What's the oldest thing on your boat?

A brass plaque given to my (captain) great-uncle by his crew "the captain's word is law" - I suspect it was given tongue-in-cheek and I display it as such, with his photo :)
 
A postcard reproduction of George Stubbs 'Dungannon' one of the very first thoroughbreds,
BAL72383.webp

Soon, it will be fitted to its 10th boat.
 
I think everything on my boat is younger than the boat itself (1979, so 47 years old), but I do still have and use a few things I bought from Axminster Power Tools and Chandlery, early 90s, to kit out my own first sea-going, sleep-aboard boat (all 16' 3" of it!).

Among them would be a hand-bearing compass, a log line for depth sounding (rarely used but very occasionally invaluable), a Sea-Search strong magnet (only ever used 2 or 3 times, and without success, fishing for things dropped over the side). I think there are a couple of other bits (parallel ruler, etc?) I can't recall just now

I am not sure whether I still have aboard the 'spare' oilskin jacket (better in some ways than my newer one) I used to carry - a rather well-worn, dog-eared and stained yellow Musto jacket, originally bought in a sale at Brighton Marina mid/late 80s when we stopped there on the way to a classic boat rally at Brest in a friend's boat. During the first leg of that trip, round from the East Coast in less than pleasant weather, I had been able to borrow the sailing oilies of someone who was joining us later in the trip, and suddenly realised quite what comfort, warmth and waterproofness I was missing out on with my dirt cheap PVC (not very) waterproofs. I felt the financial pain of that purchase was worth it when it pelted down with rain the entirety of my long watch on the wheel between Devon and Brittany. Sadly that much travelled Musto jacket and some other clothing was badly affected by ingress of water (causing mould and staining) and mice while in storage in a shed, and I can't now remember whether that jacket was among the items consigned to the bin as a result.

p.s. Just remembered the Sea-Search magnet did prove valuable when I was needing to drill holes through the hull for the bolts for an additional anode, and needed to find somewhere that was both suitable on the hull exterior, and one could get a hand and spanners round the calorifier, other fittings and bulkheads inside the hull. I wedged the magnet in place against a possible location one side of the hull, then found the magnetic location the other side by means of a random bolt in my hand, adjusting position incrementally until it was suitable both sides and could be marked for drilling. So it had been worth carrying the magnet for 30+ years and thousands of miles in 5 different boats!
 
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I don't have a boat, having sold it a couple of weeks ago, but the oldest thing on board would probably have been a folding boat knife from my teens, say late '50s. It is one of those S/S ones with a marlinspike one side and a blade on the other. The oldest cruising gear was a pair of 7x50s and a mini hand-held compass from when we started in '71.
 
I don't have a boat, having sold it a couple of weeks ago, but the oldest thing on board would probably have been a folding boat knife from my teens, say late '50s. It is one of those S/S ones with a marlinspike one side and a blade on the other. The oldest cruising gear was a pair of 7x50s and a mini hand-held compass from when we started in '71.
It's amazing which bits of kit last so well and serve a lifetime of use, and those that don't!

On our Saltram 40 we still have the original engine, echo sounder, mast and deck gear. All over 45 years old and going strong (with a few replaced parts here and there).
 
My boat i built in Saudi, marine chandlers are a bit thin on the sand..
So the chainplates are made from two stainless steel rods from the inside of a redundant air conditioning unit. The A/C was so big I walked inside scrounging parts..

The A/C would have been built when the building was new.. the early 1960s
 
Well, at the moment it’s my brother in law but, when we get on at the end of the month, my wife will be putting on a WW2 submariner’s clock she bought before Christmas with the express purpose of putting it on whatever boat we got. She just has to re-find it first.
 
Some tools on the boat belonged to my father who passed away in 1977. And the tools were probably quite old then.

The oil in the engine and the fuel in the tank and much of the rest of the boat is made from raw materials that were millions of years old.
 
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