Facebook your Boat!

Just skimming through the always excellent Practical Boat Owner magazine and i've spotted an article titled Facebook your boat. It's about Jelly who lives aboard a Colvic Victor 34, you can see their Facebook page by clicking here.

So has anyone else out there got a Facebook page for their boat? If thats a yes, then get on over to our Force 4 Chandlery Facebook page and put the link to it on our wall, it would be great to see what you're all up to.

Plus if you'd like to create a Facebook page for your boat it's really easy, just follow these steps (Thanks to PBO for these):

1. To create a page for your boat you do first need a personal profile. Don't worry, it won't be publicly linked to your boat's page. If you don't already have a profile, go to www.facebook.com and fill in the short form to easily create one for free.
2. Once you are signed up and logged in to Facebook, type 'Create Facebook Page' in the search bar at the top of the website. Click on the 'Create new Facebook page' link that appears.
3. You are presented with a selection of categories to assign to your new page. Facebook doesn't have an option for boats so you can choose 'entertainment'. Whichever you use won't really matter and can be changed later. So choose a category, enter the name of your page, check (tick) the box, and click the button.
4. All done! Very easy. Now check out the article in PBO for suggestions on what to add to your page.
5. To switch between using your personal profile and the boat's page, click on 'Account' in the top right corner and choose 'Use Facebook as...'

Best of luck, and remember when you've done it, come and show it off on the Force 4 Facebook page.

Happy Sailing Captain Loz

Foxer Dinghy Sailing

Whilst out cycling on Sunday we detoured to the shore of the River Hamble, for one it’s a beautiful place to visit and two it’s good to get a feel for who’s about, are our shops busy, and what’s going on on the water.

I’m pleased to say that the river looked quite busy, lots of people on board their yachts and motor boats, and plenty of people going up and down the river.

What was really nice to see though was the competition between a fleet of Foxer dinghies. These are single handed dinghies, that I’ve subsequently been informed can be rowed, motorized or as I saw sailed. They looked very agile out on the water and tremendous fun.

I was also informed by our head Rigger that it’s not just youngsters who are competing in these dinghies, in fact far from it, they’ve been embraced by an older generation of sailors, who find them easy to maintain, a quick way to get on the water, and are so closely matched that tactics and blind luck can play a real part!

You can read more about the Foxer dinghy by clicking here:

If you’re interested in getting the correct gear for Foxer dinghy sailing check out some of these products that may come in handy:

Oars & Rowlocks suitable for dinghies

Boat covers, and other useful dinghy sailing accessories

NEW! Dinghy Sailing Clothing ranges for 2011

Plus coming soon, we've got a whole new dinghy range in our Swanwick branch, this will include Marlow ropes dinghy sailing specific hardware, and of course the best dinghy sailing clothing from Gill, Henri Lloyd, Musto and Helly Hansen.

Happy Sailing!

Captain Loz