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Remember the little article we did on the Splicing Nut? We got a demo from Steve Brennan, designer of this smart and very useful product as the Seattle Boatshow a couple months ago. I caught up with him at Strictly Sail Pacific and got the demo on video this time. Watch and see just how quick and easy it is to put a strong loop in the end of a line. And get the scoop on the strength of Splicing Nut compared to a conventional splice. No tools needed, but if you’re demoing it all day at a boatshow, you’ll want some gloves!

In my earlier roundup of San Juan Islands cruising guides, I left out one of the most popular titles:

Waggoner Cruising Guide 2007: The Complete Boating Reference, edited by Robert Hale. I recently attended a big C-Dory gathering on Lopez Island, and it seemed like almost every one of them had a copy of this book on board.

Now that I’ve had a chance to look through it, I can see why. Wow! This book manages to do everything well, and I don’t say that lightly. I’m really impressed. (more…)

The secret is to have only the boat and equipment that you actually need. Have a look at OpenBoat for a compelling reminder of the pure joy of sailing, and that it really doesn’t take much. It’s mostly a photo gallery website chronicling small, open boats from around the world, and the adventures of a hearty band of New Zealand sailors who adventure together. Make sure to watch the videos. You’ll want to drop everything and go jump on a boat.

I’m reminded of an adventure my buddy and I had a few years ago in the San Juan Islands with my Windrider Rave, a 16 foot hydrofoil trimaran. We cruised and camped the islands for a week, and became expert at reading the current charts, as there was rarely enough wind to actually sail. One afternoon, we pulled into Pelican Beach on Cypress Island…a great marine campground on what is a largely uninhabited island. Pulled onto the beach were a dozen-or-so sailing dorys, which we learned were San Francisco Pelicans. They were a club of sailors who had built their own boats, and had been coming out to camp in the same location every summer for decades, and who were instrumental in creating the marine campground. Hence the name: Pelican Beach.

Later, I learned that family friends from when I was a kid had built a San Francisco Pelican. They were a family of three, and spent months sailing up the Inside Passage with the idea of homesteading in British Columbia. This speaks well to the sea-worthiness of the design, not to mention the heartiness of their little family!

Take a laptop outside and you’ll find that the screen is virtually unreadable, even without direct sun on the screen. For those of us who love computer navigation software, like the excellent Rosepoint Navigation Coastal Explorer, this can be a real problem. Not only that, we worry about our lappies getting a fatal saltwater splash. So, thoughts turn to using some kind of external monitor in the cockpit that would allow the computer to remain safely inside at the nav station. If you’ve looked at prices of some of the marinized, super-bright, outdoor grade screens, you’ve probably been a little discouraged at the thought of spending several times more for a screen than for the laptop itself. You could just buy an extra laptop or two and stash them in dry bags. It’s especially galling with regular 15 inch LCDs available for under $150 these days.

Some folks have installed these desktop monitors on swing-out arms in the cockpit, since they are cheap enough to be almost disposable. Other options are some small, high-brightness LCDs from Xenarc, that are aimed towards in-car computer installations. Most are small, i.e. 7 to 12 inch diagonals, but that could be an advantage for a lot of boats. And touchscreens are an option on many models, which is great if your software has a big button, touchscreen mode. They are not water-proof, but they seem to be pretty rugged, and the prices are fairly reasonable.

You can order these screens directly from Xenarc, and Captn Jack’s sells them as well (have a browse around the website…some interesting products there). And if you’re considering a permanent mount, 12 volt powered computer for your boat or car, Xenarc has a line of these you may be interested in, too.

Tim and I decided to put the Bridgenorth Bailer through it’s paces, and our research shows that this is really about the most fun you’ll ever have with a bilge pump. It’s the Swiss Army knife of water pumping boathooks. I picked one up at Fisheries Supply in Seattle a few weeks ago, and wish they’d had the 8 foot version in stock, as our only frustration with this one was that it was too easy to extend to full lock while pumping.

Boat owners learn to accept the many innovative and unexpected ways devised to extract money from their wallets. It’s just part of the deal. But they may not know how to react when confronted with an opportunity to get some of that money back; particularly money from the government. In other words, tax money. (more…)