How-to

Today my friend Pentaman returned to the boatyard to give his Volvo outdrive its new paint job. I'm happy to say he got it right (almost). My spy camera picked up the shot below today at about 3 PM. With a close zoom I can see that for primer he's using Interlux Primocon Grey. This is really the perfect primer for this job, and although not zinc based as I mentioned in an earlier piece on this topic it is the perfect match for the anti-foulant he's also selected, Trilux 33. Rather than use zinc, Interlux uses Aluminum alkyls as one of the active ingredients and it is rated as an excellent primer for aluminum. Of course in the photo below you can see that neither the sprayman or Pentaman are wearing proper eye protection or respirators, a serious no no when working with any of this stuff. Throw-away gloves are also highly recommended. Over the Primocon, he's going to apply Trilux 33 which contains no cuprous oxide, but rather cuprous thiocyanante, a powerful biocide. So the saga ends, and aside from the interface between his gimbal housing and the anti-foulant on the boat's hull, and his personnel safety habits (or lack thereof) it looks like he's going to have a properly protected aluminum drive unit afterall. Not sure what happened to his original can of Krylon my spycam caught on day one. Maybe he sensed it. Anyhow, as long as the two fellows below live through breathing the stuff as they spray away on this breezy day, the drive will survive.   …Read More

The gaff-rigged Kate returns from the racecourse. Photo by Kimball Livingston Little-known factoid: Puma’s store in Boston, the U.S. stopover for the 2008-09 Volvo Ocean Race, is now the sports apparel maker’s hottest store. I got that small but meaningful tidbit out of a sit-down with Puma Ocean Racing skipper Ken Read on the final [...] …Read More

A You Tube moment affords us the opportunity to put in a good word for the Sail Through Cancer Foundation, whose mission is to encourage boat owners to volunteer time on their boats to enrich the lives of cancer victims and survivors. Founder Dick Drechsler came through stage three neck and throat cancer himself, with [...] …Read More

Last year’s “Baja Ha Ha,” the fleet cruise from San Diego to Mexico, provides yet another impetus for all ocean cruisers to reconsider their liferaft situation. You DO have one, right?  And it HAS been maintained, inspected and re-certified, right? And you actually know what’s stored in it and how to use it, right? And [...] …Read More

Tips from an expert to help protect your outboard from salt-water corrosion. …Read More

Well it's back to raining here in Rhode Island so my friend Pentaman won't be available today to finish off the paint job on his Volvo outdrive. If you've missed my last two posts, we've been tracking his progress with this big job. So, it looks like Monday I'll be able to get you the final results of his work as the forcast looks good weather wise. Today, I want to talk about one of the most important safety devices on your boat if you have living / sleeping accomodations. I'm referrring to a CO monitor.  Now most people think of CO poisioning as only being associated with gasoline fueled engines, and it is true that they are the big emitters. but that said, all engines exhaust varying amounts of CO. Really, anything with a flame on it or in it produces some CO. On boats this is a big issue because the space is relatively small. So now, if you are reading this and saying, I'm good, my 7 year old boat is equipped new with a CO monitor, I'm good to go! NOT SO FAST.............. Most people are not aware that these units have a limited life span, ranging from 3-5 years with the units I'm familiar with, several of which are shown below: The two models shown above are made by FireBoy Xintex and are probably the most popular units used in the boating industry. The owner's manual that comes with these units is quite clear. The very first sentence reads: "WARNING: Failure to replace this product by the "REPLACE BY DATE" printed on the alarm cover may result in death by Carbon Monoxide poisioning. Replace by date is five (5) years from the date of manufacture. It doesn't get much clearer than that. These units have a finite life span. I should warn you that not all units have the 5 year life either. I've installed some that had a 36 month span. By the way, just because the unit in the upper picture here looks like the smoke detector in your house, don't confuse the two. They are entirely different units that sense different things. There is no cross-over. Don't take a chance people. Check your unit out today. If you don't have one or more of these units on your cabin boat, get one! …Read More

What could be finer than to wake up at Les Voiles de St. Barth (good mawnin’ tradewinds!) and find on top of my inbox a note from the Mayor’s office a few thousand miles away in San Francisco, advising that Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi has introduced a resolution to the Board of Supervisors, which goes on [...] …Read More

Kadey-Krogen’s recently announced 52′ is a classic example of a builder filling out a product line in specific response to customer demand. In this case, the company already had on offer its well-established 48′ and the new 55′ Expedition. The 55′ Expedition, however, is not really the “other” boat in this comparison — it’s the [...] …Read More

Ho-boy, the floodgates have been opened for idiotic law suits galore, because Brunswick has been found liable (partially, anyway), for a propeller injury accident that took place back in 2005. Here’s the scoop, as told in Boating Industry News (read their article here: http://www.boating-industry.com/output.cfm?id=2485225this) this morning: an 18 year-old named Jacob Brochtrup was wakeboarding with three friends. When the tow [...] …Read More

ValvTect gasoline fuel additives. Third-party tests adds a high degree of credibility to their claims. …Read More