My confidence is being effected.

[jefndeb]

My boating "enjoyment" is being diminished somewhat by my confidence. Im not loosing confidence in myself, its a loss of confidence in my boat. As I approach my 60th year on this earth I seem to becoming less and less tolerant to the various issues cruisers have to deal with as part of this lifestyle. I worded it this way to the admiral - If my confidence, say concerning the generator, is very low, that in itself adds an undesirable level of stress to what is supposed to fun, "will the generator actually work today when we get to our anchorage spot?".hell I sure hope so... things like that take the fun outta cruising and if you have to cross your fingers every time you press that button?.where do you draw the line? Now, I baby the various systems on our boat and beings a retired Aerospace Systems Engineer specializing in failure analysis, i absolutely understand how and why things fail and because of this i do as much as humanly possible to prevent failures from happening. But as i begin to think about the upcoming trek south it just sorta seems less fun or even kinda dreading it. Sorry to be such a downer..






the boat eroding break all the time and unpredictable

 

[Comodave]

If it is just the generator that is concerning you then find a good mechanic on your brand of generator and have them come do a complete service on the generator. Tell them that you want it to be very reliable and therefore replace whatever is needed. It may be expensive but if it restores your confidence in it then it will be worthwhile.

 

[BruceK]

Is this anxiety purely boat focused, or more general? If it`s just the boat, why? If it`s more general, look for a reason.
It sounds like you are transposing something related to your occupation. If you think about it rationally, you are probably already doing reasonable precautionary maintenance and checks. If thinking about it rationally doesn`t help,look further afield.
You can just start the genset before leaving the dock, if it starts it`s more likely to start when you reach the day`s destination. But if the genset is just one example of many, there could be more to it. Question whether doing something causing enough anxiety to post about it for help is worth doing, or whether to do something about the anxiety.

 

[magna 6882]

Have you been having multiple failures to cause this anxiety ? When we are traveling my confidence in the boat and systems do not cross my mind. The only anxiety i have is with other boats who seem to want to run head on instead of adjusting there coarse and ferries that always seem to be running faster then i think they are. I do stay ahead of maintenance.

 

[boomerang]

Don't feel bad because you're not alone. Back in the day, I was happy to get to the destination and if something happened to need repairing on the way, so be it. I would be happy to cobble a repair together and continue our journey. Nowadays, I overthink everything regarding maintenance because I tend to worry too much about issues that could happen and potentially lessen the enjoyment of our trips.
I remember decisively the moment I decided it was time for a twin engine boat or at least one that had a bow thruster. We were in a high current/high wind undocking situation in Morehead City early one morning and getting away from our side-to slip with the wind and current not in our favor was a bit stressful. The younger me would've been full of bravado where I would've almost looked forward to the challenge. Now, I have the nagging concern that a Morse cable will fail or if the prop wall fall off in a high thrust docking event.
I haven't lost confidence in our boat or equipment, I just have less patience at my age.

 

[psneeld]

I was the same way with my boat and now my RV. Just returned from a FL to Seattle to Yellowstone to Fl trip. 7000 miles/3.5 months. Every day a little concern crept in regarding "failures" that would severely impact the trip.

Yet every day for a decade while snowbirding between NJ and FL on my old trawler... everything kept working. Sure their were minor failures...but usually in a couple hours or days they were fixed and the trip proceeded. The RVs have worked flawlessly for over 75,000 miles and years of service. Even failures of major items had some sort of backup or alternative or plan B... that was always something that was part of the trip planning to keep plans on track.

Why am I a bit paranoid? A bit of lifelong personality and a bit of 35 years in jobs that may have had pretty serious consequences if equipment failed at the wrong time.

My reason for continuing all these years.... like any irrational fear, by living with it every day and honing planning skills to lessen that fear...but mostly just shaking it off and get going was mainly the answer.

We all have fears/concerns about things in life...it's just natural.

So every day, wake up and go through the motions. Get going, realizing that's all life usually is, one day at a time, and before ya know it the day is over and you are where you wanted to be. Be happy and grateful, not only you did what you wanted, but you beat your dreaded feeling.


I guess it's best said by the genius Tao Te Ching "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step".

 

[Xlantic]

When I was experiencing a loss of confidence on my 1973 boat a few years ago I decided to simplify it.

As a result I have removed:
- three A/C units (two weren't working)
- Webasto diesel boiler and nine radiators
- 12 kW Onan generator (replaced with 2 kW of solar panels)
- electric range (replaced with propane one)
- compact fluorescent and incandescent lighting (replaced with LED)
- lots of ancient electronics (some replaced and some still to be replaced)
- satellite TV antena
- twin 240 HP Ammarine GM Toro-Flo engines which were stopped being built almost 50 years ago (replaced with rebuilt twin 120 HP Cummins 5.9B naturals)
- hanging chandelier over saloon table, pictures, carpets and general bric-brac from POs
- lots of unused and left-behind cabling

I have come to embrace my wife's philosophy of "when in doubt, throw it away".

If you don't have it, it can't break.

I am a lot more confident about the boat and its (remaining) systems now.