Products we’ve tried and adopted
Issue 30 : May/Jun 2003
The jury is no longer out. In the September 2002 issue I reviewed the GPS Plotter, which is a clever, three-element, parallel-motion alternative to the ubiquitous parallel rules found on almost every navigation table. This tool has holes drilled in it that can allow the navigator to draw lines perpendicular to the edges of its blades. It was designed to speed the plotting of GPS fixes. In the review I said that Karen liked the tool, but I was not sure yet. Having gotten one of two possible thumbs up, it was allowed to remain on the boat. Well, for the remainder of the summer I rarely used anything else. It is a good tool. I don’t often use the holes (old dog, new tricks, and all that), but you don’t need to use them to appreciate this fine tool. Two thumbs up now.
The cutting edge
Sailors can be divided into two groups, those who carry a pocket knife and those who do not. Over the years I have found ways to relate to the ones who do not carry a knife. I help them with mine when they are confronted with a problem best solved by this oldest of tools. At home each morning I decide which of the knives in my drawer is most appropriate for the tasks of the day, and then I drop that one in my pocket.
Recently, David Boye sent us three of his dendritic cobalt boat knives and asked us to evaluate them. Karen and Mark kept theirs, and I promptly sent mine back, hoping to exchange the serrated blade for one with a plain edge. For me, serrated blades have their place — which is on our bread knife. When the new knife arrived, it had to take its turn in the drawer with the others in my collection. It got into my pocket more often than I thought it would.
This is a lot of knife in some ways and not much at all in others. It has a large lock-back blade that can, with a little practice, be opened with one hand. It holds a good edge, is easily sharpened, and is highly corrosion-resistant. This is a very sophisticated, light-weight design, so it feels like a lot of knife in your hand but does not feel like much at all in your pocket.
These days you can buy some pretty fancy-looking knives for about the price of a quarter-pounder with cheese, but they are knockoffs made in the low-rent district from rot-gut steel and Grade Z plastic. If they are put to any hard use, they start to recycle themselves in your hand. I don’t mind paying for a good pocket knife; if I buy good quality my grandchildren will be using it someday. . . if they are the type.
The Boye Boat Knife is a special case in knife technology. The blade is made from a cobalt alloy designed to resist corrosion and still be hard enough to hold a good edge. With stainless-steel alloys you can have one or the other, but not both. Ever notice that none of the good wood- or metal-working tools are made from stainless steel? Stainless is really not a tool alloy. This cobalt alloy blade starts out as an investment casting, which does some pretty exotic things with its metallurgy as it cools. This kind of technology is bound to cost more than a blade made from recycled soup cans with a little chrome added.
From all this you’d think this knife would spend a lot of time in my pocket this summer. It will not. Because it is light-weight and completely non-magnetic, it’s going to be my new life jacket knife. It will take its turn with the other fine knives in my drawer in the winter. Not bad, since I’m fussy about pocket knives.
Duffel bag extraordinaire
When we started Good Old Boat magazine five years ago, we bought a couple of serious duffel bags to replace a pair of disintegrating bags purchased not too many years before from Target. The new ones from Weekend’R Products cost more, but will outlast the cheap bags by a millennium or more. Designed for sailors by sailor Ken Kloeber, our Weekend’R Deluxe bags have special features we like (such as key hooks and a zip-off shower bag). We chose the colors we wanted and had them personalized with our names and our brand-new logo.
What’s to mention five years later? Durability. For five years these bags have been dragged to the boat from trunk to dockcart to cockpit to cabin every weekend and in all kinds of weather. They’ve flown on many an airplane and gotten dizzy on just as many luggage carousels. They still look great. They haven’t lost a stitch. All zippers work. All snaps snap. They’re good to go for another five years at least. We hope to hold up as well.
Thank you to Sailrite Enterprises, Inc., for providing free access to back issues of Good Old Boat through intellectual property rights. Sailrite.com
