West Marine Price Matching

[commanderpete]

Naturally I don't buy my supplies at West Marine, even though I have two stores within 5 minutes of me. But, sometimes you run low and need it NOW.

Picking up a few screws is one thing, but if I need to spend decent money, I'll use their price matching policy.

Just pull out a current catalog from Defender, Hamilton Marine, Jamestown, etc. and circle the items. They'll match the price. Usually saves about 30-40%.

The other day I needed some more paint, varnish, thinners, calk. Spent $96.79. Saved $47.15

I still don't like giving money to the evil empire, but the pain is less.

[willie]

Wonder if they'll do that online? lol
Nearest WM is 186 miles from me. So i look for cheap freight!
My last purchase was ebay i believe.... sometimes you get took, sometimes it is what they say it is. I got some small cleats for the dingy jr. and i are working on. Thought it was a great deal after looking at WM's prices. Then they get here, and the underside is so rough it would wear a line in two in about an hour. Don't think i need to bother using them. And it's not just ebay. I ordered some nice ( i thought) brass cabin bulkhead lamps to replace the old bare bulb ones. I finally got one installed today, have to do some repair on the other one before i can install it. Their solder job on the leads to the switch didn't hold up for 5 min. of installation. I guess they'll do, but such is life with mail order. Sure would be nice to hold something and look it over carefully before forking over the sawbucks. If you do decide to send something back, you get stuck for the freight. Both ways usually.
Waaaah. Price i pay for living out here in God's country i guess.

So anyone rig a jib downhaul? What type of block do i need up by the tack?

Another question: Just bought a sound system on ebay, wondering where to mount the speakers? Anyone fooled around with this problem?

[Mike Goodwin]

All you need is a small bullet block .

[willie]

Ah, a bullet block. Here's why i love shopping online for sailboat hardware....

http://www.go2marine.com/g2m/action/...et_blocks.html

So many choices....how about a single, with swivel and becket? Or how would you attach it to the stem fitting? Looks pretty simple, but i want it to work when i need it to work!
Think i'll just stop by the local hardware store and see what they have.

Well, went and ordered a couple simple little bullet blocks, a couple jam cleats,and 50' of 5/16 yachtbraid. Should be able to rig it up simple enuf.Here's the one i went with. Looked like a decent price.

http://www.go2marine.com/g2m/action/...le_harken.html

[Mike Goodwin]

Attach the bullet block to the tack of the sail with a lashing . You can just run the line to the head of the sail and make fast OR attach rings along the luff , run the line through the rings to the head .
This way the whole rig comes off with the sail and is much tidier and easy to set up.
You need to do this with each sail that you want a downhaul .

[commanderpete]

http://bosunsupplies.com/Downhaul.cfm

[willie]

Thanks mates--good info. Looks like a couple ways to go about it. I can see advantages to both. That bosun supply site is very informative. Can do some studying there.