Many boats made in the 1970’s came with foam-backed vinyl material covering the interior walls and roof. The material provides some insulation and covers up all the nuts and other hardware. After a few decades, the material starts to degrade. […]
On a calm day, everything on a yacht happens slowly and gently. But if you head out in a gusty day it’s easy to find yourself on a boat that’s leaning (or heeling) over at worrying angles. New sailors find […]
From Fisherrow Harbour, you can look across the Forth Estuary and see the waterfront at Kirkcaldy (10 miles away). But if you look further up the coastline, it’s impossible to see the beach at Leven (18 miles away) even on […]
During the hours of darkness we rely on lights to tell when other boats are nearby, whether they are moving and in what direction they’re travelling in. The international regulations that describe what lights should be shown are part of […]
Riveting using pop rivets is straightforward. But if you need to put a rivet at the bottom of a channel, such as you might find on a yacht mast, things get a bit more complex. Most rivet tools have a […]
Epoxies are one of the wonder materials of modern boating – strong and stable even in the harsh marine environment. Today we’re using epoxy to repair a broken strip of Iroko wood that came from a boat cockpit side. Epoxy […]
We’re going to tear down an old yacht winch, identified only by the words “Gibb England” stamped on the top. The Gibb company that made them has long since vanished, possibly acquired by Lewmar at some point. But the winches […]
Here in Scotland, many of the smaller harbours dry out at low tide, and the boats settle down onto the mud. This means that bilge keeled boats are common, since their two fins means that the boat can sit upright. Usually, you would hope to be safely back onto terra firma by the time this happens since the mud at the bottom of a harbour can be, well, ‘exciting’….
“On the trot” is an English phrase that means roughly “one after the other” – e.g. “We went to three pubs on the trot”. By analogy, trot moorings have several boats sitting in a line, each having their bow and stern connected…
Anywhere you see wood inside a yacht, you’ll find screws holding it together. These screws don’t have an easy life – the moist, salty conditions would quickly turn a plain steel screw into a pile of rust. But getting the right screws….