Tips and Tricks

[REBrueckner]

(1) In freezing weather, bring your compasses inside to avoid stressing the bellows. Most compasses fail in the spring after freezing weather stresses the flexible bellows and oil begins to leak.

(2) To spruce up that old traditional black compass, polish the black surface with black PASTE shoepolish..it will shine like new!.

(3) To spruce up your black instrument panel, rube the black surface with black PASTE shoepolish...it will shine like new.

( #1 and #2 tips from Ed Saddler, an expert compass adjuster/rebuilder of City Island, NYC. I adopted #3 from his suggestions. When Ed rebuilt compasses he "refinished" them with past shoepolish ...)

(3a) If you decide to have your Danforth Constellation compass rebuilt, ask for a GLASS dome, if the rebuilder has any. They are no longer made, but last forever. If your dome has crazing, especially along the lower edges, it's plastic and is beginning to fail. It will take years and may last longer than we do, but the GLASS domes will become harder and harder to find.


(4) Next time your drop down side curtains are ready for replacement, consider replacing them with solid acrylic sheet rimmed with single width SS window channel. (for a photo, see the thread nearby on Wing Doors.) I never opened mine anyway unlike aft curtains which help summer cooling. The clear acrylic is permanent and lets in more light and less rain.

(4a) Instead of rolling up soft enclosures, button them to the underside of a roof or whatever is up there, if possible. It's five times as fast as rolling them up and avoids scratching them. Especially in cooler weather when the rolling is sometimes difficult, button fastenings are great.

(5) Consider a salt water flow alarm....for engines and genny. These are flap valves, with a magnetic switch, that opens as soon as salt water flows. If you lose salt water, the flap closes the switch and an alarm sounds immediately....no engine temperature rise. I got a pair from West Marine for my main engines; don't remember the brand name. No more worries about loss of salt water!!!

(6) Consider transmission temperature gauges. That way you can monitor your transmission temps (in addition to pressure) just like you do you engines. On a prior boat the transmission oil cooler was clogged with friction plate debris, the transmission worked fine, but the oil was so hot it melted off the end of a plastic funnel. I would not operate a boat again without them. Trannys are just too valuable.

(7) If you have an old Hatt, consider upgrading your RACORS to monitor vacuum pressure to indicate as filters become clogged. (The RACOR kit has instructions.) To monitor/alarm for water in the bowl, you'll have to upgrade to a newer style bowl with probes for detecting water accumulation. At about 2", the accompanying helm alarm will sound. It's a nice feature on long cruises when you add fuel at unfamiliar places.

(8) If you don't have remote gauges for your genny, consider putting a temp gauge in your salon or even helm if you run your genny underway. I added a temp gauge in my salon so when I run the genny for battery charging and water heating I monitor temperature. It's what lead me to see my genny was running about 30 degrees hotter than it should....I discovered the heat exchanger was clogged...after 30 years what can you expect??

(9) Consider adding ammeters for each of your alternators...then you'll know exactly what stage your battery bank charge is at. Voltage gauges don't provide as good a feedback. I added shunts near each alternator, light gauge wires to my helm. If you run your genny a lot, say for air conditioning, likely you don't need this so much.

(10) Some people, one I consider an expert, swear by battery pulse conditioners. These emit HF pulses at the resonant frequency of battery sulfate, to break up sulphate crystals. I have found them to be of NO value;however, it's possible that a pair of 8D's are too big to be conditioned by one unit. (There are two types: ac powered and dc powered. I chose the dc type which draw only a milliamp or so...my theory being full time was better than occasional as I don't run a genny much...) If anyone has positive experience with these, I'd like to see that posted.

(11) Consider coiled hose instead of traditional. I carry one for fresh water and another for salt water washdowns at my bow. I used to spend more time copiling the hoses than using them. Now they just pop back into their coiled shape. Tip: Tie the loose end when underway as wind and water can flip a loose end overboard. Downside: fawcet end of the hose can kink ruining an otherwise great idea...
I now have a third in my cockpit for washdown there. Decide on the reach/distance for any you may decide to add.

(12) Next time you add battery charger or alternator, consider ones with "smart regulation". A smart charger of 40 amps capacity, for example, gives a faster and supposedly better charge than an old 60 amp ferroresonant type. A smart alternator requires an external regulator.

(13) I had a toilet clogged with eel grass which got way up into the bowl entry..past the impeller. So I added inline filters for each toilet. Plastic with screw on connectors for easy cleaning. An alternative, if you get intake debris, is to add external hole type, not slotted, hull strainers to keep stuff outside. The slotted style will let some eel grass enter.

(14) Galley countertop a little dark? Consider LED or Halogen under counter lights ala Home Cheapo or Lowes....about $25 for three 12 volt lights. Also provide a nice accent lighting if desired.

(15) Consider an auxiliary bilge alarm system: all it takes is as many float switchs in as many compartments as you wish, connected in parallel, and connected to an alarm sounder and power source. I added such an arrangement, installing alarm switches just above the existing bilge pump switches. Years ago I decided on this approach when a fuel line leak put gallons of diesel fuel in a compartment with no pump...no alarm. I detected it via smell. Aboard my current boat any compartment will alarm if the bilge pump doesn't handle the fluid.

(16) Check your engines and genny when underway and in use. Do a visual inspection periodically with a flashlight...And after shutdown, always sniff the air for telltale signs of trouble..coolant, diesel fumes, battery acid,etc. You'll soon know what your machinery normally smells like and any change warrents an immediate check.

(17) Keep an infrared heat gun aboard to check temperatures periodically, especially maine engine(s) and genny. You can check each cylinder exhaust manifold outlet for example and be sure all are heated about the same. And for twin screw engine installations, compare port and starboard engine readings to be sure all is well...for water for example, start at the intake, then after turbo intercoolers, before and after heat exchanger,etc. When checking heat exchanger on Detroits, pick the same spot when comparing two as temps vary by position on the HE. Ditto the exhaust manifolds.

[chris piazza]

Some excellent tips Rob, thanks

Chris

[drburke]

Great tips!

Thanks,
DAN

[Finalee]

Good stuff Rob.

Thanks

[Jaxfishgyd]

Some of those are neat ideas! Just what I needed, more "stuff" to put on my "to do" list... :}

[Wild Bill]

Some of those are neat ideas! Just what I needed, more "stuff" to put on my "to do" list... :}

Amen brother. My 'to do' list is already longer the my boat.

[TopHattandTails]

Here's one for us Northern boaters from a neighbor's wash service - if it wasn't already apparent... As part of the winterization check list, clean out the sump boxes (e.g. shower sump boxes and sink sump boxes) really well with chlorine and disinfectant, then dry out. If you store in heated indoor (or perhaps outdoor as well), there will be no smell coming out of the sump boxes in the Spring. Goes for dry-vac'ing the bilges as well... Keeping a motor yacht smell "in check" is invaluable.

[drburke]

I enjoyed this list from last year, even though I live in an area without very much freezing.

I need to add one item, since I just performed a repair.

One should not have the fresh water tank totally full, since if it freezes it will crack the fiberglass top.

Apparently this was the case in my boat sometime over the last 40 years, and probably it was on the hard at an angle so that an ice plug first formed at the fill end, leaving zero room for expansion.

DAN

[Walter P]

Dan's post about freezing water tanks got me thinking. (rare thing lately). What does everyone do..... pump empty and leave alone, pump empty and install some "pink" anti-freeze or just leave it alone, but not full. Perhaps I am spending too much time winterizing unnecessarilly.

Walt

[Trojan]

I pump dry, add 1 gallon of cherry juice and pump dry again watching the color. Or I pump dry add 6 gallon and purge the entire system.

BILL