25th May 2022 – Rotherhithe
17 days to go before the Scoresby Sund Expedition starts
In the past I have used a round canvas ditty bag to hold my splicing and rigging gear, plus a Kuny tool bag for all my other tools, but it was always a struggle to stow both of them into Sumara’s small cupboard. I designed this tool bag to combine the ditty bag and the tool bag. I’m hoping it will stow away more easily. I’ll use some small canvas zipper bags to decant the tools which I’ll need for each task. The bag is made from very heavy canvas with a soft leather base so it won’t scratch the varnished table.
Space is always at a premium on a small boat so I generally throw away those massively oversized blown plastic boxes that socket sets and cordless drills arrive in. My complete 1/2″ drive socket set fits in a little Klein Zipper bag and my cordless drill with all twist and flat bits lives in a little Tupperware box.
The orange grips that you can see also have unique brackets to fasten them to a table or ledge.
My tool bag above now contains the following:
- Set of Mobile Grips (those orange ones)
- Set of brackets to secure the grips to a table or step
- Pair of needle-nose Armor auto adjust grips (oh so good)
- 200 mm aluminium bronze adjustable spanner (I know AJ’s are frowned upon, but they are still very handy!)
- 150 mm Bahco adjustable spanner
- Set of open end/ring spanners for the perfectionists
- Pair of Armor lever action standard pliers
- Pair of Armor lever action needle nose pliers
- Pair of very fine small needle pliers
- Wide opening Bahco wrench
- Pair of Bahco side cutters
- Pair of old but cherished top cutters
- Round file
- Very small round file
- Oil Filter wrench
- Electrical crimping pliers
- Bahco Mini hacksaw (with 6x blades)
- Bahco 208 hacksaw blade holder (with 6x blades)
- Gerber folding wood saw
- Stanley block plane
- Flush cutting wood saw
- Weird French hammer (which I bought in St Suliac and have grown attached to despite its weirdness)
- Retractable Stanley knife (with 6x blades)
- Stanley snap off blade knife (with 6x blades)
- Wire coat hanger for retrieving things (Countless times I have wanted a wire coat hanger onboard, now I have one!)
- Bradawl
- Stubby ratchet hex bit holder (currently with pointed bit)
- Smiths knife sharpener
- Wera ratchet screwdriver – with bits in handle. (Lovely smooth ratchet action).
- Wera 7 mm flexible nut spinner which fits most (but not all) worm drive clips
- Very fine long electrical screwdriver
- Shorter insulated electrical screwdriver
- Medium insulated electrical screwdriver
- Very small Phillips screwdriver
- No8 flat screwdriver
- Set of Allen keys
- King Dick Multi screwdriver (PH 1,2,3 and PZ 1,2,3)
- Reel of monel seizing wire
- 3 m tape measure
- Note book
- Sharpie Pen, so useful
- Pencil
- Biro
- Reels of PVC tape on a loop
- Candle for making things work which previously didn’t!
And also in the Tool Bag are the contents of my Ditty Bag
- Large Swedish fid
- Small Swedish fid
- Dyneema scissors
- Set of assorted sailmakers needles
- Set of Selmas
- Patch of sail material
- Needle on a handle
- Old kitchen knife (to heat up)
- Speedy Stitcher (with twine)
- Whipping twine
- Hacking knife
- Marlin spike
Stowed elsewhere on the boat
In a canvas tool roll
- 1” Chisel
- ¼” Chisel
- Half round file
- Massive Screwdriver
In a box near the engine
- Socket set plus special sockets for keel bolts etc in a Klein Bag
- Small 3/8″ drive socket set
- 6” Adjustable spanner
In cupboard
- Bag of Allen keys and nut drivers
- A very small right angle ratchet drive to undo one specific screw!
- Lanolin to care for the tools
- Boeshield also to care for the tools
- Giant adjustable locking pliers (can’t remember why I needed these)
- Combination Square
In Forepeak
- Makita 10.6v cordless drill with twist and flat bits
- C12 Felco wire cutters
A quick shout-out for four really handy tools!
All my tools are special, after all, who ever regrets buying a decent tool? Yet some are a bit more special, either because they are unusual or they just do something a bit different. Here are a few of them.
Number One
Number Two
Number Three
Number Four
And finally……
……I do rather like my Leatherman Skeletool. Although I realise multitools are never quite as good as a proper stand alone tool, I do find the little Skeletool a very handy thing to quickly pull from my pocket when I need to spontaneously sort something out on deck.
So I’ve probably forgotten something that I have, or maybe something that I really should have. Please add a comment if you have any suggestions
And even more finally…….
I eventually succumbed to buying one of those automatic wire strippers which are so satisfying to use. I wish I had bought one years ago.
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