Thursday, April 28, 2016

Seasonal Prep: Maintenance Kit

The sounds, smells, and sights of Spring are upon us, Intrepid Reader, and it is time to shake SCOUT out of her slumber and get her ready for what I hope is going to be an epic season of sailing, expeditioning, and other nautical delights!

In that light, I've decided to do a mini-series on the different gear I carry about my stalwart steed, and I strongly invite the reader to suggest other equipment that they may see fit. We start with the maintenance kit, which is a toolshed in a bag.



In the upper left is a bag of nylon webbing straps with bucks.  I somehow acquired a significant amount of nylon straps and buckles and cannot remember why or how.  They seem useful, so I carry them aboard Scout, but I've never used them. Below the bag of straps is parachute cord, sail thread, and twine. Adjacent is a sailmaking palm. Then, two boxes of screws, and Gorilla Tape, duct tape, and sail repair tape and a random cleat in case I want to cleat something in the head.... (sounds dramatic!).

Continuing counterclockwise, a wide assortment of carabiners, shackles, clips, blocks, fairleads, one camcleat, and a hundred plastic zipties.  The serious Intrepid Reader knows that I pretty much bend on all my sails (GIS and duckpunt) to their yards with zipties because I am lazy, they are cheap, and it works. I will never win a classy hoity-toity prize at Mystic, but I'm not in the sailing for the prizes. I'm into sailing for the BABES. This blog is not known for the babes, but I am ever hopeful that one day they will materialize and I will have the best blog post ever seen!

Next up we have a bag of leather (literally, a bag) from some of my favorite rum, leather strapping, a spare oarlock, and an extra propellor for the Iron Mizzen. Finally we rest our eyes on what I call "Tools in a Slightly Oiled T-Shirt." Pretty self-explanatory there.

Not pictured is a spare spark plug, and hose clamps.  

NOW, strictly speaking in a maintenance (not emergency) sense, what else would you include in the above kit? Anything you find indispensable that I do not have but should?