My boat got tossed last week.

[ebb]

It's still in a tent, which provided cover for the thief.
At first, nothing seemed missing, tools, vacuum. Looking down the c.way, it was a peculiar
mess, thought it must be a couple kids 'on a lark'. Well, straightening things up discovered
not any real maliciousness, but that someone had looked into every nook and cranny,
even the water filters were unscrewed, every carton overturned, every locker lid removed.
Even unscrewed the deck plate covers on the empty water tank under the cabin sole.
Right, wasn't kids. Had to be a junky, because it was looking for drugs.

It took my collection of mostly Fuller taper bits -- a little pouch, made by my ex, full of
odd bits of every sort, have a feeling something else haven't noticed missing yet...
Strange he took them, left a lot of good stuff,

But he took two irreplaceable bronze caps (that's what Buck-Algonquin calls them) that
he laboriously unscrewed from deckplates in the cabin sole. He didn't see the one he left
behind. Rotter!!!
No, they're not Buck's. Their plates are not waterproof. Perko's are always weird and have
no O-rings either. probably won't hear back from Spartan, and Bristol Bronze never made them.

Does anyone here have an idea where one looks for the better half of a bronze deckplate?

Full deckplate is 7.5" diameter. The screwin cap is 5 1/4" D. Web search didn't locate any
high-end makers, or importers. Got a deal from Mariners Hardware, now out of
business. They're beautifully cast and perfectly machined, seal with a 1/8" O-ring under
an exact 1/8" flange I thought perfect for the 32gal water-tank built in under the cabin sole.
Calling local pawn shops, and a scrap metal place in Petaluma Must have pissed him off
...so to teach me a lesson for not leaving my stash for him find!!!

MOLDED INSIDE THE SCREW-IN CAP
Make a gorgeous paperweight, for paperclips and toothpicks - if you're fixated on number 5.
Inside, in the bowl of the cap is a very friendly 1" long raised, full bellied numeral 5
flourished with a pointed tail, centered in a circle of flawlessly sand cast copper-gold. Only
now, with the others gone, am I counting the ways of this beautiful tool.

Ideas?

[CapnK]

Sorry I cannot help you, ebb, except to commiserate.

An idea occurs - did you look around nearby? Perhaps the crack-addled brain figured out that these nice, heavy, round objects wouldn't fetch much at the recyclers, and he tossed them locally after he got over the momentary rage of not being able to find your stash of highly volatile, low solids resin reserved for sniffing?

Best of luck finding the caps, or replacements. Lets hope that whoever the thieves are, that they get stuck in the seventh bolgia of the eighth circle, bitten forever by snakes and lizards...

[ebb]

Kurt, Seems there are numbers of humans these days, who ought to be stuck for all
eternity in the over-crowded seventh bolgia of the Inferno. Once read that there's a
51% to 49% chance of steering clear of the purveyors of mayhem. Good has to Win
51% or living in paradise becomes meaningless. Because 49% is dark side of the line.
"Which side are you on? They say in Harlan County, there are no neutrals there. You'll
either be a union man or a thug for J.H.Blair. Which side are you on?..." PeteSeeger

All this makes sense only if right over wrong side is always 51%. There's no meaning
to life if the dark side always wins. In moral terms, Good ultimately wins over Bad.
Occurred to me once, and others I've heard it from, here we are already in the only
paradise we will ever be conscious of... or hell if that be the hand you're dealt, or deal
yourself. Made a distinction for self between morality and ethics. Assigned morality
to the laws and rules of human institutions like religion, governments and dictatorships.

And ethics to the natural social conduct of society and wild creatures: treat everybody
as you would be treated, as you treat yourself. Covers all stripes, all hats, every free
thinker on this one and only blue planet, with its deadly firey core. A planet so unique,
if there was another it would have to be in an alternative universe. We are only one.

People don't realize we're 100% completely here, this is all we get, which is beyond
amazing. As a matter of fact, all we really have to work with is this single minute just
past, this minute right now, and the minute immediately ahead, forever out of reach.
Best odds at 51 to 49 is the best we ever get. 51% of a 3 minute paradise. Takes all
our energy and the right attitude to maintain and hold this 2% edge. Why squander it?


The bronze 5" screw-in cover weighs almost 2lbs. I know because I just weighed it on
the gram scale. He dumped stuff on top of the one cap he missed. I'd surely buy them
back, if someone came round. Better odds for him than scrap. But he's a coward. Don't
know what I'm going to do. Replacing the two is the only option. Deck plates that also
work as tank access plates have to be accurately cast and machined. Who makes them?

What we do to others, whether corporate mafia, or individuals, the shades of grey 49%
side of humanity is very depressing. Like the should-aye or shouldn't-aye buy a Glock for
the boat, prepare self to shoot dirty rats... where is the mind crossing over with that?

... ... There's that mega yacht on fire over there, people jumping overboard and swim-
ming toward LittleGull... Looking down at a distressed fat pink face, "What do you do in
this world of woe?" "b l b ul blub.. I'm J.H.Blair...pull me out!..CEO of Dow Chemical.."
"Really?!" and grab the boat hook and poke him under....
Right, wishful thinking. Rilly trying hard to be a fifty-one-percenter, slippery on the edge.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~


Why would you make beefy cast bronze DECK PLATES that have machined screw-out
covers, BUT don't provide a raceway for an o-ring?
Both BuckAlgonkwin and Perko do this.
Can understand Perko because they're consistantly strange anyway, but BA?
BA even makes a 5" plate, which so far as I know has no other worldly screw in fitting
like a cowl. It's a marine deck plate. That's what it does!!

SO Why go to the trouble of making a marine deck plate - that can't keep water out
-- or water in ? Ask yourself: what marine deck would you put it in, that you wouldn't
want to seal the lid? Hey Buck, where do you stand on these marine words: water
resistant, watertight, waterproof, impervious, leakproof, sealed.
Deplorably creepy.:mad:

PLASTICS WILL HAVE TO WORK
Going to use plastic Beckson's. Their "marine quality" plastic is not identified, BUT it isn't
marelon, nor acetal, nor fiberglass filled nylon or even bulletproof GAROLITE, which it
damn well could be machined from... Looks like a deckplate... Comes with an O-ring !
Ahhhhh! but the 2% kicks in: what type of rubber... ?

Product literature(hype) says fixture is useful for "tanks", but cautions against its use for
fuel tanks, because "fuel will attack the O-ring over time." (Obviously very easy to replace
an o-ring with a fuel-safe o-ring) - so maybe it's the plastic that won't survive new solvent
fuels. AND coyly avoids using the word 'water' anywhere close to the word 'tank'.

By omission, official Beckson stipulation evades linking their deckplate use with any liquid!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~
THIS PHRASE
Lying by omission, defined as misrepresentation, is a new phrase for me, but it explains
so much of what I hear and see of products and politicians. Presenting a product, in this
case, that cannot do what is reasonably expected of it: a marine deckplate that is not
watertight, is misrepresented when vendors don't reveal that fact when selling.
Problem is that we expect (assume) when exchanging legal tender for something we
purchase that doesn't do what we expect, it's always the fault of the buyer. We have to
be constantly smarter than the seller. Do BuckAlgonquin marine deckplates have O-rings?
Seller hype is: "Never give a sucker an even break or smarten up a chump." WCField.
Buck makes pipe fills with O-rings -- but deckplates... wouldn't we expect... ...? Nope.


wrong univers