Tools
Last night out of a combination of boredom and anticipation, I broke out my tool bag and began cleaning, sorting and organizing. I was hoping to get a picture of the final result since it'll look as though a hurricane went through there more often than not but the camera wasn't cooperating.
In my bag I have:
Five - 7/16" box end wrenches w/ ratchet heads
Three - 1/2" box end wrenches w/ ratchet heads
One - Large adjustable wrench
Two - Medium adjustable wrenches
Two - Small adjustable wrenches
Two - Small levels
One - Rigging tool (homemade)
One - Pitch meter
One - Tape measure with centimeters
One - Pair of pliers
Two - Philips head screw drivers
Two - Flat screw drivers
Three - Rolls of electrical tape
One - Long 7/16"
One - Long 1/2"
One - 7/8" wrench
One - Cheap basic scientific calculator (rigger adjustments)
Three - Finger ratchets for track adjustments
One - Box knife
Pair of scissors
Pair of wire cutters
Flash light
Spare parts box
Little Hotties hand warmers
This is about half of what I actual own, all accumulated over the years of coaching. My original bag had maybe 1/3 of what is here and one only needs to have five or six boats to rig and someone having raided your bag to realize that one of each wrench simply won't do.
I had a large tool box while I was at Lake Oswego but I was also doing a lot more adjustments and measurements with the equipment there. High School novice boys tend to be really hard on equipment regardless of the number of eyes observing them. When I moved down to Willamette I decided to cut back on the number of tools I was carrying for the sake of ease as well as peace of mind. I've ended up with random tools at the end of a regatta and had to go searching for their owners and the idea of having a large tool box hanging out seemed like a recipe for disaster. The bag is easier to handle, can stay with me and has a very finite amount of space so I can't simply dump in tools. This makes me stay more accountable.
All of my tools are marked with some colored tape as is the bag so people who might grab and go when rigging a boat can easily identify where the tools return to; should they actually return them. Typically I have to search the shells before they launch to find missing wrenches.
My favorite tools in the bag comes down to a tie between the finger ratchets and my tape measure. If you've ever tried to loosen and move or replace seat tracks, you know the special joy of going under the deck totally blind trying to attach a wrench or pair of pliers to the nuts holding the buggers in place. The finger ratchets allow you to do the whole job in 1/3 the time, easily. As for the tape measure, I'm not sure why but CM tape measures have been difficult to find. Since measuring spread and span comes down to CMs, this guy has pretty much eliminated the need for the calculator. Instead of doing fractions with rowers pacing around me, I can easily change the spread on a rigger for those special occasions when someone completely disassembles a rigger on accident - it's happened more often than I care to mention.
Several times I've wondered if maybe I'm over doing it on tools. The bag is a bit heavy and some times I'll find myself in a check out line with a couple of wrenches without really thinking about it. I've actually made some of my friends keep an eye on me while wandering through Sears to make sure I don't grab something. I tend to be of the mindset that I'd rather be over prepared and home at night and not under prepared and on the news. The same thought goes into my tools and such. I'd rather be completely prepared and have tools that rarely ever leave the bag, rather than frantically trying to borrow something - I've been down that road a couple of times.
In my bag I have:
Five - 7/16" box end wrenches w/ ratchet heads
Three - 1/2" box end wrenches w/ ratchet heads
One - Large adjustable wrench
Two - Medium adjustable wrenches
Two - Small adjustable wrenches
Two - Small levels
One - Rigging tool (homemade)
One - Pitch meter
One - Tape measure with centimeters
One - Pair of pliers
Two - Philips head screw drivers
Two - Flat screw drivers
Three - Rolls of electrical tape
One - Long 7/16"
One - Long 1/2"
One - 7/8" wrench
One - Cheap basic scientific calculator (rigger adjustments)
Three - Finger ratchets for track adjustments
One - Box knife
Pair of scissors
Pair of wire cutters
Flash light
Spare parts box
Little Hotties hand warmers
This is about half of what I actual own, all accumulated over the years of coaching. My original bag had maybe 1/3 of what is here and one only needs to have five or six boats to rig and someone having raided your bag to realize that one of each wrench simply won't do.
I had a large tool box while I was at Lake Oswego but I was also doing a lot more adjustments and measurements with the equipment there. High School novice boys tend to be really hard on equipment regardless of the number of eyes observing them. When I moved down to Willamette I decided to cut back on the number of tools I was carrying for the sake of ease as well as peace of mind. I've ended up with random tools at the end of a regatta and had to go searching for their owners and the idea of having a large tool box hanging out seemed like a recipe for disaster. The bag is easier to handle, can stay with me and has a very finite amount of space so I can't simply dump in tools. This makes me stay more accountable.
All of my tools are marked with some colored tape as is the bag so people who might grab and go when rigging a boat can easily identify where the tools return to; should they actually return them. Typically I have to search the shells before they launch to find missing wrenches.
My favorite tools in the bag comes down to a tie between the finger ratchets and my tape measure. If you've ever tried to loosen and move or replace seat tracks, you know the special joy of going under the deck totally blind trying to attach a wrench or pair of pliers to the nuts holding the buggers in place. The finger ratchets allow you to do the whole job in 1/3 the time, easily. As for the tape measure, I'm not sure why but CM tape measures have been difficult to find. Since measuring spread and span comes down to CMs, this guy has pretty much eliminated the need for the calculator. Instead of doing fractions with rowers pacing around me, I can easily change the spread on a rigger for those special occasions when someone completely disassembles a rigger on accident - it's happened more often than I care to mention.
Several times I've wondered if maybe I'm over doing it on tools. The bag is a bit heavy and some times I'll find myself in a check out line with a couple of wrenches without really thinking about it. I've actually made some of my friends keep an eye on me while wandering through Sears to make sure I don't grab something. I tend to be of the mindset that I'd rather be over prepared and home at night and not under prepared and on the news. The same thought goes into my tools and such. I'd rather be completely prepared and have tools that rarely ever leave the bag, rather than frantically trying to borrow something - I've been down that road a couple of times.
Comments