|
The Tao of Boat Rigging (Part I)
Setting up a boat for ocean use requires some careful planning. Materials,
products and tools can be critical for long-term reliability. The Internet has
made shopping both a treat and a chore. Read what we learned through rigging
Toy Boat 2
Equipment Plan | The
10 Laws | Selecting
Gear | The
Results | Misc.
Notes | Caveat Emptor
Before we selected and installed our equipment, we did a fair amount of
planning. We researched equipment and pricing, checked on
availability, etc. As we did our planning, we kept in mind these
fundamental limitations of ocean skiffs:
 |
-
Skiffs don't have a lot of room. This is made worse by the amount of safety
gear you should bring along, and the fishing tackle you will
bring along.
-
Skiffs can be wet
-
Skiffs will take a pounding in rough water
-
Skiffs will rock more than large boats
-
Skiffs are more sensitive to weight issues (both total weight and
distribution of the weight)
|
If you combine these limitations with Murphy's Law and
a couple of laws of thermodynamics, you get what I've been referring to
as "The 10 Laws of Life Aboard a Skiff":
-
Sooner or later, you will wind up tripping over, bumping into, or falling
on top of, almost everything in the boat.
-
Sooner or later, everything is going to get wet.
-
Sooner or later, everything is going to get pounded.
-
Anything that can break loose and slide around, will break off and
slide around.
-
Anything that looks like a handgrip, will be grabbed.
-
When you need something the most, you will not be able to easily get to
it.
-
Almost everything will eventually break, and have to be
repaired or replaced.
-
You will make mistakes and/or change your mind about how things are laid
out in the boat. These things will also have to be repaired or replaced.
-
You will never anticipate every problem you'll encounter.
-
There is a natural order or flow of things that you should follow - don't
fight it!
|
 |
Before we buy any equipment or make any modifications to Toy Boat 2, we
ask outselves "What will happen when we apply the 10 Laws"?
That is:
-
Will doing this make it hard to move around the boat? What will happen if
we trip over it, bump into it, or fall on top of it?
-
What will happen when (not if) it gets wet?
-
Will it survive when we repeatedly run the boat through rough water?
-
Is it securely anchored to the boat? If not, what will happen when (not
if) it gets loose?
-
What will happen to it when the heaviest person in the boat grabs it to avoid
going overboard?
-
Can we access it easily? Or does it matter?
-
If it breaks, or we want to replace it, how easy will it be to
remove?
-
If we decide to move it, how easy will it be to repair the damage caused
by installing it?
-
If we make a mistake, how easy will it be to fix the error?
-
Is this the easiest way to do something? Or is there a natural way to correct a
problem?
Of course, not everything we do will survive the 10 Laws. Like most
things in life, rigging a boat often involves compromise. The key
is making sure that if you have to compromise, you fully understand the
ramifications of what you're doing.
|