Best Money You Spent...

[captain465]

Best.......Stabilized Binoculars,,Auto pilot
Worst.....Folding bicycle

[boatman61]

Best... Tiller/Wheel Pilot
Next Best..... Roller Furler.
Wind Generator.

Worst... Dirty Diesel.

[Feral Cement]

Originally Posted by captain465

Worst.....Folding bicycle

Why? Hard to stow? Hard to ride? Never used? Other?

Thanks,

John

[hummingway]

Originally Posted by boatman61

Worst... Dirty Diesel.

Ouch. Worst of the worst are the ones you don't see coming.

[multihullsailor6]

Best - AIS transceiver
Worst - A plastic corkscrew which broke first time it was used! And non-waterproof glue for floor tiles.

[svpattyd]

Caribe RIB
Seafrost DC refrig
Generator
Hard dodger and canvas Bimini
Ronca anchor

[hummingway]

Originally Posted by svpattyd

Caribe RIB
Seafrost DC refrig
Generator
Hard dodger and canvas Bimini
Ronca anchor

Which is which (best, worst)?

[Kettlewell]

Best: Bulwagga anchor. Never let us down in some hairy anchoring situations like a coral reef anchorage in the San Blas Islands with a 56-knot storm and 3.4:1 scope out due to lack of room, terrible holding ground, when everyone else was dragging anchor and going up on the reefs we hung in there.

Close second: one of the last 2-stroke, 8 HP Johnson outboards sold in the USA. Starts every time, and almost zero maintenance in six years of heavy use. Absolutely the best outboard motor I've ever owned.

Worst: Auto-Helm windvane self-steering gear (not the electronic type of autopilot). Nicely made, rugged, easy to install, lots of money, auxiliary rudder type of self steering, but it takes lots of constant tweaking to steer a course, and even then doesn't work well enough for my wife to feel confident, meaning I have to get up all the time from off watch or she has to hand steer.

[svpattyd]

Originally Posted by hummingway

Which is which (best, worst)?

Those are the best.
Worst:
Davits
Wonderwash

[cfarrar]

Best: Solar panels, Rocna, linear drive A/P, 90% blade jib

Worst: 8hp Tohatsu 4-stroke (too heavy, finicky carb, can't cope with any air in fuel line so you can't let the fuel tank get low when it's choppy)

[easterly38]

The best:
A Sunbrella tarp with grommets that my mother-in-law made. It can be tied in a variety of ways and places to block the sun or rain. I'm planning to make a second one in a different shape that can be used for a variety of purposes as well.

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by hummingway

Which is which (best, worst)?

Looking at the list... I'd say worst..

[sailingaway221]

Ap28 from simrad autopilot and big hydraulic ram........37kg Rocnor anchor and new chain.... Both excellent... awesome amazing .....!

Worst........ actually nothing really bad to say about too much... But I have brought a lot of things I dont use or need.... Really awesome generator... ran it once.. the Honda 2000kw, then found that the new solar panels make more power than I use ... generator just sits around.. drinking beer....

[CarlF]

Good:

Electric main halyard winch and genoa sheet winch

Household undersink water filter with sub 1 micron filter. Filtered water spigot in head and galley (no bottled water permitted on boat)

Big Maxwell windlass

Anything from Victron

Raritan Elegance head plumbed for salt or fresh flush. Quiet. Guests can figure it out. Uses less flush water than manual head so holding tank doesn't fill quickly in harbor. Doesn't clog. Very comfy (need magazine rack in head)

New generation anchor (I think Manson, Rocna, Spade, and Ultra are probably about equally wonderful)

Yanmar small sailboat engines - damn they're reliable

Great bimini and dodger that both looks good, does it's job and doesn't bump my head coming up the companionway.

Frigoboat keel cooler for fridge and freezer - Low energy use. Dead quiet.

Good davit setup - a bad one is worse than none at all

Powerful corded electric hand vac (Eureka 71B - $40)

Really great mattress including eggshell "topper" and on slats. More comfortable than my last house mattress.

Spotless Stainless stainless cleaner (new entrant)

Led cabin lighting

Big house battery bank

Tef-gel and UDMH tape to isolate stainless from aluminum on masts and booms - especially painted ones. Assume this wasn't done properly by the builder.

Trident 101 head hose. No smell. Flexible.

West Gflex epoxy - appears to stick to almost anything and never "pop" off.

Battery powered bottle opener that plays the last out of the Red Sox 2004 world series win everytime you use it (it's amazing how often this impresses guests)

Bad:

Balmar alternator regulator - too difficult to set and fails more than it should - but I can't find a good alternative

Rule pump switches

Dodger windows - even strataglass looks good for less than 5 years despite religious care - I hate looking through scratched windows

Hatch and portlight acrylic - same cloudy problem. Next boat will have glass portlights (Newfound metals has a tempered glass option).

Lead acid Batteries (including AGM, Gel, traction). This is ridiculous. Name another technology that hasn't improved much since the 19th century? Maybe L-ion - someday.

Painted masts - once they start to bubble you're lost - see Tef-gel above.

[barnakiel]

Originally Posted by Feral Cement

Explain, please?

Thx

John

Explaining (neoprene hatch gaskets - bad buy):

We have plain (no glass) hatches that require plain gaskets round the brim. Old gaskets were rubber. We could not source one-for-one and so I got neoprene stickyback gaskets and used them. They turned to black powder in less than a year.

Later I just cut slices of karrimat and glued them as gaskets. They are still there. Cost - 0, bang for buck - infinite!

b.