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| Poor mans'
air conditioning |
It was a simple fisherman
who taught is this trick. Hot day, not enough wind, even in the
shade it feels like 110 degrees. How do you stay comfortable even
when shade doesn't seem to give any relief? Simple, put on a loose,
long-sleeved tee shirt, poor salt water over yourself, or if you
have sufficient fresh water on board, use that, presto, a major
drop in body temp and a major improvement in comfort.
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| Stern
anchor stowage |
We cannot over-emphasize the important of having a stern anchor
readily available as you cruise. You can use it to slow your boat
down if you have to run into a down wind slip and you aren't sure
your engine has sufficient power to counter the 35 knot winds. You
can use it to kedge off quickly should you run aground. Better yet,
with the stern anchor readily available, you won't hesitate to use
it to align your boat more comfortably to the swell. If you happen
to have a boomkin, here is a solution that has proven almost perfect
on Taleisin. The anchor rode is left permanently attached and leads
directly to our cockpit winch. We store 250 feet of ½ inch line
in the cockpit locker, ready to go at all times. If you do not have
a boomkin, be sure to add a fairlead at your stern rail for an anchor
rode. It could some day prove essential to your boats security.
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| Spinnaker
pole storage |
When Larry put a track up the front of our mast, and set the spinnaker/whisker
pole on an endless line to make it an instant pole (you can see
this in Capable Cruiser), he came up with this simple way to secure
the lower end and keep it clear of the deck. He removed the clevis
pin from the foreward lower turn buckle on each side of the boat
and replaced it with an appropriately sized eyebolt. You can just
see the split pin on the outboard side of the wire eye-splice which
retains the dual purpose pin. This set up has worked perfectly for
l8 years. With a retaining spot on either side of the boat, I can
stow the pole easily when I take it down, no matter what tack we
happen to be on. |
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