Wish List -- Money Saving Gadgets and Other Ideas
The Froo Gal crew have lots of great ideas for adding functionality, improving safety, or enhancing their sailing experience without breaking the budget. Some require more research. Your experience and advice would be most welcome; please post your ideas! |
| Image courtesy of Getideaka at FreeDigitalPhotos.net |
Ice is both an essential and a luxury whilst sailing. When the temperatures heat up, yacht refrigerators may struggle to cope without a regular top up of ice. And ice cubs for your G&T on board will save you buying drinks from the yacht club or pub -- impress your guests and save money!
A few years ago 12V units seemed to be readily available on the market. Now I only see the odd second-hand one on eBay. Customer reviews of the mains (240V) units are rather mixed. I wonder if there was a quality or performance issue with the 12V units. Alternatively, perhaps there was insufficient demand for the 12V units. Does any reader have an experience to share?
A thread on BoaterEd suggests that an inverter and an AC unit is a practical alternative. This could work for Froo Gal as we use shore power much of the time (which of course would not need the inverter). Without shore power it is likely that we would have to run the engine and we'd need to check that her electrical system could handle the peak current.
2. DIY Bowsprit vs. Spinnaker Pole & Gear
We need to add a cruising chute (or asymmetric spinnaker) to Froo Gal's sails' inventory. Why? You might ask. Well, frugal sailors want to get from A to B under sail, efficiently. For light-airs sailing, this seems to us a practical addition to the cruising inventory. However, we need to consider not only the cost of the sail, which can be substantial, but the cost of the gear that would allow us to fly it. There are a few options:
a) Bowsprit kit
A simple retail option (with simple self-build installation instructions or a boat yard installation) could be the simplest way to fly a cruising chute. But there are other issues to consider. Kits require the installation of through deck fittings. We have recently looks at 20-30 year old boats. Several have had problems with water ingress into the deck laminate cores. There is nothing worse than water rotting your balsa deck's core. After comparing some options Allspars seems to be a good option. Their site makes sizing and selection of equipment look very easy.
b) DIY bowsprit
Sail Magazine has a useful article on this topic. It compares a DIY project with retail kits -- Seldan, Sparcraft, etc. Finding the key parts seems a little more difficult in the UK than the US, but a little research yielded some fast results for the aluminium tube: www.sailingschoolandrigging.com
c) A thing that hangs off the fore stay
Adding an ATN Tacker is perhaps the least expensive option. Model B would suit Froo Gal. It retails at 165USD. The sailing forums seem to like it. Have a look at this video and tell us what you think!
d) Spinnaker gear
Looking into the numbers, we could save a few pounds (GBPs) by crafting and installing a DIY bowsprit option over a bowsprit kit. An expendable option is typically most frugal as no one wants to pay of for the extra LOA (length overall) when in the marina. And flying a cruising chute from a spinnaker pole is not too tricky and opens up other options. More importantly, adding spinnaker gear is less invasive when it come to the structure of the boat. There would be (we hope) no need to add any new through-deck fittings, which are (of course) paths for deck problems. Also adding spinnaker gear adds the option of flying a full spinnaker or 'blooper' -- something that the bowsprit options does not give you. The alternative argument is that rigging the spinnaker gear is more involve than a bowsprit option. More research is required. Any thoughts or advice would be gratefully received!
3. Sewing Machine
This is our perhaps less considered thought. We have a sailors palm and sewing kit and it has proved invaluable. We have recently paid for repairs to our main sail. Does it necessarily follow that we would use a sewing machine to save money on professional sewing repairs? More thought is required. Brian at SV Delos has a clear view on this, but then he and his crew spends months on end in the pacific, remotely located for sail lofts. His vessel (Delos) is used in a way that demands running repairs in a way that Froogal is unlikely to see. But the frugal sailor needs to consider the potential and likely benefits.
4. GPS Dongle
Our iPad does not have 3G or GPS. We can tether it to an iPhone to give it 3G functionality to help out with navigation functionality, but this is an extra challenge for batteries and battery charging (perhaps the subject of a later post).
5. Rope cutter
You will have seen from our recent lift and scrub experience that Froo Gal's prop was damaged when a line got wrapped around it. The scoring caused it to corrode right through in several places. A rope cutter might have saved this damage. Moreover, we were lucky that the incident did not cause more damage. A rope cutter could be a good investment. What are your experiences?
6. Cockpit Light/Lantern
Froo Gal has a smart cockpit awing. It really maximizes the space that the crew can use -- the cockpit becomes an extension of the living space whilst she is moored. But we have yet to sort out a light and now we are approaching the depths of winter it would be really useful. When chartering we have seen that the usual solution is to run a cable from a cigarette lighter 12V socket out to light in the cockpit. Alternative could include a battery or solar powered unit with a magnetic fitting to attach to the canvas or a incandescent paraffin lamp or oil lamp. Whilst the latter two can create a rather nice ambiance, they are not the safest or most frugal options. A citronella candle can be useful on summer evening, but none of these are a serious solution for anything beyond a long weekend or a charter holiday. ybw.com has a thread on the subject, which we need to read an digest. An LED light with some clever way to avoid trailing cables seems the best advice. Ideas on a post card, please! Finally, why is this a money saving issue, a part from avoid necessary costs. Well, it is about making the boat a usable, pleasant place to be. Make it a place you not only want to spend time, but a place you prefer to spend time, then you will sit and have a coffee in the cockpit rather than heading to the cafe and sit with friends for dinner rather than heading to the pub or yacht club.
7. Cruising chute / Asymmetric Spinnaker
The obvious options are cruising spec., racing/performance spec., or second hand. But we say this with little research. Sails are the second most 'consumable' (major maintenance) item on a boat after the engine, so some diligent research is required. There seems to be a fair bit of competition in the UK market place for such sails; whilst we are not expecting miracles, perhaps we can hope that shopping around would find us a cost reduction or perhaps a bargain.
Sizing a cruising chute is a bit of a mystery to us. We want something for light airs, but don't want something that is mad to handle or needs 'changing down' as soon as we find a breeze. Like most serious purchases the hardest questions is, what do we need/want? Once we have answered that question the rest is 'just money.'
9. Grab Bag Consumables
We shopped around for consumables and extras for our grab bag. It seems that the most expensive part of life raft ownership is the consumables - fares, rations, water. etc. For light coastal sailing you might consider stretching the professional service interval for your life raft by buying such items. Shop around on line and you can find some real bargains. You also may need to grab these items and take to your dingy in some circumstances. Technology can also help you out. We bought an Odeo laser flare odeoflare.co.uk). It out-performs traditional hand-held safety flares in two important ways: first, once activated it lasts for hours rather than minutes; second, its service life is much longer, meaning you realise a real cost saving. It also helps reduce your inflammable inventory and helps save space. We added some extra for our grab bag: hand held GPS, cheap mobile (cell) phone, SOLAS No.2 safety card -- distress signals, floating knife, foil blankets, heaving line, glow sticks, binoculars, LED torch (flashlight) with SOS Morse code function, and a SOLAS Cat C first aid kit.
Understand the difference between cost, price and value!
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