Putting golf balls to a higher purpose
Issue 68 : Sept/Oct 2009
At haulout time in northern climates, sailors perform an annual ritual of cleaning, packing, winterizing, and covering their boats to protect them from the ravages of winter. As a boatowner who strives to be as self-sufficient as possible, I do my own winterizing and tarp my boat myself. I recently came upon a simple trick that makes the tarping process easier and also employs the long-standing boating principle of putting objects to more than one use.
Anyone who has ever used a tarpaulin to cover anything knows that the grommets are always located anywhere but in the places you need them to be. This year, in fact, when I took my two brand-new tarps out of their packaging, some of the grommets were already falling out. There are some fancy new two-piece rubber clips on the market that would enable me to add tie-downs where I need them, but similar devices I’ve tried in the past were so difficult to use that I quickly abandoned them.
Since I took up sailing eight years ago, my golf clubs have been totally neglected but I still have a good supply of golf balls . . . as I used to go through so many of them. I discovered that a golf ball makes an excellent anchor for tying down a tarp. Place a golf ball under the tarp and gather slack fabric around it in a tight bunch. Loop a length of 1⁄8-inch line around the ball, and you have a stable tie-down.
By using golf balls, you can place tie-downs wherever you need them. When spring arrives, you can return them to your golf bag to gather dust for another sailing season. I found that inexpensive hollow practice balls work just as well as premium-grade balls. In fact, as my former golf partners can verify, this is probably the best use I have ever made of a golf ball.
Bill Van Allen and his wife, Emily, sail their 1981 Bayfield 32, Ocypete, out of Penetanguishene, Ontario, on Lake Huron’s Southern Georgian Bay.
Thank you to Sailrite Enterprises, Inc., for providing free access to back issues of Good Old Boat through intellectual property rights. Sailrite.com
