How-to

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

Yesterday I discussed some of my observations as I watched a fellow preparing his outdrive for a fresh coat of paint. …Read More

Well the monsoon season here in Rhode Island is finally over (we think) and only about 25% of the state remains underwater. But, today the sun came out and things are finally beginning to hop here at the marina where my office is located. So, I got my spy camera out today and caught this fellow getting ready to do the deed to his outdrive. I like his style, radio blaring, brought the lawn chair along and looking comfortable while he gets ready to do potential damage to his rather expensive Volvo Penta outdrive. We're going to have to keep an eye on this fellow probably through tomorrow because he got my attention with his moves so far, and they're some of the wrong moves. In the above photo I see things that many people would not give a second thought to, so I have to share so you don't make similar mistakes. First off you can clearly see the blue masking tape around the perimeter of the drive unit. That tells me he's going to be applying some paint to the drive unit soon. He's been sanding away on the drive unit for the last few hours or so and I can see bare aluminum showing in some spots. Issue # 1 is the sanding itself. This drive unit is covered with soluable salts because I know the boat stays right here in salt water. If he is going to apply paint to the drive unit he needs to be certain the soluable salts are removed first if he expects the paint job to last. That means washing the drive thoroughly with a readily available salt neutralizer like Star brite "Salt Off". Sanding without washing first just drives the microscopic salt particulates into the surface of the metal. Eventually they will be the cause of a small osmotic blister that will begin to lift the paint away from the surface. Ultimately the blister will burst and expose the naked metal to the seawater. Corrosion begins right after that. So the process goes this way: Wash with salt neutralizer. Then sand loose paint and scuff surface. Solvent wash to remove all paint dust and traces of oil. Mask off areas where you don't want paint. Prime with a zinc based primer from either Tempo Products, or Moeller. (Zinc Chromate or Zinc Phosphate). Finally, once the primer dries, you can add the color coat, which is readily available for all of the popular outboard and IO drives. Back to the tape. I can see that historically the boat's anti-foulant paint was brushed right up next to the IO drive housing. This is wrong! There should be a 1" separation between the edge of the anti-foulant and the drive housing. Since many anti-foulants contain cuprious oxide (copper based) we don't want that coming in direct contact with the drive metal, as it can induce corrosion at the interface. So when I look at a masking job for an outdrive, I want to see the tape all the way around the lower portion of the drive unit as well as where you see it in the above photo. Stay tuned, I'll check on this fellow later and see if I learn anything more about what sort of paint etc. he's planning to use.    …Read More

Sunreef Yachts said today it has launched the second in the expedition series of 70 Power Catamarans; this one named ONDIN and sold to a Chilean couple who plan to explore Patagonia. The long-range yacht will depart the shipyard in Gdansk soon and make a transatlantic passage, followed by a Panama Canal transit and final [...] …Read More