The Bar Keeper’s Friend
It doesn’t matter what a class act your boat is, I’ll bet the builders let a few so-called stainless steel bolts through the net that somehow bleed rust, no matter what you do. Mine’s just the same. In the old days we used to clean rust stains with muriatic acid. A series of caring administrations have protected us from ourselves by making it difficult to obtain this miracle product, but my wife, ever-vigilant for solutions to everyday problems, has discovered “The Bar Keeper’s Friend.” This powder seems to clean just about everything, from tea-stained mugs to rust on the GRP around your stanchion bases and black streaks under scuppers. It’s easy to use and only mildly abrasive. So long as you don’t go mad, it doesn’t even dull the shine.
The 21st-Century Pilot
Tablet navigation has very much come of age. I’ve always refused to have a plotter or MFD stuck up in front of me in the cockpit because in general I’d rather be looking at sea and sky than some giant TV screen telling me what I don’t need to know for most of the time. Piloting into strange harbors, it’s a different story. I prepare my plan beforehand, keep a paper chart handy for overview, and use my iPad. It doesn’t take the place of a full-on plotter, and one must be aware of the possibility of datum shifts and layering issues—the invariable rule when piloting close-in on electronics—but for relieving stress and confirming the yacht’s position, it’s a genuine leap forward.
