Paul's tool order! Lack of a simple flat head screwdriver raised thoughts about the importance of contents in a boat's tool box
So there I was, sitting in the cockpit, nose in a cup of coffee and this miserable bloke shuffles along the pontoon. I know this sounds like the beginning of a bad joke, but wait – it gets serious.
“Sorry to bother you, mate,” he says, “but can you lend me a screwdriver?”
Which sort? Would I have what he wanted? I quickly flicked through my stock starting with the smallest – one of those fiddly ones for putting screws back into a broken pair of glasses. Then I remembered a complete set of jeweller’s screwdriver for no reason that I can remember, followed by Phillips, Pozidriv, Torx (whatever that is – never used one) until I finally arrived at a screwdriver so substantial that it is only ever used for getting the lids off varnish tins.
“Oh”, said the chap. “Just an ordinary one will do. One of those, you know, straight ones, for putting screws in.” I guessed he needed a flat head.
As he wandered off, my mind set to wondering what kind of person owns a boat which doesn’t have something as basic as an ordinary screwdriver on board? Now, I am no saint in this matter. I have quite a substantial box of tools on board but I am more than ready to admit they are poorly looked after, some never used, none of them sharp, and some I don’t even recognise, which I guess is the state of pretty much every sailor’s tool kit; except most of mine have the added honour of a fine coating of rust. You can tell what a real craftsmen I am.
But I’ll never part with them, or with anything for that matter. Am I the only person with spares that belonged two boats ago? Which makes no sense at all because we all know that whatever breaks down and requires a spare, you will almost certainly not have on board.
Some years ago I did the Singlehanded Transatlantic Race and found myself in light weather, shrouded in thick fog, about 300nm south of Nova Scotia. Three o’clock in the morning I was tacking in very light airs, put the wheel over, cast off the jib sheet and started to haul in as she came onto the new tack. Something snagged. Curses. I went forward, expecting to find it had caught round the bottom of a bottle screw, but soon realised that it seemed to be wrapped around a U bolt holding one of the lower shrouds. Very odd.
I was tired, I had been at sea alone for over a month and the brain goes foggy, a bit like
