Wind instruments (and other matters) - meh.

[westernman]

ISelf tailing winches - Silly expensive and overrated.

I find that they are useful on my 34 ton, 67 ft LOA cutter (i.e. two or more foresails) when tacking single handed.

Integrated instruments, - Little advantage with the chance of network problems thrown in.

What are they?

Hot water from the engine. I have a kettle.

Nice to have a warm shower to rinse off after swimming in the cold sea.

Fridges (In the UK? someone is winding me up)

Needed to keep the beer cold when it is 40C outside.

On board showers - Pilates in a damp cupboard

Needed after swimming.

Pressurised water - Complex solution looking for a problem.

Difficult to pump and shower at the same time.

Bow thrusters (On 30 foot sailers, now? Summut is wrong)

Don't have one. But when I am trying to park stern too when there is a gale blowing directly on the nose, I wish I had one.

Plus:
People build scaffold towers on the back of their boats to power that little lot - so that's one other thing to cripple the performance of your boat, to break down or worry about.

Before someone calls me a scourge of modernity, let me say I would walk over hot coals for AIS, chart plotter, furling headsail, Windex and Autohelm

Big paper charts and a proper chart table to spread them out are much better than a chart plotter.
If I am desperate, I could get the lap top out.

The head sail on the end of the bow sprit (i.e. the jib), can be furled. If you take the tension off it and hide if behind the main so there is not too much load on it.

No need for a windex. I just look at the red ensign on the stern. The auto pilot is useful if I want to go down below for a c**p or make some coffee.

There are a good few rows in embryo there and not one mention of politics.

What "must have" items do you avoid?

But the really must have thing is the little hand pumped gadget to make espresso coffee.

 

[Laminar Flow]

I am glad that you are happy with your winches, which are what I cruised with for 17 years, including a couple with bottom-action. I think that if you used STs you would notice the difference in practicality immediately, but whether anyone wants to pay for them is their choice.

As I get more doddery it is quite useful to occasionally get both hands on that handle and let that winch (a gift from my brother) do it's tailing thingy.

 

[Laminar Flow]

I’m sure that if I sat down with a calculator I could work out the true wind, but as it involves a cosine function I don’t think I could do it in my head. I have two main uses for true wind. Firstly, to assess how much the wind is rising when running. I can more of less do this by simply arithmetic, but a combination of variable boats speed over the waves and a bit of wishful thinking tends to work against accuracy. Secondly, I use it when motor-sailing both the set the course close-hauled and to judge when the wind has reached the point where I can start sailing again, both hard to judge by senses.

Clearly you look for greater accuracy than I do as I do not seek to figure out the last decimal. I'm more likely to do a post mortem calculation (with calculator and cosine) on VGM, mostly to explain to myself why I wasn't able to make port in day light hours or missed the tidal window for the lock (and also to give my wife the thin impression I know what I'm up to)

 

[LONG_KEELER]

My pet aversion are sprayhoods hoisted and set whilst sailing.

I've had them on boats and are great while at anchor or constant spray.

Staring through a misty panorama and not feeling the true elements just tires me out. If necessary, I get my safety goggles out which fit over my spectacles nicely.

On the other points, I could probably do without, with the exception of my autopilot. A day sail perhaps but anything else no.

 

[LadyInBed]

My pet aversion are sprayhoods hoisted and set whilst sailing

I won't entertain one on my boat, I think that they look ugly. If there is green stuff coming over I retreat to the Pilot House saloon.

 

[LadyInBed]

When I had a 22 footer (16 years) I had no mod cons, now that I have a bigger (10m) boat which came with ring mains, a hot water system and self tailers, I wouldn't go back to roughing it, though I don't bother with wind instruments, I have tell tails on the shrouds.

 

[Daydream believer]

My pet aversion are sprayhoods hoisted and set whilst sailing.

Handy if you want to strain your back getting in & out of the cabin, or whilst hoisting sail without being able to see what you are doing though.Then who really wants to see where they are going? Negotiating round it in a blow to get forward is another trick one needs to learn.
Personally if I want to go camping I would put a tent in the back garden.

 

[Snowgoose-1]

Do without splay hood and use Darth Vader welding helmet when raining. Probably see better than thru my hood.buying and installing boat stuff even if you don't need it fine by me .

 

[dom]

For a shower I have a camping type solar heated shower (a polythene bag filled with water and left in the sun to heat up, of course only works in warm weather)
.........

What, in Cardigan Bay?

Gosh, you Welsh are a tough lot!

 

[Praxinoscope]

What, in Cardigan Bay?

Gosh, you Welsh are a tough lot!

After the tin bath in front of the fire anything is luxury!

 

[Stemar]

Maybe it helps that my boat is small enough that I look over the sprayhood when under way, but mine stays up pretty much all the time. It's somewhere for Milady to hide from wind and spray, though if there's enough wind or wave to make spray when she's aboard, I'm already in trouble.

As for a furling genny, it's a must have. The time when I need to go from the No2 to the No3 jib is a time when I really don't want to be faffing around on the foredeck. Fine for a racing boat with a full complement of young, fit crew, but for an old fart with his wife or alone, thanks, but no thanks.

Bow thruster? On a Snapdragon? Well, I have to confess there have been times when I'm on the upwind, uptide side of the club pontoon with boats close ahead and astern...

Pressurised water - got that, and wouldn't go back to a hand pump, though there was a time when I had my daughter and her friend on board, watching them rinse the dishes, when I wished I didn't

 

[lustyd]

It's somewhere for Milady to hide from wind and spray

That's probably where the divide is, in reality. Those who enjoy their partner's company install spray hoods, hot water, heads, fridge. The rest either enjoy sailing alone or have it thrust upon them

 

[johnalison]

I won't entertain one on my boat, I think that they look ugly. If there is green stuff coming over I retreat to the Pilot House saloon.

We cruised for about thirty years on boats without sprayhoods, which I agree can look ugly. The last of the series was a Sadler 29 which we sailed across the N Sea and Channel a number of times without distress. However, this changed when we got a Hallberg-Rassy and a fixed screen/sprayhood. Being designed into the boat it is less obtrusive visually, and the glass is good enough optically for the use of binoculars or even a camera. Sea spray is shed fairly quickly but occasionally early morning dew and condensation can be a problem, needing a squeegee to clear it.

 

[RupertW]

Well although my nav is simple - only recently put Navionics on a tablet on the chart table, I do like the domestic normalities - fridge and ice maker, piped hot water from AC, engine or solar PV so shower every day on the boat wherever we are, And self tailing winches are great so you can use both hands in the handle and never need to cleat except when swapping winch from one use to another.

 

[zoidberg]

This thread is akin to 'an echo from the past' of all that was once good and wholesome within YBW/forums.

No-one being verbally/socially abused....
No displays of hyperbolic outrage....
No profanities or hate-crime outbursts....

.....Yet!

 

[Stemar]

the glass is good enough optically for the use of binoculars or even a camera. Sea spray is shed fairly quickly

I think this is the issue with a conventional sprayhood. We have a full cockpit cover and, not long after we got it, we smugly left for Chichester with rain on its way. We were rather less smug when the heavens opened as we went past West Pole and we had to take the cover off because we couldn't see through the plastic windows, even though they'd had a good dose of Rainex

 

[Laminar Flow]

I think this is the issue with a conventional sprayhood. We have a full cockpit cover and, not long after we got it, we smugly left for Chichester with rain on its way. We were rather less smug when the heavens opened as we went past West Pole and we had to take the cover off because we couldn't see through the plastic windows, even though they'd had a good dose of Rainex

You want a pilot house with windshield wipers, trust me. My wife still comes sailing with me; rather go down with the ship than be left alone, she says - true love that.

 

[Daydream believer]

You want a pilot house with windshield wipers, trust me. My wife still comes sailing with me; rather go down with the ship than be left alone, she says - true love that.

Yes! I would love getting seasick in less time than it takes to tell it
I speak to lots of sailors who cannot go below for more than a few minutes when under way so an enclosed pilot house would be a silly thing for most. Plus a load of glass exposed to a decent wave would not be something I would like.
That says nothing for the ugly appendages one often sees on boats to accomodate these things.
My next door neighbour has a nice set of sliding white plastic patio doors on his conservatory, so I expect he would feel quite at home with one
Pilot house? Not on your life thankyou

 

[Elessar]

In the AIS thread someone said that nobody moaned about wind instruments. Well I will. I fitted some years ago and immediately thought what did I do that for? For the small cruising boat they are just about a waste of space, money and effort. Never switch the things on.

Whilst we are on a roll here are a few other things that I never bothered with, on small boats:

Self tailing winches - Silly expensive and overrated.
Integrated instruments, - Little advantage with the chance of network problems thrown in.
Hot water from the engine. I have a kettle.
Fridges (In the UK? someone is winding me up)
On board showers - Pilates in a damp cupboard
Pressurised water - Complex solution looking for a problem.
Bow thrusters (On 30 foot sailers, now? Summut is wrong)
Plus:
People build scaffold towers on the back of their boats to power that little lot - so that's one other thing to cripple the performance of your boat, to break down or worry about.

Before someone calls me a scourge of modernity, let me say I would walk over hot coals for AIS, chart plotter, furling headsail, Windex and Autohelm
There are a good few rows in embryo there and not one mention of politics.

What "must have" items do you avoid?

.

its not a badge of honour to wear a hair shirt just because you (occasionally) use sails for motive power you know.

 

[RJJ]

Everything has pros and cons. Everything costs money and labour ; the benefits must be written down to allow for:
- when it goes wrong
- the distraction it imposes.

Much as it's nice to keep it simple, I wouldn't like to be without a windspeed indicator or self-tailing winches on anything over 30 foot.

Why a windspeed indicator is good:
- even when you're in a marina, you get a sense of conditions you'll be sailing in
- when you're hoisting, potentially water that's sheltered from waves but not wind, it helps inform how many reefs to put in
- a data point for novices to tell when overpowered
- a reminder when going downwind and it all feels easy, that when you're going to harden up you'll be leaning over and may need to shorten sail
- as an indicator when motoring, that you could be having more fun, more quietly, with the sails up