Cruising Season Accessories

With the 2012 cruising season fast approaching we are starting to gather together the accessories and items we need and want for this year to add to and improve our existing range of cruising accessories. As you cruise around on your boat you soon start to find items that will be of use to you and also find out that some of your existing accessories may not be the most suitable for the job.

Our list of items to buy for 2012 so far includes:

25m shore power lead. Our existing lead was far too long for daily use on our home berth. It was around 10m long, which was too long for our berth but often too short when we have travelled around, especially in sea ports and harbours where you can be moored three boats abreast. So we have shortened our existing lead to a more manageable length of around 4m for our home berth and will buy a longer 25m lead for occasional use when on holiday. We have found a suitable lead at Torksey caravans for about £28 so will be buying that this coming weekend.

Fold flat water hose. Our existing water hose is far too bulky and ungainly for general use and takes up far too much room on the boat. We plan to buy a 15m fold flat water hose on a small reel that will store away nicely in the cockpit and take up much less room. Our current hose will be left on the pontoon for general tank filling and boat washing whilst on our own berth with the new flat hose used whilst we are away from our berth and out cruising. Again we have found a suitable candidate at Torksey caravans for about £25 so will be buying that as well.

15m mooring ropes. Our existing mooring ropes are about 10m long, which is about the right length for general boat handling and day to day use. However we have found occasions where we have been moored three boats abreast and 10m ropes are just not long enough to reach back to the shore. A pair of 15m long ropes should be more than ample and with a couple of rope tidies will be able to hang under the cockpit table ready for use as and when necessary. We plan to buy the same navy blue Marlow braided rope that we currently use from the Newark Boat Jumble next month and expect to pay around about £25 for 30-40m of rope.

Crew bags. Our current small suitcases have suffered three years of weekly use and abuse and are now showing signs of giving up the ghost. They are starting to become ragged and in places jagged and we are now running the risk of damaging the boat with them. So we are on the lookout for a pair of crew bags which are about the same size and will fit nicely at the foot of the bed. Again we are hoping that Newark Boat Jumble will come up with the goods and we expect to pay in the region of £30 for a pair of bags.

We have already made inroads into buying some items. We bought a nifty little fold up trolley for transporting shopping supplies, mainly beer, whilst we are out on the boat. This has always been a sore subject as we have often carried cases of beer well over a mile to get back to the boat. Now with the trolley it should be child’s play and it folds away neatly under the cockpit seating taking up very little room.

It takes some time to gather together a full cruising package of items and accessories. It has taken us three years to piece together our current one and it is constantly evolving with new items added and some older items removed to make way for new ones. The only way to know what you will need is to get out there cruising and find out for yourself. A few items from our initial guess at what we would need, way back in 2008 when we bought NC, have survived the test of time and come in useful, namely the mooring pins, mallet, BW key and BW services card so we didn’t get it completely wrong the first time around.