• Untitled Document

    Join us on March 29rd, 7pm EST

    for the CBEC Virtual Meeting

    All EYO members and followers are welcome to join the fun and get to know the guest speaker!

    See the link below for login credentials and join us!

    March Meeting Info

    (dismiss this notice by hitting 'X', upper right)

Gear Survey: Most Unexpectedly Useful?

Christian Williams

E381 - Los Angeles
Senior Moderator
Blogs Author
Many items of gear seem important to buy and wind up covered in dust or rust.

This is the category of Unexpectedly Useful.

I wavered five years ago before buying an overpriced hot knife from Sailrite. I could cut line with a knife. I could sear the ends with a torch. I did not need a small valise containing a large product to do expensively what I could by numerous other means. And I knew I was right.

I was wrong. Turns out that this hot knife gets used every two weeks. It cuts lines instantly, it molds or reconfigures household plastic, it seals fabric, it cuts belts and webbing, it melts frays, and of course cuts and seals the patterns for fabrics like Sunbrella. It has a mysterious variety of unintended uses--for me, anyhow.

1-hot knife.JPG

Also, you can put your initials on the steak.
 
Last edited:

Rick R.

Contributing Partner
Many items of gear seem important to buy and wind up covered in dust or rust.

This is the category of Unexpectedly Useful.

I wavered five years ago before buying an overpriced hot knife from Sailrite. I could cut line with a knife. I could sear the ends with a torch. I did not need a small valise containing a large product to do expensively what I could by numerous other means. And I knew I was right.

I was wrong. Turns out that this hot knife gets used every two weeks. It cuts lines instantly, it molds or reconfigures household plastic, it seals fabric, it cuts belts and webbing, it melts frays, and of course cuts and seals the patterns for fabrics like Sunbrella. It has a mysterious variety of unintended uses--for me, anyhow.

View attachment 24474

That is funny Christian, I thought the same thing when I ordered one years ago. It is a very “special”tool indeed!
 

bgary

Advanced Beginner
Blogs Author
In general, a Dremel roto-tool, but in particular the "flex-shaft" attachment that makes it much less ungainly in small places.

xDremel_FlexShaft_22501_,28EN,29,284,29.jpg

In the past week or two I've used it to "pot" the core in prep for filling a bunch of thru-deck holes, cut off some fasteners, rough-up a section of lazarette underside in prep for a repair, and... probably a whole bunch of other stuff. It works particularly great as a mini disc-sander in places where I want to remove material while still able to see what I'm doing. With a wood-cutting disc, it even makes a remarkably useful very-small circular saw...

Beyond that... duct tape and vice grips are good for just about everything else (grin)

Bruce
 

Loren Beach

O34 - Portland, OR
Senior Moderator
Blogs Author
Applying some Force

Some folks say that "if you can't fix it with a hammer it's an electrical problem"... at least that is what a retired truck repair guy tells me. Of course he's also an ol' farm boy and actually can revive stubborn machinery with wire and tape ... fairly often...
:rolleyes:
He has also been a sailor for 40+ years, too.

About 20 years ago I found that I needed a way to put some real force on hand tools in hard to reach places on the boat where there was no real room to swing a ball peen hammer. What was needed was *controlled* force where a hammer could only move an inch or three.

I found this at Harbor Fright and it was on sale for a few dollars. It is used with chisels and every tool that needs some force/torque in a place where I just cannot get much arm or shoulder into it.

It is sold as a "drilling hammer" and comes in various weights. Mine is about 3 # or so. The handle is only about 10" long, which is what makes it so handy.

Odd tool for boating perhaps, but useful.

Besides, it's Viking sort of thing.... Mjölnir, the Hammer of Thor
:)
 

Attachments

  • 2.5 # hammer.jpg
    2.5 # hammer.jpg
    11.5 KB · Views: 151
Last edited:

toddster

Curator of Broken Parts
Blogs Author
I've even used the SailRite hot knife to cut precise-ish patterns in ABS sheets for control panel cut-outs. Even if the sheet is too thick, the groove it makes will guide a power tool to finish the cut.

My workbench has a variety of BFH's to help where an authoritative tap is needed. I think I need to put a label on each handle: "Go back and make sure there isn't one more fastener holding that piece."
 

Baslin

Member III
Snap On Large Pick

This is probably one of my favorite tools I use on the boat. It’s best use is removing stubborn hoses, especially ones that you want to still use and not cut with a razor blade. Mine is a Snap On, which means I overpaid for it, but it comes with a life time warranty that has come in handy a couple times when I use it as a pry bar. This pick is rather large, approx 6” with a large 4” rubber grip.....I think my second favorite tool is a pocket screw driver with a magnet on the end.

D7EEF65F-8A03-471D-8654-0912CD711879.jpg
 
Last edited:

tenders

Innocent Bystander
I have never used a mallet or sledge on a boat...and the hammer in my toolbox is a tiny joke of a thing that is rarely used and probably not worth the weight of carrying around.

My boat partner added that hose pick to the arsenal a year ago...yeah, that’s a good tool. Reduces cursing by 90%.

I get an embarrassing amount of use out of a $19 Harbor Freight oscillating saw (ripoff of a Feintool). It is noisy, and it doesn’t stay permanently on the boat, but with higher quality blades than are sold at HF it is amazing.

My most-used boat tool though is a Porter Cable oscillating sander that I inherited from my late uncle. He bought in 1993 and I have been using it constantly and harshly every offseason since 2002. His fine woodworking paper (220, 340 grit) sits unused while I have gone through reams of harsh 60 and 100 grit on fiberglass and epoxy.
 

u079721

Contributing Partner
I'm going to suggest a few items that are mostly to do with cruising and anchoring out. If you are day sailing these won't even come up.

During our yearly month-long cruise to the North Channel of Lake Huron we sometimes moved to a new anchorage every night, sometimes only once a week. One of the things we came to rely on was a LASER rangefinder. The combination of the rangefinder and an anchor buoy allowed us to practice what I called "precision anchoring", in which we could squeeze into tight coves or open spot, and be sure that we (and everyone around us) had enough swinging room. Like when you are anchored off a weather shore, would you still have enough room if you swung during the night to a lee short situation? I wrote an article for Ocean Navigator some years ago outlining this type of approach (Issue 153, 2006), but I don't seem to be able to find it anywhere online to link to. If anyone is really interested I send email you a copy of the original manuscript.

The other useful item while anchoring is a hand held depth sounder, the type that looks like a yellow flashlight that you stick into the water from the side of your dinghy to measure depth. I suppose nowadays rich folks just have a depth sounder mounted in their center cockpit RIB, but back when I was rowing around rocky anchorages this hand held unit was just fantastic to help explore the edges of the anchorage to find out where you had enough water before dropping the hook. Beats the heck out of a lead line.

And last, how about a chamois? We always kept one hanging on the binnacle for use first thing in the morning to wipe off the dew, and another in the dinghy to wipe off the dinghy seats. Not leather of course, but those synthetic sham-wow types. A simple thing perhaps, but worth the effort to try and keep your butt dry first thing in the morning.
 
Top