|
Captain Ron |
|
| by
Ron Thweatt
- Hermitage Tennessee - USA
Get Rid Of
Stuff
You Can’t Take It With YOU |
|
I was looking for a
paint brush in my storage barn, when I came up on
some ”Great Stuff.”
I live in a condo
with my Queen Priscilla, now. We lived in the same
house with a big storage barn for 31 years. It was
there where I restored over 15 Sailboats and owned
a total of 32 boats of one kind or another. You can
imagine trying to “down-size your Stuff?”
After owning over 32 boats and building one or two
its amazing how much Stuff is left over.
My “storage
barn” is now a closet off my carport, about
4 feet deep and 8 feet long. This is where owning
and outfitting lots of boats is a blessing and a curse
- you learn how to conserve space so you can get “mo
stuff.”
I have a work bench,
a great set of gym lockers, given to me by my son-in-law,
where I store everything in its place? “This
is some good fiction,” my wife The Queen of
the Chateau would say. On the wall over the work bench
is peg board with lots of good stuff there. I have
a rack just to the port side of the companionway or
door, as my neighbors call theirs. On the rack are
bins of “Stuff.” Not just your run of
the mill Stuff - I have all size of Harken blocks,
stainless steel screws, bolts and LED lights left
over from when my friend and I started making them
and selling them for $35.00 each. Now you can buy
some for $3.00 online. I am so glad I took my money
and ran!
 |
I have
a great set of gym lockers, given to me
by my son-in-law, where I store everything
in its place.
(click
images to enlarge) |
|
For some reason I
have 2 Origo Heat Pals. One of them is fitted with
an oven for baking bread and cornbread under way.
(I really have them because my wife threatened me
bodily harm if I got rid of them!) I also have an
alcohol swing stove off an Oday 28. Wish I could remember
why?
Any size boat from
7 foot to 200 foot has to have at least one Origo
Heat pal. I do not own any stock in this company.
I think whoever came up with these things should be
in the Something Hall of Fame of Boat Stuff. I have
taken mine on a 600 mile river trip, 30 mile river
trips, and ½ mile sailing trips. My Wife has
prepared coconut cornbread on it while underway on
the Great River Trip. We used it for baking apple
pies and biscuits along with a long list of other
goodies.
I loved being the
smallest boat in the fleet and then at the sundown
dinner showing up by someone elses BIG YACHT, who
had a stove that had never been used. We would always
make it a point to row over in Scrappy, our dinghy
made from left over job site plywood. We would have
a smile, a half gallon of cold milk and a fresh baked
pineapple upside down cake.
The question would
be asked, “How have you kept this warm all day?”
Then I would drop the big answer, “It just came
out of the oven.” “WHAT?” Then all
the mouths would open at the same time, not to eat
but to ask the same question all at the same time,
“No way, you have an oven on that little thing?”
Reply: “Yep, don’t you have one?”
“No way you can have a stove!” “OK,
I don’t. I will just take my cake back, row
back to my little boat and make sure the oven I don’t
have is turned off and eat this warm, just out of
the oven I couldn’t have baked cake all by myself!”
| “No
way, you have an oven on that little thing?” |
|
|
Enough about the Heat
Pal. Did I tell you I have two of them? I am One rich
man. I also have a one burner Origo stove with pot
hooks. Are you impressed? I told you I have some Good
STUFF! There is also a Force 10 Swing stove and a
Cobb Cooker along with a must have 9,500 BTU One Burner
Gas Stove. No: I have no idea WHY.
I looked at all the
Great stuff including a LARGE Box of Teak I had harvested
from a local manufacturer. I called the owner and
asked them what they did with the scraps? We burn
them in the winter and pitch them in the dumpster
in the summer. That almost gave me another heart attack!
Then he said, “COME AND GET ALL YOU CAN TAKE.”
I harvested a whole pick up truck FULL.
I have shipped Boxes
of this stuff to a lady in California, one box went
to a man in Alabama and another was given to my neighbor,
who has no idea what he is going to do with it but
“It sure is pretty!” And now it’s
out of my way and now I have more room for “mo
stuff.”
I also found a Sika
spruce mast and boom for a dinghy. I sold my Opti
rig to a very nice young man who is building a dinghy
with his son. I got to thinking, I bet Stacey could
use this! It would take him hours to make these and
I need room for “mo stuff.” I e-mailed
him and he is going to be using it for his boat. It
will be great to have it put to good use.
While Stacey was here
I was able to unload a bunch of junk and teak on him,
also. We had lunch and he gave me a new boat he had
made out of the teak. I could not wait to to tell
my wife about my new boat. I had no more than spoken
the words, “ NEW BOAT” when she said,
“ What boat?” After she saw it she just
said, “Verry nice - you can keep that one.”
 |
I had
no more than spoken the words, “
NEW BOAT” when she said, “
What boat?”
|
|
I have another Friend
who bought a Capri 16 and told me he had to go to
West Marine and get some Stuff for it. I suggested
he come to my barn first. He did, and left with the
following:
- A Set of So Pac Seat Cushions with SunBrella
Covers
- A Set of Harken Blocks
- A Deep Cycle Battery, only a year old
- An Anchor with Chain
- A Dodger Left over from a Compac 16
- Some LED Lights
- Several Feet of Verry nice Stay Set line –
ok, it was a couple hundred feet
- All the Fenders he could ever need
- Tiller Extention
- Wind Vane
- And a Great Mast holder to use while Trailering
his boat.
He replied, “This
is better than going to West Marine and you have coffee!”
A few weeks later
we were pulling his boat out of the water, when the
trailer popped off and the factory safety chain broke!
On his way to West Marine, he called and I told him
to hold off - we met up and I gave him some 10 Feet
of 2 inch BBB Chain along with some strong connectors.
He also told me he
had to go get some quick release shackles. I said,
“Come to the Barn and get what you need.”
He left with about 300 dollars worth of nice, shiny
“jewelry.”
Since the barn was
getting where I could get in it now, I was given a
head sail for a 25 foot boat. Can’t turn something
like that down. During the next visit with Stacey
I bent his arm just enough to convince him to carry
it home so his son can cut it down for his new 16
foot boat he is building. He smiled, thanked me and
left with it.
I have been told what
goes around comes around and I know first hand that
it does. I needed some cypress to build a pergola
and table. Had no idea where to get it and then called
and I will not use his name, but a Friend that had
harvested some good stuff from me, only to find he
had a source. I gave him the amount I needed - several
dollars worth, to put it mildly. Then, the next week
he called and said, “I am going to get your
wood today and will bring it to you.”
| I needed
some cypress to build a pergola and table.
|
|
|
My first question
was, “How much?” He told that me I could
afford it. I did not know he was driving a round trip
of over 200 miles just to pick it up, then he delivered
it to me and stacked it. He then told me, “I
think we are even!” I did convince him to take
gas money.
Those of us who have
been into this Sailing Addiction have given ourselves
enough Fixes to have a bunch of Stuff left over, so
why do we keep it? I think it is to remind us of all
the past “affairs” we have had with the
boats in our life.
Do YOURSELF a favor
- clean out the barn, give some of it to a new boat
owner who is struggling just to scrap enough money
together to piece a boat together. Aint no way you
can cram all that Stuff in your box when they put
in the ground.
I don’t intend
to say I have parted with things that are beyond being
special to me – I still do have my share of
Stuff left, but every time I run across a piece of
hardware or a few feet of teak I now have a way of
giving it new life.
After I gave my sailing
books away, a collection of 35 years, although I did
keep the Pardey books and others I still reread, I
found I had more space and the young man who got them
was very happy, almost as happy as when I gave him
my old Scrappy.
Some one said “A
Book that’s not read is nothing more than a
bound bunch of paper.” I say, “A barn
full of sailing stuff you will never use again is
just plain Stupid.” Hey, I never said I was
a poet!
Fair Wind with just
enough puffs to keep you on your toes
Capt Ron.
Written off the coast of Give-It-A-Way, a small
island in the Un-Cork-A-Islands.
The anchor will be hoisted next week for a
trip to to see the Kid I infected with my boat affliction,
my Son. I think I could find some Mo Stuff there?
More articles by Captain Ron:
|
