A LITTLE MORE RECYCLING

I've given up any hope of selling the Honda BF2 Four Stroke outboard that had been on BIANKA since I bought the boat in 1995. Over two years ago it went to the bottom of the harbor during Hurricane Sandy when the dingy flipped, It had been taking up space in the garage for over two years since I salvaged it of the bottom.  I tinkered with it but, found at a minimum it would need a new

FROM THE USE WHAT YOU GOT FILE: Helm Cover

It feels good to have the boat back on the water. I still have not gone out for a sail I'm still getting things organized and cleaned up and doing some small projects. One of which is a new helm cover  I stripped and varnished the cockpit table recently and wanted to protect it as much as possible. A large helm cover fits the bill.  I've seen helm covers made out of Sunbrella material and I may make one once I get a Sailrite Sewing machine which is on my wish list. Instead I made one out of some recycled shrink wrap material:

It completely covers the helm and the table is pretty durable and the only cost to me was a few brass grommets and some spare line I had lying about to keep the sides secure :

While maybe not as colorful as a custom Sunbrella cover it does the job and helps keep some shrink wrap out of a landfill somewhere.  Plus the price is right.  It can also function as an additional shade cover if one should need it when it's not covering the helm.

FROM THE USE WHAT YOU GOT FILE

Boat bags are useful things to have. I've had one for over ten years that has lugged ton of stuff from bags of ice, groceries etc... But, lately it is showing it's age not in the main part of the bag but, one of it's handles had seen better days:

The handle had frayed and was about to break. I thought what a shame since the rest of the bag still had some good life and usefulness left to it. So I looked around on board to see what I could use to fix the problem. I found the solution in an old web belt that had also frayed a little:

I cut a piece of the belt off and using some Waxed Sailmakers Twine   and a needle made a new handle for the bag.

 This will allow the boat bag to continue to function instead of ended up in a landfill. So it's a good thing.