How To Get Your Boat Organised
Practical Boat Owner|October 2021
Are you always misplacing tools and spares? Roger Hughes has the answer
Roger Hughes
How To Get Your Boat Organised

It is very, very frustrating to empty a locker, only to discover the item you’re looking for is in another one. That doesn’t happen any more on Britannia.

I’m sure every yachtsman who ever worked on his boat has spent more time looking for tools and spares than it took to do the actual job.

Searching for stuff drove me to distraction on my first boat, and it drove me crazy (until now) on my latest one, a 45ft schooner, Britannia.

You’d think there would be enough room in a hull this length, with a 14ft beam, for all the tools and spares under the sun – and there pretty-much is – but the abundance of locker space creates its own problems.

The boat can accommodate a workshop full of tools and spare parts, but that doesn’t mean I can always find them. Often, I’d give up completely and have to sleep on it, knowing there was a chance it might come to me in the morning.

This would often cause arguments between my wife, Kati, and I, so we decided to do something about it.

It’s all about cataloguing

The answer is not where you stow things, but to accurately catalogue where they are – whether it’s a special shackle or a spare alternator – so you have a method of finding it.

I’m not talking about a spread-sheet in Excel, or any other computer program, (we tried that first), because you can bet your life the laptop battery will be flat when you want to open it, and if someone else is searching for something, they might not be able to open the correct page anyway.

This story is from the October 2021 edition of Practical Boat Owner.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.

This story is from the October 2021 edition of Practical Boat Owner.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.

MORE STORIES FROM PRACTICAL BOAT OWNERView All
Shearwater sloop sailing in the 1960s
Practical Boat Owner

Shearwater sloop sailing in the 1960s

Genevieve Leaper shares her late father John Leaper's recollections-compiled from handwritten notes-of cruising the Channel

time-read
7 mins  |
November 2023
Timing an Atlantic crossing
Practical Boat Owner

Timing an Atlantic crossing

Professional meteorologist and sailor Chris Tibbs shares his knowledge of how to choose the best time to sail 'across the pond'

time-read
5 mins  |
November 2023
Transatlantic first
Practical Boat Owner

Transatlantic first

It's 70 years since Ann Davison became the first woman to sail solo across the Atlantic. Katy Stickland looks back at her achievement

time-read
5 mins  |
November 2023
Going dizzy on an island sailing odyssey
Practical Boat Owner

Going dizzy on an island sailing odyssey

Ken Fowler becomes the first sailor to circumnavigate every island in England and Wales-and all done in a 4m dinghy!

time-read
10+ mins  |
November 2023
Boats for coastal cruising
Practical Boat Owner

Boats for coastal cruising

Duncan Kent chooses a selection of the best sail and motor boats under 40ft most suitable for adventurous cruising along the coast

time-read
10+ mins  |
November 2023
Industry view on HVO
Practical Boat Owner

Industry view on HVO

The RYA, IWA and CA are working to help recreational boating transition to a Net Zero future, as the CA's

time-read
2 mins  |
November 2023
HVO RENEWABLE DIESEL Myth or miracle?
Practical Boat Owner

HVO RENEWABLE DIESEL Myth or miracle?

A new generation of biofuel that's cleaner, greener, better for your engine and less prone to microbial growth sounds too good to be true... but the facts beg to differ

time-read
8 mins  |
November 2023
Little ships and the wrong sort of waves
Practical Boat Owner

Little ships and the wrong sort of waves

Why the correct manoeuvres for the sea conditions will reduce hogging and sagging stress on both ship and crew

time-read
5 mins  |
November 2023
Watching boats, saving jerseys
Practical Boat Owner

Watching boats, saving jerseys

It's amazing what you can see from a hospital window if it's the right hospital

time-read
3 mins  |
November 2023
Sweating the mooring asset
Practical Boat Owner

Sweating the mooring asset

Sam Llewellyn looks at ways of getting top value out of his boat's swinging mooring

time-read
3 mins  |
November 2023