MAX EBB I
t's the same problem every year: What to buy sailors for holiday gifts. This really should be easy, considering all the gear and accessories we use and lust after. But no, everyone on my list already owns every imaginable gadget, or else they have such eclectic taste that it's just about impossible to hit it right. Lee Helm is a particularly tough case. As a starving grad student I know she would appreciate something useful, but she's crew, not family, so etiquette dic-
tates a gift that is thoughtful but not too expensive. But how on earth do you buy a present for someone like Lee? Then I had a brilliant idea — her online wish list. These lists are readable by anyone and, if it's up to date, it shows exactly what she actually wants. A few keystrokes and clicks, and I was there. Number one, top priority: Stabilized binoculars at $580. Nice try, Lee. Next
item down: A night vision scope for $3,000. "Who does she think is going to shop from this list?" I mumbled as I looked at her next wish, a textbook about wave theory priced at $125. Maybe it's available used at a fraction of the price? No luck. Surely Lee's friends would have some suggestions — she often brings some
Max and Lee's Holiday Gift Guide Big Fish Safety Knife www.safetyknife.net/fish_range.htm $30 for the 9mm model, $5.25 for 10 additional blades. The website is in England, order from the U.S. importer in St. Louis: sales@safetyknife.us.com.
This is the best knife to leave kicking around the cockpit or chart table. No folding parts, but you have to try hard to cut anything except rope. And no more struggling to open a blade with cold fingers. Replaceable blades keep it sharp. See it in action in the Dyneema brummel splice video ("of course we used the Big Fish Safety Knife") at www.youtube.com/ watch?v=HiOzEELTWp4. (And this kind of splice is so easy you'll be ashamed you don't already know how to do it.) Splicing kit www.knotandrope.com For the sailing geek who's into it, Knotandrope.com has a good selection of hard-to-find fids, pushers, and other specialized tools, as well as the more common $25 Samson splicing kit. (Go to
'rope tools' and then 'splicing tools'.) Also get the 'Small Swedish fid' for another $8 — useful for the brummel splice and similar tasks. Don't miss the very easy single-braid Page 108 •
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brummel splice video (see the link in the Big Fish item). Peter Isler's Little Blue Book of Sailing Secrets For the novice racer, this is the perfect companion to Sailing for Dummies (co-authored by Peter's ex-wife JJ, and surprisingly good). Secrets is sort of an informal cross between Peter Isler's personal sailing memoir and a how-to-race book, organized into small bite-size anecdotes, quotes and random lists of rules and principles from a variety of sources, famous and obscure. It's likely to become an instant classic, although that status is only partially deserved because so little of the content is really new. Tiller extension lock box Forespar makes these little box-like inserts for the inner face of the cockpit coaming. If you know someone who sails a boat steered with one of those telescoping hiking sticks with a ball grip handle, this is a must-have. The ball grip snaps into a sort of keyhole, for quick locking of the helm. The tiller setting is infinitely adjustable by telescoping the hiking stick in or out. The best feature is that once you have the setting adjusted for self-steering, you can unsnap the hiking stick to steer around an obstruction, then lock it in again with the setting preserved. Can't do that with a lashed tiller or even a wheel brake. $27 each, and even though you might get by with just one, for short-handed sailing it's better to have one for each side. Miniature sextant www.redskytrader.com Useless but fun, this is halfway between
a real navigational instrument and a Christmas tree ornament. Made in India, it often arrives with some of the smaller parts broken. But where else can you get a (sort of) functioning sextant, complete with a fancy wood box, for $32? It would look great on top of any sailor's tree, or sitting on a desk where it could confuse the uninitiated and fascinate the cognoscenti. They make good trophies too. You can also buy Red Sky Trader stuff through Amazon. There's lots more amazing nautical kitsch on that site — it's the go-to source if you're decorating a seafood restaurant. Psychology of Sailing: The Sea's Effects on Mind and Body by Michael Stadler $30 new, available used for 1¢ plus $3.99 shipping from Amazon affiliated dealers. Written by a sailing psychology prof in Germany, this little book is a very comprehensive treatment of navigation and piloting errors, perception errors, crew management dynamics, motion sickness and other human factors relating to sailing. The translation from German is a little clunky in spots but the diagrams are good. Perfect for your watch captain or navigator, and all other sailing geeks, and you can't beat the price thanks to the virtual dusty shelves of the online used bookstore. Framed photo of their boat This takes some planning ahead, but if you've been taking a lot of pictures over the last year or two, and if your friends' boats are featured in them, a framed boat portrait is cheap, thoughtful, and really appreciated. (Check out IKEA for frames.) But the photo has to show the boat sailing well
