Ella, my first little yacht, was a Westerly Cirrus. A fine fin-keeled cruiser with a Vire 6hp, single-cylinder inboard engine affectionately named “Old Thumper”.

Thumper made us all into good sailors because the noise she made was unbearable and we couldn’t wait to turn her off and get sailing.

Thumper would also stop at any time of her own choosing, leaving us with no option but to sail back to our crowded swing mooring at Bosham.

As the years went by Ella started to put on weight and when she was holed, she sank as quick as a brick.

Accumulating boat tools

This extra weight was contributed to by her toolset. You see, Old Thumper needed careful maintenance and repairs and to do this away from shore facilities required a mechanic’s set of boat tools.

Not that I knew how to use them, but at least I only had to find someone who did.

In addition, I acquired all of the spares and parts needed to avoid getting stranded somewhere remote.

Clive’s streamlined bosun’s bag when he sails without a motor. Few boat tools! Credit: Clive Marsh

Then, of course, there was all the metal deck gear and parts: winches, stainless shrouds/stays, turnbuckles, claws, aluminium mast, boom, shackles, blocks and so on.

All this metal required safety equipment such as bolt cutters, hacksaws, pliers, cable swages, rivet gun – you know, the whole lot plus a selection of spare parts. The kit just got bigger and bigger.

I ended up with more boat tools onboard than I carried in my shed at home.

Compare all this clobber with that required on what I call a soft boat. Very little hard metal; just wood, leather and rope.

All I need to carry on board to make quick repairs afloat is a knife, spike, spare rope and twine.

Do you really need all of those boat tools?

Recently I was sailing my Tideway 10, a lovely little boat but one which has plenty of metal and wire.

There is not much one can carry in a 10-footer so, when a bit of metal breaks, repairs afloat can be troublesome.

As I sailed into the narrow entrance to the River Rother at Rye the nice bronze claw, the thing that attaches the throat end of the spar to the mast, just snapped, putting me into an awkward situation.

Broken bronze jaw. Credit: Clive Marsh

Luckily there were no shipping movements that day but there was the usual stream of large trawlers.

The sail was flapping around and I only had seconds to make a repair and get under control before the Force 4/5 put me onto the semi-submerged training wall.

A short length of rope was all that was needed to make a quick repair that worked just as well as the fancy bronze claw with parrel beads.

Modifications

Over the years I have gradually been making my boats softer.

My first modification was to get rid of wire shrouds and stays. They simply kink, get in the way when the rig is lowered and scratch the varnish or gelcoat.

They are good if you keep the boat afloat or rigged.

But if you are a trailer sailer, regularly bringing your rig down and keeping it under cover where the sun can’t degrade it, then rope has many advantages.

This metal mast traveller is one that Clive covered in leather

I use either pre-stretched rope or Dyneema.

I replaced my Dabber’s stays and shrouds with rope once I started keeping her under cover.

My current Dabber has gone a stage further and has been adapted so as not to need any shrouds/stays at all.

The mast is self-standing through a reinforced thwart.

As for masts! A wooden mast has many advantages over a metal one.

For example, you can just screw things into it whereas fixing things to an aluminium mast requires boat tools such as a rivet gun and maybe a drill.

I keep my wooden masts oiled rather than varnished and, being under cover when ashore, they do not suffer any UV damage.

Enhanced freedom

One enormous advantage of going soft is the minimal size of your bosun’s bag.

You can become what is known as a Marlin Spike Sailor, able to fix anything under way yourself with no need to call for help or bind yourself to boatyards and chandleries.

It all adds to the freedom of sailing we enjoy and our independence. And of course, it saves a lot of money.

The picture above shows what I now have in my bosun’s bag when I sail with no motor.

The Tideway 10 has metal in all sorts of places – gooseneck, spar jaw, mast track and so on. All are difficult to fix. Credit: Clive Marsh

Compare this to my motor-sailer’s bosun’s bag (main picture) plus a complete toolset.

On the subject of motors, I am trying to give them up.

I only use one at Rye owing to the narrow river entrance and short tidal window. And, if I use the tide correctly, I would not need a motor at all.

I can fix the basics of outboard motors and inboards but often there is no time so depending on an engine is a false sense of security.

When the wind dies, take to the oars – an advantage of open boat cruising.

The steep drying banks of the Rother are no place to experience engine failure on a cabin cruiser on an ebb tide with little wind, as I have found out.

And bilge keels won’t help either!

Leather muffler

Finally, the subject of clatter and noise. A boat with metal bits and pieces makes all sorts of noises.

A soft boat with leathered wooden spars and oars in vital places feels more restful and secure.

Some of my boats still have metal parts and wherever I can, I cover the part in leather.

Depending on the thickness of the leather I will generally make small holes where I need to stitch with a leather hole punch.

This makes sewing easier, since pushing the needle directly through the leather is often hard and laborious.

I soak the leather and stretch over the part to be covered, then stitch on. As it dries, the leather will shrink and make a tight fit.

The picture of a metal mast traveller is one that I covered in leather. It protects the mast and reduces noise. It is essential on a varnished wooden mast.

The Emsworth Lugger has none of the metal fittings of the similarly sized Tideway 10. Credit: Clive Marsh

For carbon masts, I tend to use just a rope traveller to protect the carbon from compression from a hard steel traveller.

I leather my oars at the points where they touch the oar crutches.

I cut the leather a little on the small side so that the ends do not meet when taken round the oar, then I soak the leather before stitching it on wet.

It will dry very tight and not need any tacks to hold in place. Hammering tacks into an oar will allow rot to weaken it.

If you don’t have oar crutches but have rowlocks cut out of your gunwales or transom then you can leather these places to protect them.

If you use thole pins then you might like to fix leather onto the space on the gunwale where the oar rests, but certainly no tacks here.

The rowlock on my Smacks Boat was leathered which was held in place with a strong glue.

The Tideway has metal in all sorts of places: gooseneck, spar jaw, mast track, yard runner, stays and so on. All difficult to fix.

By contrast, the similar-sized Emsworth Lugger has none of those metal fittings and there is nothing much I can’t fix from my marlin spike toolset.

She can also be rigged in a quarter of the time.

So, I am continuing my journey into the world of independence through softer boats. They are more fun to sail.

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