The three cent wonder

Some times the best is improvising. We were replacing the last of the water line in the Tartan this weekend, a project that has spanned over the course of a couple of weeks due to schedule conflicts. One of the last two hoses to do was the one to the V-berth peak tank which unfortunately butts right up against the holding tank with a space just exactly the size of my bicep to get into with a wrench to loosen the hose clamp and replace it on the new line. There isn't enough room to get a screwdriver in there, and not even a regular socket wrench, only our little mini handle wrench which is a slippery handle Snap-on one. The hose fitting also happens to be poised directly over the bilge which angles sharply down under the holding tank. See where I'm going with this?  If one were to drop said wrench, it would slide immediately under the holding tank where even a magnetic retrieval device would fail to reach. In the absence of one of those fancy and expensive tool wrist straps, necessity became the mother of invention and the following 3-cent tool was born:

Loop a rubber band around the tool and pull it tight. Add a second one and a third one, and put the third one around your wrist:

By the way I did, in fact, drop the tool not only once, but three times...

Poli-Glow

When we bought our first boat, Nomad, a 1986 Compac 27/2, she had been sitting on the hard for quite a while.  Her topsides were dull and lifeless so we dutifully cleaned and polished with the 3M finish that everyone recommended. It was a lot of work.  Flash forward 2 years to the next haulout and the topsides looked bad yet again.  All of the 3M product, who's name escapes me, had worn off.  We happened on a quart kit of Poli-Glow at the marina garage sale and decided to give it a whirl. We applied the cleaner per the directions to remove the former wax and dirt, and then began to wipe on the Poli-Glow with the included pads.  All I can say is WOW.  The boat looked like new when we were done and it was a fraction of the work that we had to put in with the 3M product. 2 years later when we sold the boat to its new owner, the topsides still looked as shiny as the day we applied the Poli-Glow with water beading up nicely. Although on the expensive side, in the end I believe you save money since you're not applying it every year like the wax. A big 5 anchors on this stuff!  If you want to read the our original post complete with application pictures you can see it on our main blog.