It's time for 2023 Herbie Awards -day 1 - Good Stuff for a Boater to Buy

 There's no getting away from it, Yuletide is practically upon us, so it must be time for that big event in Herbie's calendar - 

The Annual Herbie Awards (est. 2007). 

Yes we've really been going for 16 years.  Resisting the temptation to call it Strictly Come Boating, we'll nevertheless put on our tuxedos and sparkly gowns (whatever turns you on), crack open the bubbly and dish out some well deserved plaudits.  Sadly in these tough economic times, the budget wouldn't run to hiring Ricky Gervais to do the honours, so you'll have to do with me.  

(As an aside, I realised this year that some 40 odd years ago when I did an eight year stint in the Reading area as a schools Careers Adviser I was working some of the time in the school which Ricky Gervais attended.  It occurs to me that I may well have done his careers interview(, but sadly I have no recollection of it, although I'm sure it would have been entertaining.) Anyway enough of that and on with the show.

We used to have an award category of Best Gadget, but this year we've decided to broaden it a bit to include items which are useful to have on a boat (unlike a spirit level which is entirely useless on surfaces that rock and roll), but can't necessarily described as a gadget.  In the past we've had elbow length rubber gloves for going down the weed hatch, electric pumps for sucking out oil, a bluetooth speaker, a mobile phone and others I can't now recall.  So what have we got this year?

Our nominees for Good Stuff for a Boater to Buy are:

1. A Tin of Paint Not just any paint of course but this one.

Hammerite No 1 Rust Beater.

Unless your boat is made from aluminium, wood, or glass fibre, you will one day have to deal with the appearance of some rust. We all have our favourites for dealing with this, one of mine being Fertan -an excellent rust converter.  But even with Fertan which claims to act also as a primer you still need to add more paint fairly soon in the form of a traditional undercoat.  So I've been looking for something which cuts down the number of stages required and this year I tried Hammerite No 1 Rustbeater. Their claim is that you can paint it directly on rust pits and that it kills rust, primes and undercoats all in one.  So I tried it, and I have to say I like it.  Of course you need to sand off any loose rust first. But then it goes on easily, has the thickness to fill in little pits, but still flows and brushes out well and the colour is quite like the raddle colour I use on Herbie's roof.  A top coat will of course be needed but it'll hold the surface well for a reasonable time until you have time for that. Time alone will reveal it's efficacy in beating off rust, but so far it looks good.  If I were you, I'd get some.

Our second nominee is indeed a proper gadget, useful in the home but especially useful in a boat where spaces are awkward and tight.  it is . . 

2. A Laser Measure - the one I have cost less than £20.  From time to time we need to measure spaces on a boat to see if a chair or a rug will fit in or to measure up inside a cupboard.  A laser measure makes this quick and easy and you can use it one handed and of course if you need to measure a long way like say the distance from the front door to the back, you can do it at the press of a button as long as you have a line of sight. It's so much easier than  trying to use a tape or a rule in difficult spaces and accurate too. Not only that, it keeps a note of the measurement.

3. A Floating Phone Case -  Hands up those people who've dropped a mobile phone in the canal (I can tell you that both Kath and I have our hands in the air, in fact Kath has two hands in the air).  So this is a gadget I actually don't have, but I think I must get.  Something to slip onto my phone when I'm boating, so if I do drop it in the drink, it will float.  I can see several of them on the market. Losing a phone that way is frustrating, expensive and a real nuisance.  I resolve to acquire such a gadget soon.

4.  A cheap sleeping mat  - Get one of those cheap closed cell foam ones from Aldi or Argos or some such and cut it up to make a comfy dry kneeling pad for diy jobs, a dry seat on wet grass or a wet boat or anything else needing waterproof or protective padding. (Sudden thought -maybe I could make a floating phone case from one). You ought to be able to get one for less than a tenner, and they cut up easily with scissors. I even used one to line the inside of an instrument carrying case.  

So that's my choice for this year.  All good stuff.  Tune in next time for the judges scores and the nominees for Best Canal Pub Grub 2023.