What job have you been doing the hard way for years?

[xyachtdave]

I'll offer the Volvo 120s sail drive oil change refill.

For the last 15 years I've been refilling tediously slowly through the large oil cap on the top, assuming this was the best place to add the new oil. The oil takes forever to drain through the gears (or whatever lurks inside) and was always a thoroughly messy, oily and slow job.

Today after consulting google as to the oil capacity I found a YBW thread from 2005 suggesting I put a small funnel in the dipstick hole to fill it.

Small funnel inserted...and I poured 3 litres of oil into it in about 5 minutes rather than an hour and a half of misery.

 

[johnalison]

That's good news. I'll tell my engineers.
I struggled for years at the backbreaking task of antifouling before finding that I could get a long handle for £4.99 that would allow me to do the job with two hands in half the time and without bending. (Please don't tell me I can do my 34'er with a radiator roller. I can't).

 

[Blueboatman]

Blimey, loads.
Just for spring fitting out may I suggest the following Top 5?

life was harder, slower and messier before ….
Paint rollers for anti fouling
And masking tape
And patio magic
And oxalic acid
And battery drills for screwing
/ undoing…

 

[Boathook]

Blimey, loads.
Just for spring fitting out may I suggest the following Top 5?

life was harder, slower and messier before ….
Paint rollers for anti fouling
And masking tape
And patio magic
And oxalic acid
And battery drills for screwing
/ undoing…

Add a jet washer plus dremel to that list.

 

[Petertheking1982]

Blue masking tape, once tried you will never go back!

 

[Blueboatman]

Blue masking tape, once tried you will never go back!

I love that stuff

 

[KeithMD]

Does being married count?

 

[PhillM]

I very nearly sanded and painted swifts grp hull. Then my mate suggested polishing first “just to be sure” and sure enough she came up brilliantly. So no painting for me this year

 

[Daydream believer]

Actually I find totally the reverse. Jobs get harder, not easier. Nothing to do with the tools available etc. More to do with the fact that i am 55years older than when I first had a cruiser. That was wooden - not the current GRP maintenance free ( relatively) one
Plus in those days I could afford to pay the yard to do it & in those days it was a proper yard with proper staff that knew how to do the job correctly
I could walk up Tucker Brown's jetty, Say to one of the directors in passing - "She needs a scrub in time for Burnham Week. Can you sort it please", The following week it was done. Easy peasy. If it needed another coat of hard racing red copper antifoul paint ( remember those screw top glass jars?) they would do it as a matter of course. Try doing that now without booking a month in advance & filling in a worksheet in duplicate at the office etc etc then hoping it gets done in time. Or in my case sailing 25 miles up the coast to another marina first.

 

[Wansworth]

Actually I find totally the reverse. Jobs get harder, not easier. Nothing to do with the tools available etc. More to do with the fact that i am 55years older than when I first had a cruiser. That was wooden - not the current GRP maintenance free ( relatively) one
Plus in those days I could afford to pay the yard to do it & in those days it was a proper yard with proper staff that knew how to do the job correctly
I could walk up Tucker Brown's jetty, Say to one of the directors in passing - "She needs a scrub in time for Burnham Week. Can you sort it please", The following week it was done. Easy peasy. If it needed another coat of hard racing red copper antifoul paint ( remember those screw top glass jars?) they would do it as a matter of course. Try doing that now without booking a month in advance & filling in a worksheet in duplicate at the office etc etc then hoping it gets done in time. Or in my case sailing 25 miles up the coast to another marina first.

There are a lot more yachts and probably fewer boatyard yards with skilled employees these days and yacht ownership doesn’t carry the air of sophistication and wealth as it did,any body can own a yacht it just comes down to money and not class

 

[Supertramp]

There are a lot more yachts and probably fewer boatyard yards with skilled employees these days and yacht ownership doesn’t carry the air of sophistication and wealth as it did,any body can own a yacht it just comes down to money and not class

Sort of agree although plenty of normal people owned yachts alongside the superyachts of yesteryear, often on restricted budgets and pre GRP.

My blame for the difficulty of some jobs is the arrival of manufactured fittings and modern assembly techniques. 60 years ago things were made for the boat out of wood or cast and added in the later stages of building, not hidden away. I have spent considerable amounts of time contorted into Houdini type spaces wrestling with some £5 fitting or extracting/refitting a more major item. Example - fit new fastenings to table base pedestal. I am still unfolding.

Flip side is that less time is spent antifouling (coppercoat), sorting far fewer deck leaks and the upholstery stays on board with a dehumidifier.

 

[Wansworth]

My mashford four tonner 23 foot full keel yacht was typical of pre war yachts and post war yachts before grp and cold mould ing and ply had their day.The mashford was just a wooden boat of basic carvel construction with no hidden double skins just basic wood the only non boatyard gadget was the Stuart turner engine probably the other metal parts came from Daveys or Captain Watts or made locally.The Hillyards I worked on in the early 1970s where exactly the same no frills Unfortunatly they where seen out by grp construction and the use of basically non craftsman in car style mass production.

 

[dunedin]

Initially the anti fouling. Then I realised that most of the cost was fixed - for the paint, tape etc - and the biggest cost of all was paying marina fees whilst out of use. So paying somebody to do it for me during a short lift and hold was in fact better value for money than using scarce weekend time doing myself.
It’s great. Antifoul magically goes on and zero mess.

 

[wombat88]

Rather than refasten planks on a clinker dinghy I now use Gorilla tape (other brands available)

 

[Stemar]

Scrubbing and antifouling a bilge keeler. Then I saw a garage crawler in Aldidl. It's still a wet muddy pain to do, but at least I'm not lying in the mud and "walking" around on my shoulder blades between the keels. It's still useful for the cat.

 

[doug748]

I never change an oil filter hot or warm now, can be very messy:


Drain the warm oil, leave tray under engine overnight

Next day, change the filter, fill with fresh oil, run engine, top up.

.

 

[mjcoon]

Rather than refasten planks on a clinker dinghy I now use Gorilla tape (other brands available)

What, in place of planks? That's bold! Have you told them?

 

[mjcoon]

I never change an oil filter hot or warm now, can be very messy:


Drain the warm oil, leave tray under engine overnight

Next day, change the filter, fill with fresh oil, run engine, top up.

.

Doesn't the bilge gradually fill up?

 

[xyachtdave]

I never change an oil filter hot or warm now, can be very messy:


Drain the warm oil, leave tray under engine overnight

Next day, change the filter, fill with fresh oil, run engine, top up.

.

I like the sound of that, will give it a try!

 

[Thistle]

What job have you been doing the hard way for years?​

Living!