Being dyslexic means for me that trying to note down a telephone number over the phone can turn into a nightmare when the person at the other end says some like 'triple zero' or 'helps' with a post code by using the phonetic alphabet. Away they go, Tango, Golf, Zulu. Combine this with a spectacularly poor memory (over six years in present abode and no idea of our home phone number, nor post code) and oh dear! Folks if I have to remember something, unless I write it down its gone three seconds later however, it's a excuse that doesn't wash when I forget Jenny's birthday, fortunately she cannot remember the date we got married but can be heard to mutter at moments of stress 'four life sentences'.
Having said all that you would be very surprised at the number of sailors young and old who enter our premises at the start of the fitting out season and say 'just having a look around and see what catches my eye' well for those guys I have a suggestion, before this season finishes why not invest in an early Christmas present for yourself and purchase a Weems and Plath or Adlard Coles maintenance logbook and start writing fast... What type of oil and fuel filter(s), prop shaft diameter? Which style of Volvo anode for the sail drive? Grade of oil for the gearbox? W
hat type of bulb is used in the mast head tricolour? Is the deck flood baynet or two pins halogen? Then, underdeck mast wiring diagrams, a note about the leak on the fore hatch, What make of antifoul did Storrar sell me last year? Yes, write it all down and finally don't be that guy who pops into our sail-loft on the Tuesday before the Easter bank holiday and asks r
ather sheepishly, 'Could you possibly repair this 'recent' split in my Genoa's sacrificial strip and by the way can we have it by Thursday afternoon?'.