Oceanhippie.net - Tom's Blog

Rick fell off my boat, like many before him.

 He blames me for this as at the time I was trying to get the lid off a water bottle when we found a big hole in a gusty 20kn sou'easter. He gave me a nice camelback style water backpack with a dinking tube as a solution which I have worn religiously ever since and works really well. 

Another issue with Shaw Thing is there’s only a few pockets upfront to store stuff in reach, usually full of radio, speaker string, sail ties, water bottles, three left gloves*, etc. With no spinnaker cleats, and no mainsheet cleat usually beer has to be left on deck and spills often. 

This is possibly a crime in the Northern Territory and more over leads to the crew smuggling in extra beer which is extra weight!

However my bright spark crew on Sunday worked out that they can use my camel back as a stubbly holder and put their beer in with even while hiking. I am ok with this since the weight is in the right place, and whilst they might be indifferent to my plight they’ll probably want to save the beer.

 * pro tip turn one of the gloves inside out and wear it on the right.