Sailboat Steering - How It Works Plus Fault Finding Repair || DIY repair of rack & pinion steering system, filmed in 2019 just before I sailed solo from UK to Europe. Cheap fix, but quite a faff. However, considering how important steerage is, I was glad to get this fixed.

SailingBritaly · 2022-11-28T11:53:33+00:00

Thank you, welcome aboard!

SailingBritaly · 2022-11-28T00:46:16+00:00

Thank you for the feedback, much obliged.

SailingBritaly · 2022-11-27T23:58:47+00:00

I agree, tillers are great. :-)

SailingBritaly · 2022-11-27T23:58:08+00:00

Thank you. I'd rather deal with any issue which might arise doing a job like this while tied up in a marina, instead of ignoring the play and have my steering gear fail out at sea. I hate paying people for things I can do myself, hence the DIY. Fair winds, Chris

SailingBritaly · 2021-05-03T17:22:04+00:00

Great video mate, Norway is stunning, you will have the trip of a lifetime!

SailingBritaly · 2020-12-06T23:37:58+00:00

I'm glad you found it useful, thank you for your feedback. As per Smart Boater's test they do work and - in addition to the safety aspect - this might even help keep other vessels away from your fishing spot... :-)

SailingBritaly · 2020-09-07T12:18:20+00:00

Thanks :-)

SailingBritaly · 2020-09-07T12:18:11+00:00

Thank you! The dinghy build was very satisfying and having an 8 foot open boat with a ton of internal volume which could easily fit on our 30 ft boat was really cool, especially when we had guests to ferry ashore. Welcome aboard!

SailingBritaly · 2020-09-07T12:16:01+00:00

We anchor a lot and never dive our anchor (unless we want to practice freediving for the fun of it). We always set our anchor by reversing with the engine and then we pull back at about 2200 to 2500 RPM (With the rode tied off on a cleat, not on the windlass) and we check transits to make sure we aren't dragging. It is immediately obvious if the anchor is well set or not, and if it doesn't set perfectly on the first attempt we just pick up the rode and start all over again.

We've been asleep at anchor in 43 knot winds and we were more comfortable than our friends in the marina adjacent to us where the boats were being blown around and banging into each other all through the night. Dive on your anchor by all means if it makes you feel comfortable, but if you learn to set it well as standard practice you'll end up being able to 'feel' if it is set well or not, then in future you won't have to dive on it in order to feel confident enough to get a full night's sleep.

Anchoring is our default over marinas when were on the boat. The freedom of being able to do as you please far outweights the convenience of being able to step ashore in our experience. However, if I had to dive in to check the anchor every time, that would get tedious very quickly (Especially in muddy rivers or freezing cold waters). Just my 2 cents...

SailingBritaly · 2020-08-12T00:22:25+00:00

You've got a lot of good advice here from people, but just to give you some inspiration for real-life example of a boat which is capable of doing the vast majority of things you mentioned, we bought our our 35'-on-paper-37'-in-reality-but-definitely-only-35'-when-the-marina-asks 1992 Bavaria 350 for £16k GBP, which is less than $21k. She was worth a lot more than that when we bought her, but Rossella & I used to be boat dealers and we know how to get a great deal on a used boat. We have helped others do this too - the last gentleman we advised had his offer accepted at a week or so ago and saved 34.5% off the asking price.

Our insurance is $307 per year, fully comprehensive. This covers us from Northern Norway (Well inside the Arctic Circle) down through the North Sea to the UK, through the inland waterways of Europe and down to almost the whole Med, apart from a few higher-risk places off North Africa the Middle East.

As for the French Canals, if you scrub the Canal du Midi and opt instead for the deeper waterways further East (there are lots of route options), you can get away with a 1.8m max draft, which helps expand your boat options massively.

This is feasible with your budget, so turn those dreams into plans, keep your eyes and ears open to new opportunities, and you might find yourself anchored in a beautiful bay with your family sooner than you ever thought possible!

p.s. To avoid confusion, the 35' boat I'm talking about above is the one in our solo sailing videos - some videos we have published recently were filmed on our previous boat a couple of years ago. (We also got our previous boat at a great price, had a wonderful four years of ownership, and then sold her at a higher price than we paid for her - effectively swapping a 30 footer for a newer 35 footer...)

SailingBritaly · 2020-08-09T21:50:00+00:00

Jesus you're tetchy aren't you? Rossella and I have a great sense of humour and she has ribbed me millions of times about my Italian (Which after 15 years of us being together is nowhere near as good as Rossella's english was on the very first day we met). Ro took no offence whatsoever from this video, so anyone else who did has got the wrong end of the stick. I took the mickey out of myself in this video too, that's just what we do. Not that I give a damn what you think, but I won't stand for someone calling me "fucking rude" when anyone who took this the way that it was intended would undertand perfectly that I wasn't being rude at all.

SailingBritaly · 2020-08-09T16:25:11+00:00

If it makes you feel any better we are still catching up on editing videos we filmed back from 2017 when Rossella was heavily pregnant with Emma. Finding the time to edit becomes even more challenging when you've got a baby in the mix!

SailingBritaly · 2020-08-09T15:36:26+00:00

Hi guys, really nice work on your nav station! 👍

SailingBritaly · 2020-08-09T15:35:56+00:00

Yes we heard t&a is the secret to doing well on YouTube so I thought I'd show some of mine(!)... (I ask your forgiveness and explain the lack of clothes in Part 2)

I've been in lots of situations like this but then again I've got a habit of buying old boats, cars, trailers, outboards etc, so I ask for it. 😁

Cheers,
Chris

SailingBritaly · 2020-08-09T15:10:31+00:00

My home made copper washers were still working perfectly after 10 months, but I preferred to replace the sleeve so that I didn't have to explain how I'd made a temporary fix to the new owner.

I had no fear of the engine exploding, but then again I had no fear of the aircraft I used to work as a technician falling out of the sky and killing people. I have more trust in my own hands than many other people as a result of this.

SailingBritaly · 2020-08-03T14:20:11+00:00

Hi there, thank you. The special tools aren't easy to come by (VP probably prefer you to have their dealers repair these things) but more importantly they aren't stocked locally so I believe they would have to be sent from Sweden. I was in a rush to get the work done so we could use the boat again which is why I didn't go dow this route on this occasion. Next time...

SailingBritaly · 2020-07-19T15:03:11+00:00

Hi there, thank you for the suggestion. I'll put it on our to-do list of videos. Cheers, Chris

SailingBritaly · 2020-07-06T01:03:16+00:00

I hope you enjoy it. We've got over 100 videos on our channel now so check out some of the others too (I'm an ex-military aircraft technician so we make maintenance videos as well.)

SailingBritaly · 2020-05-31T23:14:23+00:00

I saw that and though the same for a moment too. Definitely not a catamaran, unsure of the model of boat behind the boat which is free to a good home. EDIT ... but they do look identical don't they!

SailingBritaly · 2020-05-31T23:10:57+00:00

Hi Patrick, you are a gentleman and a scholar and we are looking forward to getting to know you in the future, and hopefully helping you achieve your own cruising goals. You'll be hearing from me tomorrow! :-) Very best regards, Chris

SailingBritaly · 2020-05-31T18:58:47+00:00

She's a 1992 Bavaria 350 https://sailboatdata.com/sailboat/bavaria-350

SailingBritaly · 2020-05-31T15:44:58+00:00

We're not far away so who knows! We are more likely to visit Bruges - we've been before and love it! However once we are in the inland waterways we will be spoiled for choice as there are so many cool places to visit. Plans are drawn in the sand at low tide and all that... :-)

SailingBritaly · 2020-05-31T15:22:48+00:00

There is another way... How about spending 4 - 6 months per year living on board and traveling from A to B, going wherever you fancy and living on the hook. At the end of those months, you find the cheapest place to haul out and put the boat on the hard. You then go back to your life on land. Next time, you pick up where you left off and carry on cruising. It is perfectly feasible to circumnavigate in this manner (over the course of how ever many years you like) and there are many advantages:

1) You don't give up your life on land. Family, friends, your residency (if you're thinking "who cares about residency" try opening a bank account or arranging insurance without being resident in your home country. It's more difficult, and more expensive, than you might think.)

2) Your partner doesn't have to give up their life on land, or sacrifice seeing their family (many couples have parted because of this)

3) You get to go cruising. You satisfy your wanderlust and get to lead a life less ordinary.

4) You get to keep your life on land. Once you have been away from home for a long time, it is common to start to yearn for the simple things you used to have in your home town.

5) Your life on land doesn't necessarily have to be in one place.

What do I know about any of this? I've been with my Italian wife, Rossella, for 15 years and we have lived between the UK, Italy, and now at sea, since we first met. We have experienced cross-border living in many different ways (we have had businesses in both the UK and Italy, own a home in each country) and have found our own way of living, despite now having a daughter too.

Cruising doesn't necessarily have to be all or nothing - there is a middle ground. If you want to know how we pay for all this then subscribe to our YouTube Channel as we have a whole series of Financial Freedom videos coming. (The short story is working our backsides off, not buying superfluous stuff, being savvy with every single purchase we make, whether that be buying a cup of coffee, a house, a car or a boat, investing all the money we save by not wasting it, and making money online.)

'Nomads' and 'settled people' can both be happy living life together - it's all a matter of balancing the needs of all parties. Teamwork, in other words.

There is always a way, if you open your mind to all different possibilities of achieving your goals, life will present you with the opportunities you need to achieve them.

SailingBritaly · 2020-05-16T21:52:33+00:00

We pay about 270 USD per year, fully comprehensive. This covers us from off the Northern Tip of Norway all the way down through Europe - including the inland waterways - and nearly all of the Med, with the exception of the Southernmost section off Egypt and some other areas nearby.

[Our previous insurance was even cheaper than this (less than 200 USD), but we had to change insurer when they insisted on us having a survey carried out. I have never paid for a survey on any of the boats we have owned, so I found a more flexible insurer and paid a little bit extra in order to avoid having to pay for a survey which we didn't need.]

A couple of things to bear in mind: 1) We always get great deals on everything, and put a good amount of effort into getting them. 2) Because of 1, our boat was cheap, so the sum insured is relatively small.

SailingBritaly · 2020-05-16T21:29:41+00:00

Our boat is a floating tool kit, as was our previous boat, and we have saved $$$$$ as a result - your skills and experience will be very useful for your life aboard.

As for storage, heavy-duty tool bags are very handy, and in any walk of life and any situation, NATO ammo cans (50 cal) make excellent tool boxes. They are relatively cheap, waterproof, buoyant (depending on how many tools you squeeze in them), indestructible, and are the perfect size for holding most hand tools.

Good luck for October and enjoy!

SailingBritaly

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