Tools Overseas

Posted by 141drew Jun 7, 2019 at 5:04 AM and filed under News & Editorial

Updated on May 20, 2021 at 6:24 PM

I have a buddy that has been circumnavigating the world and living on a sailboat for the past few years. And because he lives on a boat, he has been forced to become a sort of jack-of-all-trades handyman.

A couple of years back, he stopped by the gulf coast and came inland to Austin for a visit. While here, we went to Home Depot and he loaded up on Ryobi and other lesser quality power tools. I questioned him on his decision making, but he shut me down pretty quickly.

“On a boat, a nice set of Milwaukee M18 tools will last 18 months… maybe two years. I’ll get a year or more out of these shitty Ryobi tools. I just look it at from a cost perspective. I’d buy high end stuff if it withstood the environment much better than the cheap stuff, but through experience I know that it doesn’t.”

To be h0nest, I’ve doubted his findings since he released them to me. But then… Lately, I’ve become obsessed with watching sailing YouTubers. There’s an Australian couple on a million dollar cat, a family of five on another, and a young ivy league college grad on a single hull… All of them have been cruising for years with seemingly endless budgets and all of them have the shittiest tool collections that you could ever imagine.

Why? For the same reasons as my buddy. Nothing, no matter the cost, lasts in that environment – so why spend the money?

***

Anyway, I recently stumbled across another sailing YouTuber that has been sitting at dock for the past couple of years while outfitting the boat for his family voyage. An example of one of his videos is featured above, but you really need to watch a couple to get an idea of the scope of this project. Essentially, he’s building a house that has to be capable of floating through a hurricane every day.

What strikes me about his videos is that he doesn’t seem all that proficient with his hands and his tools are one-step up from a Harbor Freight discount table, but his output is absolutely drop dead gorgeous. Watch a few and see if you catch the same vibe as I do. Pay particular attention to his NASA inspired electrical organization found all over the boat – it’s inspiring.

See Comments on the forum.

View thread (23 replies)

DatsunLover

Well-known member

Jun 7, 2019

Very Cool!!! Thank you for Sharing..

garageguy1

Well-known member

Jun 7, 2019

I would add that when you go to places like West Marine the price they charge for tools is crazy expensive for stuff that is largely the same to OEM stuff from big box store house brands....Most of the stuff is not even specialized

bmwrd0

Well-known member

Jun 7, 2019

If you like those, check out the Sampson Boat Company vids. It is a 28-year-old English kid restoring a 100-year old racing yacht that's 45 or so feet long. Wooden sailboats at their best. Everything from lofting to cutting frames to using an actual ships saw and cutting a new keel. Great stuff.

Here is the page.

Ryan

Administrator

Staff member

Jun 7, 2019

bmwrd0 said:
If you like those, check out the Sampson Boat Company vids. It is a 28-year-old English kid restoring a 100-year old racing yacht that's 45 or so feet long. Wooden sailboats at their best. Everything from lofting to cutting frames to using an actual ships saw and cutting a new keel. Great stuff.

Here is the page.

Oh yeah... I've been following that build. Crazy good.

IndyGarage

Well-known member

Jun 8, 2019

Ryan said:
Oh yeah... I've been following that build. Crazy good.

That young guy with the Tally Ho boat is unbelievable.

For a job as big as your friend is doing on the bottom of that boat, there is no way I would pick a Ryobi 5 inch sander. I would go with some industrial tools for that job. If nothing else I would get a Porter Cable drywall sander with 8 inch discs. Probably I'd find a sandblast or at least a pressure washer with sand setup.

JazzBlueRT

Well-known member

Jun 8, 2019

Kinda curious why would carefully maintained and stored power tools be any less durable on a boat than on land. I understand the corrosive marine environment, but stored in a pelican type case with desiccant packs should mitigate much of the moisture problem.

Firstram

Well-known member

Jun 8, 2019

JazzBlueRT said:
Kinda curious why would carefully maintained and stored power tools be any less durable on a boat than on land. I understand the corrosive marine environment, but stored in a pelican type case with desiccant packs should mitigate much of the moisture problem.

It's not the moisture, it's the salt. Space on a boat comes at a premium, and trying to store things in Pelican cases would cost more than the price of the tool.

In the 80's and early 90's my father built sewage treatment plants. The guy who did all of the sandblast and paint work ran a very large industrial setup that took up 2 tractor trailers. On top of that he ran a bulk tanker truck to deliver the sand that he mined, screened and dried.

The high dollar airless sprayer he used could spray cold tar epoxy without thinning and looked like it had never been cleaned. I mean the paint buildup on the pickup tube was at least 2+" thick and the rest of the machine wasn't much better. When I asked him about it he told me he was accountable for the disposal/use of all solvents so he only cleaned the inside of the equipment.

It did not make much sense to me at the time that it would be cheaper to buy a new $5000 airless every 6 or7 months than it would to clean it. He said, "that's the cost of doing business".

JazzBlueRT

Well-known member

Jun 9, 2019

Firstram said:
It's not the moisture, it's the salt. Space on a boat comes at a premium, and trying to store things in Pelican cases would cost more than the price of the tool.

In the 80's and early 90's my father built sewage treatment plants. The guy who did all of the sandblast and paint work ran a very large industrial setup that took up 2 tractor trailers. On top of that he ran a bulk tanker truck to deliver the sand that he mined, screened and dried.

The high dollar airless sprayer he used could spray cold tar epoxy without thinning and looked like it had never been cleaned. I mean the paint buildup on the pickup tube was at least 2+" thick and the rest of the machine wasn't much better. When I asked him about it he told me he was accountable for the disposal/use of all solvents so he only cleaned the inside of the equipment.

It did not make much sense to me at the time that it would be cheaper to buy a new $5000 airless every 6 or7 months than it would to clean it. He said, "that's the cost of doing business".

The sprayer makes sense if you do not have a place to clean the equipment.

HF and other places have waterproof pelican like boxes for dirt cheap. It would seem like they would be mandatory equipment on any long term boating adventure and do not take up much more space than any other container.

Ryan

Administrator

Staff member

Jun 9, 2019

JazzBlueRT said:
The sprayer makes sense if you do not have a place to clean the equipment.

HF and other places have waterproof pelican like boxes for dirt cheap. It would seem like they would be mandatory equipment on any long term boating adventure and do not take up much more space than any other container.

Pelican cases in numbers are far too heavy for a sailboat man. Some guys use Zarges cases for really important ****, but for things like power tools it’s just more cost effective to buy ****** tools and replace them often....

Of course, I’m not cruising the world on a sailboat... I’m just gathering this from people that do.

LegacyIndustrial

ALLIANCE MEMBER

Jun 9, 2019

I restored a 60's runabout when I was 18, learned a few things...
This type of work is tough and monotonous, need to quit bitchn and keep working.
A giant compressor with a DA Sander is the only way to make good progress on fiberglass.

LXCam

ALLIANCE MEMBER

Jun 9, 2019

Ryan said:
Pelican cases in numbers are far too heavy for a sailboat man. Some guys use Zarges cases for really important ****, but for things like power tools it’s just more cost effective to buy ****** tools and replace them often....

Of course, I’m not cruising the world on a sailboat... I’m just gathering this from people that do.

Having been an avid boater for a couple decades and now currently residing remotely for work in 200sqft of an easy bake oven airstream trailer, there just flat out isn’t room for any unnecessary space taker uppers. As much as I value quality tools I’d be doing the exact same thing with disposable ones.

Ryan, your buddy has a very cool family. He’s one lucky guy. :beer:

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treefortwill

New member

Jun 9, 2019

Faced with that much scraping .. I would have to buy or rent
a Marineshaver™ Pro – gelcoat stripper and paint remover

JeepinMike

Well-known member

Jun 10, 2019

Ryan said:
Pelican cases in numbers are far too heavy for a sailboat man. Some guys use Zarges cases for really important ****, but for things like power tools it’s just more cost effective to buy ****** tools and replace them often....

Of course, I’m not cruising the world on a sailboat... I’m just gathering this from people that do.

The other bit is finding space. Go look at a sailboat.... there's lots of curves to the hull. As as result, most of the storage under bunks or behind cushions are not a nice uniform square shape, so large rectangular containers only result in wasted void space around them. Just coastal cruising can be tight on space, never mind packing provisions to cross the ocean...

-mike

esvee

Well-known member

Jun 11, 2019

IndyGarage said:
That young guy with the Tally Ho boat is unbelievable.

For a job as big as your friend is doing on the bottom of that boat, there is no way I would pick a Ryobi 5 inch sander. I would go with some industrial tools for that job. If nothing else I would get a Porter Cable drywall sander with 8 inch discs. Probably I'd find a sandblast or at least a pressure washer with sand setup.

I had the same thought. The amount of time thats going to take, and the toll on your body, that's rough. Certainly "work with the tools you have" but this might be a great time to barter with someone else to get this done right and quickly by the right tools.

I'm all for DIY and learning along the way but hand scraping and palm sanding something that big doesn't teach you anything except that you shouldn't do it by hand.

Stuntmonkey

Well-known member

Jun 20, 2019

Teal from Onboard Lifestyle is a true craftsman. Wonder what his background is.

denis4x4

Well-known member

Jun 21, 2019

Bought a Venture 22 in 1967. My reasoning for buying cheap tools was that I wouldn’t cry when I dropped something overboard. However, I still have those KMart tools that were made in Japan on my engineless house boat!

southwow

Well-known member

Jun 21, 2019

Not a sailor, but watch out picking on Ryobi tools... You'll hurt my feelings!

I've used my old brushed set of 18V ryobi stuff for 15 years (before they started putting stripped down **** in the sets... I'm looking at you, Dewalt), I wanted a new fancy red or yellow brushless drill... so I used the old blue one to mix self-leveling vinyl (30 bags or so) for my 1500sq ft basement. The drill survived, two nicad batteries did not. I'm still using it on a daily basis waiting for it to die or the clutch to fail... no such luck.

The brushed circular saw has also built a ton of cabinets and just will not die.

I'm not disagreeing with anyone; my mentality was the same as your friend. I can always toss it and buy something else or just outright return it and step up if it isn't fit for the job. My life doesn't depend on my tools working of course, but a lot of friends & family do.

minke

Well-known member

Jun 21, 2019

One of the measures that goes into the design of a saiboat hull is the prismatic coefficient which sorta describes how close the shape is to a rectangular prism. Viewed thru that one parameter the further you are from a prism the faster you will go, the better you will handle, your motion will be more comfortable, and you will have lots less room.

Visitors aren't welcome if they carry their stuff in anything but a duffle bag.

BuffettFan

Well-known member

Jun 21, 2019

Just saw the video today that said that Teal's mother passed away.
He has a very nice photo tribute to her at the end of the video.

My Old Tools

Well-known member

Jun 30, 2019

I have a buddy that lives 40 feet from the gulf on Anna Marie island. He says even PVC rusts in that environment.

By the way, the wife is hot.

BarryWells

Well-known member

Jun 30, 2019

Milwaukee. If it screws up , Warranty it. Tell them " I'm a boat mechanic". Case closed

ProTech52

New member

Jul 1, 2019

Hi everyone. First off, I am new to this forum and for the life of me I am unable to find the introduction section, so, "Hey."

I follow this amazing Family, gorgeous and ingenious. I also enjoy the Sampson Boat Company Forum as well as the, From Acorns to Arabella Forum. Just something about building an SV with your hands and friends.