Haggling Time

It is that time of year again where we need to get our haggling heads on and drive some hard bargains at the Newark Boat Jumble. Each year we attend this jumble and it usually proves to be a successful and worthwhile Sunday morning of bargaining.

This year we have a few items on our list of wants, needs and must haves, including 30-40m of 12mm navy blue Marlow braid on braid mooring rope. We currently have a set of four 10m long lines on Naughty-Cal but we need a pair of slightly longer lines for rafting up in sea ports, often two, three or four boats abreast. It is courteous to send your own lines ashore to take the strain from the inner boats lines so long lines are a must have item on board. Last year we bought 40m of rope for £23.50 so we are aiming for about the same sort of price again.

On the rope subject we are also after some matching navy rope for the grab line and mooring rope on the dinghy. This can be a smaller diameter 10mm braid on braid line which will then match Naughty-Cal’s mooring rope and fender rope. Hopefully as we are buying so much rope we should get a decent deal on 10m or so of 10mm line.

We are also looking for a couple of crew bags for our clothing and other assorted weekend and holiday gear. Our current suitcases have had three years of weekly use and are starting to show signs of their age. A nice pair of new crew bags will hopefully fit the bill and do the job just fine and again as we are buying a pair of them we hope to be able to do a good deal on the price.

No doubt there will be other stuff that we end up buying as well, there usually is. But we always end up walking away feeling as though we have done some good deals. Let’s hope that this year is as good as the last three have proven to be for grabbing bargains and great value purchases.