.

The light has an on/off switch so that it will not be operable for night sailing, plus either one or two LEDs can be activated.

It it adequately bright for an anchor light and lasts all night. The rechargeable batteries are 2 AA and I have had to replace the originals in two years of use.
 
"It it adequately bright for an anchor light and lasts all night".

Whilst I would probably agree that this modified garden light is adequate as an anchor light, and appeals to my own minimalist cruising ethos, I must point out that Colregs are specific on the subject of luminous intensity for anchor lights. This light doesn't come close to satisfying Colregs or European standards.
I only point this out so people are not misled - if you don't care about meeting bureaucratic and, probably, arbitrary standards then go for it. I used an oil lamp when I cruised the Caribbean and how you calculate the luminous intensity of that I can't imagine.
I declare an interest in the subject because we produce an LED anchor light that has to meet Colregs/CE requirements and we have had to jump through the necessary hoops to achieve that.
 
Covers for dorades near the deck-mounted generator.
A pocket for work gloves on the anchor winch cover.
Pockets for fenders on aft dodger and reefline on side dodgers.
Toilet roll mounted inside cupboard door and fed over chamfered top edge.
Holey bit of wood that keeps the glasses in one piece.
 
1. A girt big screwdriver that is exactly the right length to dip the diesel tank.

2. A litter-picker to retrieve things that fall into the bilge.

3. An umbrella that rests nicely over the companionway when we're parked and it's raining. Also useful for going ashore during BST.

4. Not quite a gadget, but a snap shackle attaching the main-sheet to the traveller. Allows the mainsheet to be moved to the rail when parked, freeing up cockpit space. Might also double for lifting heavy stuff (like me) aboard using the mainsheet as a tackle, but never yet used for that.

5. Two stainless eyes and a short piece of bungee right by the galley sink. Fits the Thermos flask perfectly, so that it is always where you want it, and it doesn't fall over when we tack.
 
Salty john's anchorlight question
"I declare an interest in the subject because we produce an LED anchor light that has to meet Colregs/CE requirements and we have had to jump through the necessary hoops to achieve that."

While your anchorlight does almost everything we'd like from one, what we'd really like to see is a solar-powered equivalent, rather than running off the boats 12V supply. The gardenlights manage it - yes, I know that they are just 1 or 2 LEDs and you need 9 (is it?) to satisfy the colregs, but it doesn't sound too impossible to scale up the solar panel. So with that brief:
Colregs
Solar-powered (such that 1 day's UK sun(?) keeps it lit for 1 night at anchor)
LEDs
photo-switch
Is there anything available yet, and if not, can you design one?
 
We'll get right on it!
The problem is, as always, cost. All the components and the technology are available but getting it all together at an acceptable cost will be the challenge.
But we will take a serious look at a solar power version. We are considering a battery powered version anyway, so the solar power feature is a logical development of that.
 
Salty John said:
"It it adequately bright for an anchor light and lasts all night".

I must point out that Colregs are specific on the subject of luminous intensity for anchor lights. This light doesn't come close to satisfying Colregs or European standards.
[snipped]
I declare an interest in the subject because we produce an LED anchor light that has to meet Colregs/CE requirements and we have had to jump through the necessary hoops to achieve that.
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I do appreciate the problem of commercial development to meet the norms. However, leisure boating has a vast pool of diy enthusiasts who are more pragmatic and not so precise in meeting official specifications.

If I was to anchor near a busy fairway I may well consider my 2-LED light to be insufficient and switch on my white, all-round, top light. But my garden light is certainly brighter than those of some of the baggywrinkled cruising sea dogs I often see that hang a dim light in the foretriangle (the ideal position) each evening.

In the main, I anchor in remote and secluded bays with little or no shore lights where my light is perfectly visible over quite a distance and especially so to other arriving boats well within the statutory two mile visibility range, which is the main purpose.

In such conditions I particularly dislike the use of a masthead light used by the majority that, if it can be distinguished from the brighter stars on a dark night, are confusing about marking just where the boat is when close. But I suppose that is better than the very many (in the Med.) that show nothing.
 
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