Something you need to read...

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Something well worth reading, FYI on appropriate use of language, and an important question you should ask yourself every once in awhile...

In a week with more than its fair share of bad news  a lot of folks have been focused on the loss overboard of Carly Hill of Oryx. Jill from Yacht Mollymawk covers the important stuff better than most and it's really a must read.

Listening to Chicano Batman and digging it

So it goes...



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Here's a project of interest...

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John Scalzi making some needful points, a sky pilot getting it right, and Badtux pointing out the obvious...

A long time ago I read the book "Sailing the Farm" by Ken Neumeyer and while there is a lot of good ideas, some excellent information on seaweed and other content of a useful sort, it suffered greatly from the fact that a lot of the projects/ideas were just not practical aboard a boat or, in their current form of evolution, simply did not work. Which is not to say he was not on the right track or his theories were wrong but it was simply not quite ready for prime time.

Tragically, as fate would have it, Ken Neumeyer was never able to write a sequel to "Sailing the Farm" but I'm sure that if he had it would have contained a boat sized, scaled down, and demountable version of something like this solar dehydrator from Mother Earth News.

Actually, maybe it's time to look at "Sailing the Farm" again and see how we can apply current tech and materials...

Listening to The Platters (2015 version)

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It's been a shitty week...

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One every 98 minutes is seriously fucked up, something you should know if you plan to cruise Guatemala, and Donkey Mountain makes a good point/prediction...

It's the first day of summer and in France the streets are alive with the sound of music during the F�te de la Musique and I'm well and I'm more than a little depressed.

It's been a horrible week. The sort of week you really just wish you had not read the news at all, topped off by a senseless racist massacre in a church in South Carolina.

Made even worse, if that is even possible, by listening to a clown car of spineless, self-serving politicians running for president and FAUX news say that it wasn't about racism, that there was really no racism in the US of A anymore, and that all things considered it was really the fault of any number of things but certainly had nothing to do with racism or guns.

Yeah right...

Of course, as some folks will no doubt write in and tell me...

 "But that doesn't have anything to do with boats or cruising, it's depressing, so you shouldn't write about this sort of thing"

... Here's the thing, it really does have something to do with boats and cruising because I've been at cruiser get-togethers and had to listen to stupid racist jokes and generally stupid comments of a racial nature far more often than you'd expect in a community that prides itself on being non-racist, open-minded, and welcoming to all...

The sad fact is that overt racism has become so prevalent these days that it's considered normal and when confronted with it instead of doing something about it far too many just pretend it doesn't exist...

But it does and we should all be doing something about it.

Listening to Fortunate Youth

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An improved winch...

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An interesting read that involves a speedboat, some very scary reading, and have you ever wondered about the average IQ of some folks into guns...

On "So It Goes" we have some Barlow winches (a pair of 24's and 26's) which are as old as the boat... Considering that they are at least 46-years old, still working finestkind, and looking like they're up for another 46 years, I don't actually pay much attention to the state-of-the-art of new winches. That said, these winches from Pontus are really interesting.



Watching/listening to Mariachi El Bronx

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Well at least it isn't a cat video...

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About that trade deal, in the "I guess assholes just have to be assholes" department, the real question is not who won but who gets the steak knives...




Listening to some Reg Presley/Troggs covers (don't miss the one by the Persuasions)

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A family oriented sailboat...

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Some seriously nasty corporate welfare, a ration of expected stupidity, and an interview of sorts that some folks really need to read...

All of a sudden we're surrounded by Morgan Out Islands. It's like being in the middle of a frelling convention.

While I've never been a big fan of Charlie Morgan's "Out Island" series (I think it has something to do with the look of the bow and the fact that I simply do not like center cockpits) but I'll be the first to admit that they make a lot of sense for someone looking for a big bombproof boat on a budget.

Especially the Out Island 41...


For me the main attraction of the boat is that they were well built and seem to be able to survive even the worst sort of abuse... There's a lot to be said for workboat solid. Better yet, as there were over a thousand built, finding a cheap one that needs a little TLC or a fixer-upper is pretty easy.

That said, the OI-41 is a bit more boat than a couple actually needs but it really is just the sort of thing you might want to stick on your shortlist if you were a family...

Then again, most of the OI-41's I seem to come across are crewed by grumpy retired single guys using them like trawlers so what do I know?

Listening to Carolina Story

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A boat stowable jig system...

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About Denali, some fiscal clusterfuckery, and a prediction I'd be happy to see come to fruition...

Here's a jig system that would come in very handy for various boat projects...



...and it stows! More info can be found at the Woodpeckers website.

Listening to High Dive Heart

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