Author: Thierry Vigneron

Cooking with gas

Propane (LPG) is heavier than air and the crew aboard two boats destroyed by a gas explosion had no idea the gas was in the bilge.  The first explosion lifted the boat’s entire deck almost a foot in the air; remarkably, the crew who unknowingly lit a cigarette, lived to tell the tale. The folks […]

RIGGING MATTERS

By Niels Lund Rigging is an essential component of a sailing yacht, but it tends to get the least attention. Perhaps because it is often out of sight and therefore out of mind when the boat is anchored, or can look strong, even when it isn’t. The prospect of going aloft to inspect something you […]

Corrosion comes weeping and creeping

It always amazes me while looking around sailboats just how many have telltale rust on their stainless rigging and how, more often than not, it just goes ignored. While cruising, my wife and I were having sundowners on a neighboring boat when I noticed that he had quite a lot of rust around his rigging […]

Dinghies! Inflatables, deflatables, and topside bangers

In my boating career I have had them all. Some I loved and some I beat to death with a stick. So, what is the right dinghy for you? Technology has vastly improved the designs and durability of inflatables since, with my wife rowing frantically and me squeezing a foot pump under my arm like […]

LIFEJACKETS … and things to ponder

I begin this blog with a disclaimer, what follows is my opinion and my opinion only, it is not the opinion of Budget Marine …  I was horrified to find that most States in the US mandate the wearing of lifejackets when on the water. For small watercraft such as kayaks and jet skis it […]

Taming the spaghetti on a boat

by Niels Lund No, not the nice kind that fills a boat’s provisioning stores, but the nasty kind comprising lots of twisted wires coming from who-knows-where and possibly leading nowhere, or somewhere impossible to reach. The kind that jams the insides of masts and becomes a bird’s nest behind the switchboard. The kind that has […]

A Fishy Story

I was helping deliver a sailboat, we were sailing up the Caribbean Island chain, well off shore and in deep water where pelagic fish like Dorado and Wahoo roam. It was a stunning day; we were making seven knots and seabirds were diving all around us. Seabirds in a feeding frenzy can mean there are […]

VARNISH! BEAUTIFUL STUFF OR THE DEVIL’S BREW?

… I have called it both. Our 1932 cutter shone with varnish. Twenty two coats on the mast, most applied in situ, and similar amounts on the cabin sides. Several times we stripped everything back to bare wood and started again. And yes, we glowed when people remarked how lucky we were to own such […]

PREPARE FOR NAMED STORMS

Hold fast Hurricane season is here. Having ridden out several hurricanes, and having had a boat smashed by one, I feel qualified to offer a few suggestions on storm readiness.  In times past yachtsmen would be gone from the hurricane belt before the start of the hurricane season and this is still the only way […]

LOSING A SEACOCK WILL SPOIL YOUR DAY

Seacocks! Nothing controversial there, one would think, but judging some of the installations I have seen, you couldn’t be more wrong. In these ‘Budget Blogs’, I like to include personal experiences, so I’ll begin with the day a seacock sheared off in my hand. In the late 90s, my wife and I were slaves to […]