{"id":449,"date":"2013-05-15T13:31:02","date_gmt":"2013-05-15T17:31:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/setforsea.com\/barrystravels\/?p=449"},"modified":"2013-05-15T13:33:48","modified_gmt":"2013-05-15T17:33:48","slug":"if-you-dont-keep-it-small-at-least-keep-it-simple","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/setforsea.com\/barrystravels\/2013\/05\/15\/if-you-dont-keep-it-small-at-least-keep-it-simple\/","title":{"rendered":"If You Don’t Keep It Small, At Least Keep It Simple"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Dreadnought<\/a>
Idle Queen dockside. \u00a0This project is just beginning.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I frequently question my decision to move to the larger\u00a0Idle Queen<\/em>\u00a0from my last boat, Sirocco<\/i>. \u00a0After all, I am still very much enamored of\u00a0Sirocco<\/em>, and I have long been a proponent of smaller boats.<\/p>\n

Not many people would consider\u00a0Sirocco<\/em>\u00a0a complicated boat in her present configuration. \u00a0She has pressure fresh water and refrigeration, sure, but her windlass is manual and her compliment of electronics is adequate but simple. \u00a0Even so, she is more complicated than my “new” boat,\u00a0Idle Queen,<\/em> which has only a bare minimum of modern fittings aboard. \u00a0Idle Queen<\/em> is missing many of the standard items found on modern sailboats, like roller furling, a winch for each jib sheet, and more. \u00a0She has only two seacocks below the waterline. \u00a0She is lightly powered, with her engine providing just over 1 horsepower for each ton of displacement. \u00a0The cabin sole is painted plywood instead of teak and holly. \u00a0Much of her paint comes from the hardware store. \u00a0These details aren’t very “yachty”, but they help offset the added expense of having a physically larger boat when it comes to maintaining and operating her.<\/p>\n

I explained why I am moving to a larger boat in a previous post (see here<\/a>). \u00a0The additional room aboard the larger boat will allow me to carry everything I need for more expended trips away from yachting centers. \u00a0Wonderful. \u00a0The big challenge, though, is that my budget for maintaining this boat is no larger than what I had before. \u00a0If anything, it is smaller because of the money that I spent this winter having a car in this area. \u00a0Cars will keep you poor. \u00a0I plan to make up the difference by not complicating Idle Queen<\/i>\u00a0one bit more than necessary.<\/p>\n

So, specifically, how am I planning on closing the budget gap? \u00a0For starters, I am going to live with the unique interior of Idle Queen<\/i>\u00a0as she is for a while. \u00a0Harry Heckel Jr., the original owner, built a custom arrangement down below that is far from the traditional small sailboat layout. \u00a0One of the first things that I wanted to do with Idle Queen<\/i>\u00a0was to change the layout to one with parallel settees in the main saloon instead of the dinette that is currently onboard. \u00a0I can eliminate a huge expense and time-sink by just keeping the arrangement the same for now. \u00a0I’ll be losing some storage space, but the current arrangement has worked for two circumnavigations so far.<\/p>\n

The tanks on Idle Queen<\/i>\u00a0almost all need replacing. \u00a0The two exceptions are a little 10-gallon fuel tank, and one polyethylene water tank. \u00a0The current plan is to make up the difference with portable tankage. \u00a0For water, I will carry as many 3-4 liter water bottles as I need. \u00a0I have been doing this for quite some time now, beginning when I discovered that the fiberglass water tank on my Contessa 26 was unusable for potable water. \u00a0I bought 20 gallons of drinking water in bottles at a cost of about $20, and have had 20 gallons of cleanable, portable, re-usable water tankage ever since. \u00a0I used the same bottles on Sirocco<\/i>\u00a0to supplement the tankage onboard, and I see no reason to abandon the system now. \u00a0I can empty the bottles into the small gravity tank that supplies the galley faucet to produce running water. \u00a0On the diesel tankage side, the little diesel engine on Idle Queen<\/i>\u00a0will run for about 30-40 hours on the currently usable 10-gallon tank. \u00a0I plan to build secure below-decks storage for an additional 20 gallons of diesel tankage in the form of 5-gallon jerry cans. \u00a0If I need more tankage, I can always expand the storage scheme.<\/p>\n

For lighting, I know that there are many sailors who, in the name of simplicity, have stayed with kerosene lanterns. \u00a0Some have even kept their boats free of any installed electrical system. \u00a0My current plan is not quite as low-tech. \u00a0LED lighting has finally come down enough in cost for me to decide to use LED lights for the main cabin lighting solution aboard Idle Queen<\/i>. \u00a0There will be a minimum of wiring involved, and it will all be accessible. \u00a0I will keep the current fluorescent fixtures until they cease to function before spending money on new fixtures, and I will probably end up assembling my own lighting fixtures rather than spending on the ridiculously overpriced marine lights currently available. \u00a0A few years ago, I compared the cost of changing Sirocco\u00a0over to all LED lighting versus just buying enough solar panels to run the incandescent lights that she already had. \u00a0It was much cheaper to just buy more solar generating capacity. \u00a0Now the cost of LEDs have come down enough to make them an attractive option. \u00a0I already have 50 watts of solar panels on <\/span>Idle Queen. \u00a0My goal is to keep my daily consumption under what they can supply. \u00a0I will keep a couple of kerosene lanterns around just in case lightning takes out the electrical system… \u00a0Backup systems are important.<\/span>
\n<\/i><\/p>\n

There are a few other items that I will be going without that make it onto the “must have” list for many cruisers: \u00a0items like refrigeration; roller furling; a bimini; an autopilot (IQ does have a windvane); and so forth. \u00a0If I can pick those items up for little money along the way (or better yet–free!), then it’s not like I am opposed to having them. \u00a0I just need to keep reminding myself that the most important things to take care of on the boat are keeping the hull sound and the running gear strong and functional. \u00a0Almost everything else is just budget-eating, boat-cluttering stuff that can probably be lived without.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I frequently question my decision to move to the larger\u00a0Idle Queen\u00a0from my last boat, Sirocco. \u00a0After all, I am still very much enamored of\u00a0Sirocco, and I have long been a proponent of smaller boats. Not many people would consider\u00a0Sirocco\u00a0a complicated boat in her present configuration. \u00a0She has pressure fresh water and refrigeration, sure, but her… Continue reading If You Don’t Keep It Small, At Least Keep It Simple<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[24,31,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dreadnought-32-idle-queen","category-lessons-learned","category-sirocco"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6ztFW-7f","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/setforsea.com\/barrystravels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/setforsea.com\/barrystravels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/setforsea.com\/barrystravels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setforsea.com\/barrystravels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setforsea.com\/barrystravels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=449"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/setforsea.com\/barrystravels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":524,"href":"https:\/\/setforsea.com\/barrystravels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449\/revisions\/524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/setforsea.com\/barrystravels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setforsea.com\/barrystravels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setforsea.com\/barrystravels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}