Gifts for Sailors on your Christmas List

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Wondering what to buy for the Sailor on your shopping List?   Here are a twelve Ideas for the sailor on your list…click any of them for more information, to order, or for some other ideas!

Remember, if the sailors on your list may be full time cruisers, they only have so much room on their boat! Gifts should be practical. Best is to send cash so they can go on a safari, or take themselves out for a nice Christmas dinner. But if your sailor is close to home and you just don’t know what may be useful for them, here are some ideas!

If you don’t see something below, go to 

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 They have a lot of ideas and sales around this time of year too. Shipping is very quick and can even be sent overseas.

(As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases)

1.

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Most sailors these days would like to video what they are doing and where they are. This was Patrick’s Christmas gift this year after he lost his first one. He loves it, and the Hero 5, even though not the newest is really the best one in his opinion!

2.

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A good book, with good ideas for every sailor! We keep this onboard and get new ideas from it all the time.

3.

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We have one of these onboard so every device on or off the boat can have accurate positioning. Sometimes we even take it hiking with us to record how far we have walked 😉

4.

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Great on a boat…even

better in an anchorage!

Not only is this great for use on the boat, at night, but it’s great too for taking night walks on those dark islands we anchor at. Fun and purpose all in one!

5.

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We don’t have one of these. But given the option, it’s always what we feel about sailing!

6.

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We can not recommend this more highly. If your sailor will be anchoring a lot, this is a great stocking stuffer to make sure he keeps that anchor snubber in place!

7.

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Better hurry so they can engrave the boat name on it!

8.

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If your sailor is preparing to cross oceans, this book is something we not only have onboard but it has its own sewn cover for it to make sure nothing happens to it. One of the best books for a Sailor who makes a lot of Ocean passages.

9.

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Your sailor can keep this aboard and if there is a medical emergency,he or she won’t have to do it all by memory! Lots of great ideas in this book for both preparing to go offshore, and actually having something happen when away from the doctor!

10.

If you and your sailor are planning your world cruise and want to be sure not to skip some of the best spots, this is your book!

12.Or a gift card to West Marine…by clicking here:

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 They have a lot of ideas and sales around this time of year…and the sailor won’t be able to decide to go out to dinner instead! They will appreciate this later on when they have something nice for their boat!

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases

Cleaning a Sailboat Hull Underwater; How do the Pros do it so Fast?!?

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Cleaning a sailboat Hull, underwater, and the tools that you need:

Cruisers around the world have different ways of cleaning their hull. Different tools, different process, and techniques. But how do the professionals do it? The ones who are paid to do it and want to do it quickly and thoroughly, with as little setup time as possible, so they can clean many boats in one day.

Guest speaker Hank Schmitt from Offshore Passage Opportunities, a professional diver and sailboat captain for decades, demonstrates how he cleans the bottom of his Swan Sailboat “Avocation”. He shows what kind of tools to use, and how abrasive they should be. He shows how he uses a scuba tank, but leaves it on deck and uses it more like a hookah, but without any time consuming setup. He shows how he freedives, in a simple methodical way to get the whole hull done quickly.

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Patrick Childress then shows a short excerpt from a video he did a year ago demonstrating how we use a Sea Breathe Hookah/underwater breathing Apparatus to clean our cruising sailboat as we sail around the world. To clean our bottom. It’s remarkably similar…but different too! Be sure to watch both videos. The link to Patrick’s older video is in the video below.

No matter what kind of antifouling paint you put on, including the most expensive antifouling paint, to Coppercoat epoxy, scrubbing the bottom of your sailboat is something you have to get used to doing, unless you want to be paying someone to clean your hull every month or so.  Boat owners, you can save money by cleaning your sailboats bottom yourself!

Learn some new tricks in the video below!

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Re-Rigging a sailboat? Don’t forget the chainplates and the tangs…but wait..there is more…

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Are you re-rigging your sailboat? I always smile when someone says they have recently redone all their rigging. That means the wire rigging, maybe even the staylock or Norseman fittings and swages, right? Maybe they even had a world renown and/or highly recommended professional rigger do it all, for complete piece of mind…I once felt that way when we did all of our rigging in New Zealand a few years ago while sailing around the world.

After we lost our mast in the Pacific (2011), just 3 years after replacing the rigging in New Zealand (2008) I learned that re-rigging a sailboat is much more than replacing the wires, and the fittings. Possibly more important than the critical wire and fittings, is what they are attached to at the bottom: the chainplates…and at the top of the rigging…the tangs that secure it all to the mast. Since our dismasting Patrick and I have worked hard to inform other sailors that chainplates can break, and not just where they pass through the deck with no oxygen. When one “rerigs” their boat, they need to be thinking from the condition of the mast and the tangs, right down to the chainplates.

Article about our dismasting

Recently after some other dismastings of sailboats, I now realize that its equally important to consider WHAT those chain plates are attached to! If your new rigging is all attached to rotten or slowly rotting bulkheads because the chainplates leak on occasion, well, why bother with the expense of new rigging, and new titanium chainplates? This would be like tying a rope swing to a twig. Eventually, the twig will crack, and the best titanium ropes will just fall down, bringing everything else down that’s attached, with your life in its branches.

This is part 2 of this video series. In part 1, Patrick shows how he repairs the bulkhead, rebuilds everything, and makes sure that is very strong, so it can continue to support the chainplates that hold up the rigging, that hold up the mast. He also tells you about using titanium on a sailboat, and why we used titanium rather than stainless steel chainplates. It’s been 8 years with those chainplates. It seems like yesterday. I’m so glad we don’t have to start worrying about them again in a few years!

Then in Part 2, Patrick shows how he modifies the hole that the titanium Chainplate passes through the deck through. He puts down plastic laminate to redirect any water that may ever find its way through that hole, to run on top of the Formica rather than under, and in to the wood.

And the Formica serves another purpose…to make our 43 year old Valiant 40 look young and beautiful again!

Be sure to watch both videos if you want to see the entire project.

Part 1 -Fixing the Rotting Bulkhead, and Why we Used Titanium Chainplates

https://youtu.be/nvhBiWiPaw0

Part 2: Putting it all back together again, and making it Beautiful!

https://youtu.be/JHBvkCa6lzI

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