Like most boaters, I actively seek good ideas others have adopted to make week-ending and cruising safer, more convenient and more enjoyable.
As a Nonsuch sailor, I benefit
from a very active discussion group and a Web-based collection of
documented tips and improvement ideas. Other
similar special-interest groups support different makes and models.
Yacht club and marina docks, regattas,
cruises and other on-the-water rendezvous provide great opportunities to share
ideas and show off implementations.
Rare is the boater who is not
pleased to share local information (except, maybe, that very special anchorage
or fishing spot!) and give guided tours of the latest gadget installation and a
play-by-play of the project. I have often
been invited aboard boats to take pictures of many such improvements, and they
are filed away in my reference library, ready to guide my own projects, if and
when.
But one source of ideas in
particular stands out for me—the Cruising Notebook tips in the popular PORTS Cruising Guides. I’m a big fan.
The PORTS source
For almost 30 years, the multiple
editions of the PORTS Cruising Guides have provided comprehensive and
up-to-date information for cruisers, and now cover Lake
Ontario and the Thousand Islands, the
Trent-Severn Waterway, the Rideau Canal and lower Ottawa River, the Georgian
Bay, the North Channel and Lake Huron .
These guides suggest where to
dock, what to do, where to eat, where to find fuel, where to shop, where to
anchor and where to find the best deals on groceries and supplies. Each is well written, highly illustrated and perfectly
organized for cruising. The spiral
binding lets you lay the book flat on the cockpit seat for easy reference.
They have proven remarkably
accurate in my experience, right down to the big snapping turtle that greets
you on arrival in Schoolhouse Bay at Main Duck Island
in eastern Lake Ontario
(Full disclosure: I don’t own
stock in the company.)
Tips galore
But here’s the nice added
attraction: sprinkled throughout each edition are dozens of cruising tips. These are short, well-illustrated
descriptions of solutions to common boating concerns, often featuring
tongue-in-cheek humour and whimsical cartoons. My wife and I often find ourselves flipping
through the book to find the next one, just for the pleasure of reading them.
Above all, they are useful.
This winter I worked on one such
idea: a flip-up galley counter extension that mounts to a convenient bulkhead.
The lack of useable counter space on cruising boats is a common complaint, and
I have been hankering after one of these for about 10 years.
Thanks to the detailed sketches and
construction tips on page 29 of the Georgian Bay, Lake Huron and North Channel
edition of 2007, I now have 334 more square inches of critical counter space to
shift galley stuff (if not glasses of wine!) around on.
I am still collecting these gems:
there are now well over 100 unique ideas in my index of PORTS cruising tips (covering
editions from 1997), grouped in home-made categories from Anchoring, Galley, Maintenance
to Cat Aboard? and Kids Aboard?.
One category is of special importance:
the Compendium of Must-Have Items. These are stock items essential for a whole
variety of uses featured in the cruising tips—duct tape, non-skid fabric,
baking soda, plastic bags (re-sealable and others), hook and loop fasteners—even
pool noodles.
If I have one (minor) quibble,
it’s that the more recent editions of PORTS books don’t seem to have as many
new ideas tucked away. Here’s hoping the next edition I check out proves me
wrong!
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