One of the most important parts of getting the boat ready for the season is not shopping. A huge amount of time can just vanish while you try to decide which product is the right one for whatever job you need to do next. When spring arrives, I don’t have the time to lose, I need to get the boat prepped to paint, painted, cleaned, the engine re-commissioned, safety equipment checked, rigging overhauled…. Ad infinitum ad nausium.
To avoid the dreaded loss of time shopping, I review catalogs in late winter when they come out. I put stick-ums on pages so I can locate the stuff I need to order when the time comes. I try to make decisions about what to replace, and how much to spend while the snow is still deep (April this year), then when the time comes, a few minutes on the phone is all I need to make purchases and arrange shipping. Or, in the case of some suppliers who are within driving distance, I have a list. One-trip: done.
The other nice thing about this method, for me anyway, is that by making lists in the dead of winter I tend to avoid impulse buys and the acquisition of unnecessary items. It is amazing how often something that looked like an absolute “must have” in February looks like a waste of money in May.
Another key part to the boat maintenance puzzle is to buy what you actually do need in bulk. If I need one vacuum bag, I buy the five pack. I know I will need them and it is a better deal. This does require a little bit of record keeping, but in the spring when everything needs to be done at once, it is much easier for me to consult a list made in March than it is to start searching shelves for a can of bedding compound that I may, or may not have.
