I say “we” as I am just the humble first mate, admiral, and galley wench who has the honour of sharing this floating home with my husband Chris; who is the captain and self-proclaimed shipwright. We also share our living space with our deck paw, Cleo the boat cat. 

Long story short, we had decided on boat life long before we even started researching boats from our one bedroom apartment in North Lake Tahoe. Chris was born into a sailing family as his mom has a Mason 43 in the San Francisco Bay while his brother, Jon, is the captain of SV Prism and has 12,000+ nautical miles under his keel.

Chris and I created a small list of “must-haves” when it came to choosing a boat, which was great because we have standards, but awful because well, we have standards and being a young newly wed, newly graduated college couple it made hard to find the perfect boat. We came across Avocet by chance and she checked every one of our boxes except one, but we will get to that later. After pulling our money and getting a loan we pulled the trigger and became the 3rd owners of SV Avocet!

So when we first bought Avocet, the first thing that needed to be done was a deep clean. The previous owner neglected the task of tidying for what seemed to be years so there was a lot of mold, dust and other unspeakables.

Underneath our oven, there were maggots munching on food that had been left for months, maybe even years. So after putting on our rubber gloves and hazmat suits (just kidding, I wish we had hazmat suits) we got Avocet spic, span and gosh darn near livable.

The post SV Avocet: Couple Renovate Their Dream Boat and Sail Away appeared first on Sail Universe.

A GOOD MARINE INTERIOR WOOD PAINT ALTERNATIVE?

Last time I renovated a boat I wasted a lot of money on ‘marine’ quality paints for interior use. I experimented a lot with paints such as valspar and Delux but nothing came close to the quality of say, Hempel’s Multicoat. This time around I was determined to find a paint that could be used on the wood interior of my boat that wouldn’t cost the earth.

One thing kept coming into my mind was the old advert for Ronseal “does exactly what it says on the tin” What’s that you say? good marketing, yeh I know right! So paint dreams aside, I took a look at what Ronseal had to offer in terms of interior paints. One tin of paint appealed to me the most, that was Ronseal Diamond Hard Floor Paint. At £22.95 for 2.5 litres this was the paint I had been looking for. Not only that but, surely, if the paint is marketed as paint for floors then it will stand up to the rough and tumble of a boat interior right?

The post Ronseal Diamond Hard Floor Paint – A Full Review appeared first on Sail Universe.

As things crumble around you, you either can either afford to pay someone else or blow the cobwebs off your toolbox and get your hands dirty. You learn how to fix things through friends, neighbours and let’s face it, most of the time these days, through Youtube! However, trapped in the eternal circle of cleaning, repairing and general maintenance, it’s easy to forget what boats were even built for. That is, for sailing!

Learning to sail has been something I’d personally been putting off for many years…

Read More

The post Novice Sailing on the Bristol Channel appeared first on Sail Universe.

I think they wait for me to go out then run over with their pre-written red slips! Anyhow, after a trip to the parcel office I managed to collect a new sample for review; non-other than the newly packed Captain Tolley’s Creeping Crack Cure. 

Discover More

The post Captain Tolley’s Creeping Crack Cure: A Full Review appeared first on Sail Universe.

All of the reinforcement sheeting in this video can be used in boat building and renovation but like most materials have there pros and cons.

Discover More

The post Do you know the Different Types of Fibreglass Reinforcements? appeared first on Sail Universe.

His current project is a single scull rowing boat which he will use to train and race on Lake Inya. His team won gold and bronze medals at Varsity Boat Race 2016 in Malaysia. His great work was stumbled upon on social media and he was happy to share his story!

The post Kyaw Htet Aung: Boat Building and… Crocodiles appeared first on Sail Universe.

The Binks Flying Dutchman takes its name from the well-known myth of the legendary ghost ship that forever sails the ocean.  In fact, it’s probably safe to say that this boat looked like it had been floating around Davey Jones’ Locker!

So with that in mind, John passed the batten to his son Owen and with his supervision, his son began working on the boat. John claims his son had never used power tools let alone hand tools before.  Since the project began he has replaced the transom and centreboard as well as other sections and is still working hard on it today.

Don’t miss the Photogallery

The post How he Bought a 1968 Binks Flying Dutchman for 50$ and He Renovated it appeared first on Sail Universe.

But why do we have to use plywood specifically made for the marine environment and are we wasting our money on expensive ‘marine’ plywood when outdoor grade ply may work just as well?

I’m currently working on an 18ft fibreglass fishing boat that has been totally gutted by the previous owner. The boat is currently a ghostly empty shell with nothing but a loose BMC 1.5 engine. With help, the engine has now been moved to the back of the boat in preparation for the rebuild of the boat’s interior.

Although it’s a fibreglass boat, it will still require a plywood floor that will need to be reinforced with fibreglass matting. This is to protect it against the elements and to also form a waterproof structural bond to the hull of the boat. It would be a pretty awful to be in a capsized boat but imagine the floor conking you on the head as well if it wasn’t attached. With this in mind,  I took to searching the internet for the solution.

Read More

The post Marine Plywood: knowing the basics appeared first on Sail Universe.

In this tutorial, you will learn how to make a DIY GSM cell phone bilge alarm. Don’t worry if you’re not up for the job there are a multitude of devices out there, and we’ve gone and listed them for you as well

Its true that all sea-going vessels and boats alike should have a bilge pump connected to an automatic float switch,  but what about an alarm? If like the majority of us, your engine makes a lot of noise and racket, then you will knowhow hard it is to hear your bilge pump amidst the drones of an engine.

Firstly, to tackle this problem you will need a bilge alarm. This can be purchased for no more than £10 if you’re looking in the right places; but what happens if nobody is around to hear it? After all,  “If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?”   Well no … but it could have at least sent me a text, the inconsiderate …… !

Discover More

The post DIY GSM Cell Phone bilge alarm… cheap option! appeared first on Sail Universe.

Stripping a boat can be painstaking work. It can be hazardous,  messy, expensive, depressing and can often make even the best of craftsmen cut corners.There is a lot to contend with but if you break the task down into a simple steps things will get a lot easier. Let me show you…

What are your paint durability requirements?

Before stripping a boat you will need to work out exactly how durable your paint needs to be once finished. There is no point in stripping a boat back to the original gel coat, priming and top coating if you only really need to key the surface and add a new topcoat.  This will all depend on the finish that you require.

Imagine you are only using your boat for occasional weekend fishing trips, the probability is that it won’t need to be coated with a paint that lasts for 30 years, neither will it need to facilitate a herd of drunken elephants.   With that in mind here are some simple questions you must ask yourself, is it:

• A working boat that has heavy foot fall and is in constant use?  Use 2 pack.
• A liveaboard that only has the occasional person smoking a cigarette on the roof and a bi-yearly wash?  Use 1 pack.
• A racing yacht that needs to stand out from the crowd, be constantly used and look good? Use 2 pack.
• An occasional weekend fishing boat? Use 1 pack.

So to summarise; if you want to paint, spray or roll your boat with a 2 pack high durable marine paint, you will need to remove all of the less adequate 1 part paint first. A 2 part paint will only be as strong as it’s underlying surface.  However, If you want to add a few layers of topcoat to get it through the next few seasons then a 1 part paint will be more than adequate. Notably, you will always want to key the surface and use a compatible paint depending on the manufacturer’s requirements.

Read More

The post Do you want to know how to strip a boat? Read it! appeared first on Sail Universe.