Refinement

Webster's Dictionary lists one of the definitions of refine as "to improve through subtle improvements." I love the fact that sailboats are so refined. Humans have been sailing boats for at least 12,000 years, perhaps much longer than that. The ideas behind sailing, sailboats, and sailboat hardware have had the time to be refined again and again.

Tarwathie is an outstanding example of this refinement. She has a conservative and well tested design, and her interior, I'm sure was designed and implemented by an experienced cruiser. Everything onboard is extremely functional, well designed, and extremely practical. One can admire the refinement in everything from latches and shackles, to drawers, floor layout, proportions, fittings, fixtures, portholes, hatches, bins, and even decorations. Many items have more than one use.

I admit to surprise at how easily we can live aboard in such a small space and with so few possessions. The refinement has a lot to do with it. There is very little waste of space and very little dysfunctional or marginally functional stuff aboard.

One of the annoyances of living in a small space is the way we store things. Take my tool bin for example. My tools and spare parts are stored in two bins, and each bin is filled right to the top. It seems like every time I need something, that I have to remove every piece from every bin to find it, then replace all those parts in the bins before I do everything. Some days I empty and refill those bins a dozen times. It becomes tiresome. The labor saving alternative is to have storage with lots of pigeonholes or drawers or a big flat surface so that pieces can be accessed at random without moving any other pieces. But that alternative is anathema in boat life e because it uses far too much space.