Have You Found Things Years into a Boat?

[Pblais]

if you find an original of a marriage license from St. Vincent ... if we ever have to prove we are married we are in trouble--or in luck--depending on whether one views the cup as half full or half empty

In order for a marriage to be legal in almost all the world it must be officially recorded. If you are a US citizen and it's not recorded in some government office some place recognized as a country it never was legal. If you were legally married in St Vincent then it can be proven (they record marriages). You can't tear up or lose a marriage certificate and suddenly be unmarried again. You can purchase a duplicate certificate. Going back and getting it in person would be more fun.

The glass is full would be the correct answer

My wife and I were married in St Lucia.

[MitchM]

on our old boat i was trying to figure out why an add on 12v auxiliary fan in the v berth never worked. puzzled to see bits and pieces of AC 115v lamp cord all over the place near the wire run. finally traced the wiring and lo, the 1st owner had rewired quite a few add on 12 v accessories with old decrepit cracking lamp cord (maybe saved from his house ?) unfortunately one of the lamp cords supplying a 12v fan had burnt completely thru -- so it was getting no power. fortunately it did not burn the boat down. this nice little surprise caused me to check every thing the guy had tried to do with electrical wiring...

[Pblais]

fortunately it did not burn the boat down. this nice little surprise caused me to check every thing the guy had tried to do with electrical wiring...

Wiring is one of the items most often done wrong be previous owners. It's also the leading cause of boat fires. It's really easy to wire something so it works. It takes longer and good quality materials to do it correctly so it works for many many years.

You have to wonder if previous owners were this bad, just how good are current owners? Fortunately the CF electrical archives are loaded with details on how to do it right.

[sandy daugherty]

previously posted:

'The first owner of my boat was one Pablo Escobar, a noted agricultural entrepreneur late of Medelin, Columbia. While she has been thoroughly inspected by every Alphabet Agency in the Western Hemishphere (panels and inspection ports pop open at the snap of a finger) I keep hoping to find a void awash in cut diamonds or something.'

Update:

James Power, formerly of the PDQ Factory, still drives up and down the East Coast helping PDQ owners keep their boats up. During a visit he was down in the bows looking for water infiltration when he said (voice muffled from the compartment) "Did you know you have a lot of water in this transverse tank?" I replied "What Transverse Tank?" and remembered the post above. Sure enough, back in the back dark corner of both bow compartments were another set of 6" screw off covers, only these weren't so easy to remove. Trying to control my excitement I told James not to worry, I'd pump them out later.

Next morning, in a cold rain, I stuck a pump into the port transverse tank and cranked it up, with the other end hanging over the gravel below. I was worried about the strange color of the exhaust water, it was about the color of a Navy Ship, Haze Gray. There were 30 gallons of accumulated rain water in that tank. I climbed down off the boat and crawled around in the resulting large puddle, feeling around in the gray water to see what was there.

Something sparkled.

My heart started pounding.

It was small, rectangular, roughly faceted, and transparent.

It was a piece of glass.

[mikereed100]

Originally Posted by sandy daugherty

It was a piece of glass.

But you did get 240lbs off the bow. Pure gold!

[John P]

Bought my '84 Catalina 25 back in 2005. I am the 3rd owner. Not too many surprises, although it was interesting that when I finally got the boat to the yard where she now lives, I pulled everything out of the boat and layed it on the ground. I could not believe how much "junk" was in that thing! Some things in there that I assume were lost by others:
-2 sets of car keys (1 GM, 1 Saab)
-3 very rusty pocket knives (not salvageable)


Lastly, it is simply amazing how much stuff can be crammed into the storage spaces on a sailboat!

[tager]

I found a rainier beer bottle that is about 30 years old.

[Cheechako]

it wasnt years, but maybe close to a year: I found a nice old sextant in a wooden box. It had been stored behind a curved settee back (the curve was the corner of an L shaped settee) Tucked away back there and a little hard to get out.

[surfingminniwinni]

I found the original 1981 blue prints, (2 huge pages, one with slight water damage), a photo of the brand new yacht being launched, (colour scheme of orange and cream and mission brown mast and accessories) the original 6 page colour sales brochure (in perfect condition) and a magazine of the same era: 1981. It was all stashed into an visually inaccessible corner behind the main settee. I was so excited by the find and sure that it was a good omen that I decided right there and then that this was the yacht of our dreams.
My first post: Jen ( not Glenn)

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by surfingminniwinni

I found the original 1981 blue prints, (2 huge pages, one with slight water damage), a photo of the brand new yacht being launched, .
Jen ( not Glenn)

Hey Jen, that is a great find!

I hope you have re-painted! LOL

Mark

[MarkJ]

Idiots own Sail Boat!

Well that’s the possible newspaper headlines after our discovery

We have owned our boat for 18 months. Yes we wash every day and shower often.

In our 2 heads we have extendable faucets. The are combined sink and shower roses. But the water comes out like a tap, not a gentle spray. So showering is like standing under a normal tap.

They are a little corroded so we are re-chroming a few things Nicolle wanted to re-chrome the faucets too. So I was looking at them thinking chroming the handles would be fine but not the black rubber bit on them. I got to wondering what the black rubber bit does..... in deedy it looks like a pattern in the black rubber.... indeedy why would Benteau put a pattern in black rubber that could be mistaken for a button? Indeedy if it was a button what would it do? [Can you see how sharp my brain is? No cretinism in my family!]. So....... I pushed the button. Yes, the stupid thing changes the rose from a tap like gush to a gentle shower.

After 18 months I can finally have a normal shower!!!!!!!!!!!! YIPPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!


Mark

[Stillraining]

that's too funny Mark...I could not have admitted to that...your a better man then I am..

[Ex-Calif]

It must have taken Nic a lot of discipline to keep remembering to switch back to faucet mode after her showers for 18 months...

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by Ex-Calif

It must have taken Nic a lot of discipline to keep remembering to switch back to faucet mode after her showers for 18 months...

Nup. She's as dopey as me. She never noticed either.

When I was having my first shower with it this afternoon, I did happen to look at it and wonder how I didn't notice LOL.

[TAREUA]

My first boat, long ago, a Cascade 29 which I lived aboard, came with all sorts of gear from the previous owner. Being a racer and a dinghy sailer, I had very little idea of what any of this stuff was, or even could be for. About six months after I got her, I was anchored out in the islands with a buddy, and I left the anchor light on all night, having no clue how great the amount of draw could be. Or how bad the battery was. The battery was dead. No wind. I got out the engine manuel for the one cylander Farymann, and it indicated you could hand start the engine. So my pal and I concocted a gizmo involving two wrenches, a bit of pipe, and duct tape. With great difficulty and a lot of sweat, we were getting close to actually getting it started when I suddenly had a miraculous vision of this Z-shaped thing I had moved a number of times getting at other stuff I could identify. Yes, it was a starter handle. Once we were able to stop laughing at me, it started right up.