What would you spend £1000 on?

[RogerJolly]

Just an Eberspacher Hydronic. These heat water instead of air and either use radiators or heat exchangers (little radiators with fans) to heat the boat. The big bonus is they can also be plumbed in through the calorifier to heat hot water without using the engine, and in winter can heat the engine before starting. Larger boats use these as there is less heat loss going from one end of the boat to the other with insulated water pipes, and it's more flexible on placement of heat exchangers.

As I said, we have an Airtronic which I love to bits, but Hydronic would be my preference going forward.

Aha, will look into thanks. Never liked the idea of boring big ducting holes in the boat, guessing water pipe holes will be smaller. in the Probably be a bit OTT for my little boat though.

My £1000 might go on moving main sheet from cockpit sole to coach roof, on a traveller.

Hopefully with change, but with me a lot will disappear in wastage - bits bought that are wrong in some way - size, type etc., mis-conceived arrangements.

 

[Frogmogman]

My boat is almost as I want it, but on the wish list are:

Electric halyard winch. Only downside of fully battened main is its a heavy old thing. Winch layout is such that ropes from the other three can be cross-winched to the one winch. My one experience of an electric winch was on the lagoon 400S2 I chartered in Malaysia. The week we were there the NE monsoon was blowing, and we never had much below 18kts; I found the electric winch to be particularly excellent for popping reefs in and out in conjunction with single line reefing (see below).

Converting the boom to single line reefing. I’m quite happy to go up to the mast to hook on the tack reefing cringle, but it makes my wife anxious if I do it when it’s rough.

Spinnaker pole (for poling out the genoa, and ultimately for a symmetrical kite when funds allow). With dyneema bridles, and by the time the up-f***er and down-f***er are rigged, with another ring on the mast, plus stowage cradles on the deck, there wouldn’t be any change out of a grand.

Clearly, £1000 won’t pay for the first one, probably nip and tuck on the second, so I guess it’s the spinnaker pole (though I’d secretly like a carbon fibre one, even though it’s not a race boat, so that wouldn’t be in budget either. I think it’ll be aluminum).

 

[johnalison]

Now with the cockpit tent do you have standing head room there? In our case it would require some clever engineering I think. The boom is quite low and the mainsheet traveller is in the middle of the cockpit. Don't know if it can be done, will investigate.

Most medium-sized boats these days seem to have standing room in their tents. Ours was an early one, yr 2000, and can best be described as stoopable. In practice this is not a major problem and is still vastly better than not having one. There are many evenings when it is too cool or windy to enjoy outside and, if you haven't experienced it, inside a cockpit tent is surprisingly light and warms up with only a little sun. It is also a great improvement on those days that are completely written off by rain and a tent allows everyone to spread out. My mainsheet is centrally attached but it only takes a few seconds to unclip it and bring it out to the toerail where are are convenient points.

I don't know if it has been mentioned, but folding bikes have made a great difference to our pleasure on board.

 

[baart]

My £1000 might go on moving main sheet from cockpit sole to coach roof, on a traveller.

Converting the boom to single line reefing

Actually these two have not crossed my mind but are both very good ideas

 

[Chiara’s slave]

My boat is almost as I want it, but on the wish list are:

Electric halyard winch. Only downside of fully battened main is its a heavy old thing. Winch layout is such that ropes from the other three can be cross-winched to the one winch. My one experience of an electric winch was on the lagoon 400S2 I chartered in Malaysia. The week we were there the NE monsoon was blowing, and we never had much below 18kts; I found the electric winch to be particularly excellent for popping reefs in and out in conjunction with single line reefing (see below).

Converting the boom to single line reefing. I’m quite happy to go up to the mast to hook on the tack reefing cringle, but it makes my wife anxious if I do it when it’s rough.

Spinnaker pole (for poling out the genoa, and ultimately for a symmetrical kite when funds allow). With dyneema bridles, and by the time the up-f***er and down-f***er are rigged, with another ring on the mast, plus stowage cradles on the deck, there wouldn’t be any change out of a grand.

Clearly, £1000 won’t pay for the first one, probably nip and tuck on the second, so I guess it’s the spinnaker pole (though I’d secretly like a carbon fibre one, even though it’s not a race boat, so that wouldn’t be in budget either. I think it’ll be aluminum).

Electric winches….. Force 4 sell a little fiiting, hex drive to winch splines. Makita sell a twin 18v 90 degree drill. It’s got some serious torque.

 

[Frogmogman]

Electric winches….. Force 4 sell a little fiiting, hex drive to winch splines. Makita sell a twin 18v 90 degree drill. It’s got some serious torque.

Yep. Got one of those. Used with one of my 18v AEG drills it works pretty well. I’m thinking of a more durable solution.

 

[Kukri]

The boat usually chooses for me.

 

[Chiara’s slave]

The boat usually chooses for me.

You don’t have to break anything big to cost £1000, do you.

 

[Kukri]

You don’t have to break anything big to cost £1000, do you.

It’s always been that way! I spent 29 years saving up for a new engine for this, and every time I got there, she spent it!

 

[Chiara’s slave]

I do love a good bowsprit?

 

[Wansworth]

It’s always been that way! I spent 29 years saving up for a new engine for this, and every time I got there, she spent it!
View attachment 142673

Better keep your latest gem tightly lashed to the pontoon?

 

[Poignard]

I think if I had one improvement to make to my Twister it would be an electric or hydraulic windlass.

Extreme old age and a bad back are beginning to influence my sailng habits and I must confess I am not as keen on anchoring as I used to be due to the labour of manually recovering the anchor.

 

[fredrussell]

How about a nice carbon whisker pole? A spinny pole will suffice for poking out the headsail, but they’re heavy old beasts to move around and may not be the ideal size.

 

[johnalison]

I think if I had one improvement to make to my Twister it would be an electric or hydraulic windlass.

Extreme old age and a bad back are beginning to influence my sailng habits and I must confess I am not as keen on anchoring as I used to be due to the labour of manually recovering the anchor.

Our windlass came as a boat show offer from the agents. Our previous boat had a 25lb plough which was OK mostly but the new boat had a 45lb CQR which would have been intolerable. An electric windlass has made things so easy. If we drop the anchor and the result is a bit iffy we don’t cross our fingers and hope for the best but just bring it up and pop it down somewhere better. On one occasion a boat with three noisy blokes on board anchored close by in a large empty anchorage, so we just moved further away for peace and to make our point. Well worthwhile.

 

[Frogmogman]

How about a nice carbon whisker pole? A spinny pole will suffice for poking out the headsail, but they’re heavy old beasts to move around and may not be the ideal size.

For a grand ?

 

[PhillM]

Plotter ans AiS - can get an integrated unit from Onwa for less than £1k

 

[Kukri]

Actually, I just have spent exactly a grand on a present for She Who Gets to Spend It.

We have a Raymarine plotter over the chart table and I bought it’s twin (ebay, still in its packaging) to go back to back with it on the cockpit side of the bulkhead.

(The mainsheet traveller is too close to the wheel to do the modern thing and mount it on the binnacle, but it’s near enough to be seen.)

 

[dunedin]

What would you say would be the crucial investment then for our upcoming two week trip to Netherlands and back next year?

Holding tank ?

 

[dunedin]

I think if I had one improvement to make to my Twister it would be an electric or hydraulic windlass.

Extreme old age and a bad back are beginning to influence my sailng habits and I must confess I am not as keen on anchoring as I used to be due to the labour of manually recovering the anchor.

Go for it. The sooner you buy the windlass the more value you will get out of it.
With an electric windlass anchoring is much easier than going into a marina, and usually much more pleasant. It transforms the places you visit and stay in.
Our windlass has been used over a hundred times this year alone.

 

[Mudisox]

I don't know if it has been mentioned, but folding bikes have made a great difference to our pleasure on board.

My decks are not large enough to ride a bike on it.