Recent content by bgary

I probably would, except most marinas these days require proof of $500k-$1m of liability and/or spill coverage. That's not easy to self-fund. To the OP, I'd recommend calling Novamar. They've been great to work with, including navigating the transition from Geico to Progressive when Geico...

One more up-vote for rail cleats. I've got one on each side. Super useful, and as @vanilladuck says above, allows me to jump onto a dock with a single line and pin the boat in place while securing the rest of the docklines. Have never had any reason to be concerned about the strength - the...

Probably explains why I've been flooded with "blowout sale!!! 40% off and 5x points!!!" emails lately.... https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-05-18/west-marine-files-bankruptcy-to-cut-debt-close-more-stores

^^ this Spreader boots aren't to protect the spreader tip, they're to protect the sail. As long as the shroud is propertly secured in the spreader tip and there are no sharpe edges or wire ends, there's no reason for a boot (and some good reasons not to put on a boot - e.g., trapping moisture)

Fair winds, skipper...

I use a continuous loop that is long enough to reach from a few feet back from the traveler. The nice thing (?) about a continuous loop, for me, is that I can't grab the wrong line - getting the one line in my hand lets me move the car either direction. $.02

Yeah. I have a yacht-designer friend, and I always cringe when one of his clients specifies an in-mast furling system for the main. If something jams in the furling system there's no way the main can come down. ...likely at the exact moment you most urgently want it to come down.

FWIW, I went with the whole Vesper setup - Vesper's splitter and Vesper's antenna, with an ICOM VHF in the mix. And although I started out planning to use LMR-400, I ended up using LMR-240 largely because of weight/bulk/bendability. The (very small) tradeoff in loss has not been noticeable...

"hours of peace punctuated by moments of sheer terror"

Definitive way is to run a 100-foot take up on your main halyard, read it at the waterline, and then add 5 feet for antenna/instruments/etc. Ballpark estimate is: I-dimension (deck to masthead) of 50 feet, plus deck to waterline (approx 4 feet), plus 5 feet for anything above the masthead...

I added a coolant/overflow tank to mine several years back. Plastic tank that I mounted on the bulkhead above the manifold. Works OK, and it's interesting (?) to see the level change between cold and hot (yeah, I know, I need a better hobby. but I digress) When I first put in the tank, I had...

I'd still totally buy it!

I've got one and love it. Works great, but (as you likely know) not cheap. https://www.fisheriessupply.com/schaefer-marine-mid-rail-chock-and-cleat/70-75

It depends. If you're comfortable with measuring yourself, want the lowest price and don't care about after-purchase support... discount is probably fine. For me - I'm fussy about my sails, and really want them to be "right". So I tend toward a loft that will come out to the boat and do the...

<lol> we had those, called PIBCAK (problem is between chair and keyboard). Oh, and yet another random aside - at my former employer, occasionally when a particularly troublesome PC appeared to be no longer worth the effort to repair, it was given one last test, fondly called "the gravity test"...