On Board with Mark Corke

Santorum's Dark Cloud for Boaters

 

I don’t often get political with OnBoard, but up here in NH a few days before the primary it’s hard to avoid. With Rick Santorum’s Iowa boost, he’s moved on to the Granite State with an extra million in his pocket but here’s a little tidbit for all my boater friends worth noting.

 

The National Weather Service Duties Act of 2005 was a legislative proposal he sponsored in April 2005 to prohibit the National Weather Service from publishing weather data (except in case of severe weather alerts) to the public when private-sector entities, perform the same function commercially. Funny thing is..surprise, surprise .. AccuWeather, the commercial weather company is based in Santorum’s PA district and their head honcho, Joel Myers is a constituent and a campaign contributor.

 

Of course, this has implications for boaters as it would mean that the free information via the NOAA website and such like would no longer be free. Although this bill was sponsored in 2005 and to many may be seen as dead in the water there is a good chance that it could resurface if Santorum gets to the White House. Boaters are not the only ones who should be concerned both commercial and recreational pilots have expressed deep dismay and in fact were somewhat more vocal than many boaters back in 2005.

 

Granted, his bill never made it out of committee, but it does give us an indication of his sentiment.

 

 

Happy Christmas

Best wishes to all On Board readers for the holiday season and the coming year. 

Thank you for your continued support.

Mark

Trailer Tips

 

So you bought the boat but now the time comes when you attach it to the back of the car or truck and drive it home. Generally speaking the larger and more powerful the vehicle the bigger the and heavier the boat that you will be able to tow will be but you should always check the vehicle manufacturers hand book or website for the maximum towing weight of your particular car or truck. After all it would be a bad move to buy a boat only to find out that you need another car to tow it with, of course the other option if you only tow infrequently would be to hire a vehicle. I used to do just this before I had a large truck, my boat is 26 feet long and the family car was not up to task. This was economical for me as I tend to put the boat in the water at the beginning of the season and pull it out in the fall, so the boat and trailer only did two trips per year.

 

Successful trailering begins before you even pull out from the driveway. Make sure that the boat is securely and correctly strapped down to the trailer. Do not rely just on the hook at the bow attached to the winch to keep the boat in place. As a minimum you should also have a strap over the aft end of the boat to keep the boat snug on the rollers or bunks. Some boats have U brackets on the transoms especially for strapping the boat down with ratchet straps. If your boat does not have these then put a strap or a rope over the entire boat attaching it to a secure point on the trailer. I have lost count of the amount of times that I have been overtaken by boats on trailers that are not secured properly attached only by the winch hook. If the winch were to let go there would be nothing holding the boat on the trailer and boat and trailer could separate. As you hitch the trailer to the car check the nose weight or in other words the amount of downward pressure on the tow hitch which should be about 100 pounds in most cases; too much weight and the front wheels of the towing vehicle will trying to lift off the ground too little and the trailer will wander at speed. Both situations need to be avoided as they can cause you to loose control. Then attach the safety chains between trailer and tow vehicle. With the boat strapped down plug in the lights and get a helper to operate the brake, indicator and tail lights while you check they are working. Assuming all is well have one last walk around the trailer and towing vehicle; we are now ready to set out on the road.

 

The first thing that you will notice is that the extra weight of the trailer unless the boat is very small will slow the car appreciably. This means that you have to allow extra time for the car to accelerate and slow down. Allow extra room and apply the brakes earlier than you normally would and do not make sudden turns or lane changes. With the boat on the back your overall length will be at least doubled and you need to make wide turns when going around corners to avoid pulling the back wheels of the trailer over the curb. Take your time and you will soon get the hang if it, just don't be in a rush. If you are new to trailering then it may be worth while taking the rig to a deserted parking lot to practice maneuvering, this is especially true of reversing which soon separates the men from the boys.

 

Reversing a trailer is counter intuitive and paradoxically the larger the trailer generally speaking the easier it is. The extra weight helps but it is largely due to the wheels being further back from the towing vehicle. The key to reversing is to go slow and don't panic. Start with the car and trailer perfectly in line with one another as you slowly back up. You will almost certainly start to see the trailer start to turn one way or the other. The first instinct is to turn the steering wheel away from the turn just as you would if you are reversing without a trailer on the back but this makes the turn more pronounced instead of making the trailer come back in line with the car. When starting out the easiest way to correctly steer and make the trailer go in the desired direction is to grip the bottom of the steering wheel with one hand. Then move your hand in the direction that you want the trailer to steer. Moving your hand to the right moves the trailer to the right and conversely moving your hand to the left moves the trailer to the left. If things start to get a little out of control pull forward a little to straighten up then have another go. With practice you will be able to back into almost anywhere then when you get to the launch ramp you'll look like a real pro.

Oh well, there is always next year.....

 

After spending so much time looking forward to the Antique and Classic boat show  it is rather sad to report that for only the second time in it's 29 year history we have had to cancel. Both times the cancellation has been due to weather. These past 4 or 5 years since I have been involved with the show have been very good to us with stunning weather, light winds and sunshine that really bought out the crowds but this year is a different story as we brace for hurricane Irene to hit over the weekend.

If you were planning on coming then don't but we do hope that we see you next year which with it being our 30th anniversary we shall hopefully make better than ever.

Antique and classic boat show

 

While I can't promise that this Trumpy will be at the show I do want to let you know that this coming weekend is the Antique and Classic boat show in Salem Massachusetts. It falls to me to be the chief judge this year but of course it is not just about the judging, indeed some of the skippers opt not to have their boats judged in the competition.

I'll be there for most of the weekend and if you can get down I heartily recommend it. Truly it is a fun day with music, shore side crafts and stuff to see and do for the whole family.

Hope to see you there.

The hay box

 

One of the reasons for the lack of recent postings has been that I have been away with the family on a camping trip.  I like camping always have and probably always will and if you have a small boat it is very similar to spending time aboard, you can only take what is really essential. Anything that makes life easier and save fuel has got to be a good thing especially if you come up on something that can be used equally well aboard as  well as when camping. 

One of the things that they teach you in the boy scouts is the use of the hay box for making meals. Basically the system goes like this if you are unfamiliar with the technique. All the meal ingredients, stews are good, go into a large covered pot and bought up to a boil. They are then left to simmer for 10 to 15 minutes. The pot is then removed from the stove and the still hot pot is placed into a tightly packed box of hay or straw. The straw is tightly packed around all sides, top and bottom and for best results is between 5 to 6 inches thick. The insulation properties are so good that the food will continue to cook for the remainder of the day so that when you come back to camp a piping hot dinner will await you. Essentially this style of cooking is much like using an electric slow cooker.

Anyhow the point is that few boats have room for a full sized haybox and even if they do keeping everything dry could be a challenge thus I was delighted when I came across this contraption which is a new twist on a very old idea. A pot is placed into an insulated outer, similar to a Thermos flask and the whole thing cooks away making it much more suitable for a boat and a camp come to that.

Called Mr D's Cookware you can check out the details here where you will also find link to videos and other stuff.

 

Drier dinghy

I have lost count of the amount of times that I have walked down the docks at my local yacht club only to see at almost all of the dinghies half full of water. It is not only frustrating to have to pump out the dinghy before you row out to the yacht but if the dinghy is left too long it may sink. All sorts of pumps and scoops have been used over the years and I have found by experimentation that a household dustpan works very well at getting the water out. A dustpan will hold several pints at a scoop and the blade or flat bottom edge of the pan will scrape out nearly all of the water before resorting to a sponge for the last final drops.

This past week we have had almost constant rain up here in New England so there is some anxiety as to whether or not the boat will still have it's gunwales above water the next time I go down to the club. Add an outboard into the mix and things get even more fraught. The weight hanging on the transom added to any weight of water in the boat can have disastrous effects and should the dinghy go down the motor will be drowned and could be lost along with the dinghy.

Enter the Swedish made Drainman, a simple yet clever device which really works. Simple in the extreme it is a concertina type pump restrained between a webbing strap. Connected to the suck side of the pump is a goodly length of clear plastic piping with at the bitter end a stainless steel spring and eye bolt. The weight of the eye bolt keeps the hose in the water and the spring, which also adds additional weight works as a filter to stop the hose sucking up detritus and other gunge from the bottom of the dinghy. The strop is then attached between the dinghy and the dock and movement of the boat compresses and releases the pump sucking the water from the dinghy, ingenious. I only wish I thought of it. Jamestown Distributors have them on sale right not for $70 which is $30 off the regular price.

Simple perhaps, but effective and highly recommended.

 

Red Lead

 

One of the great things about old boat shops is the smell. As soon as you walk through the door, the floorboards creak and you get hit by that smell of pine tar and varnish. OK so maybe I am romanticizing just a bit and those kind of boat shops are few and far between now and you are most likely to get hit by the smell of styrene of the latest Sundecker 42 being built as you walk through the door of an industrial unit that just happens to make boats. But the fact remains that there are boat builders out there that continue to use traditional materials. There are good reasons for this; on a traditional wooden boat the whole structure continues to move and 'work' as it travels through the water. Modern materials such as epoxy, fiberglass and two part paints are marvelous materials but they do not hold up when applied to something like a lapstrake or carvel cruiser. What is needed is something better suited to the substrate that can expand and contract with the changing seasons and the natural movement of the boat.

Years ago when I started building boats all the frames, planking lands and just about everything else that was sure to get wet was liberally coated with red lead paint. This coating was and still is the best defense against the ravishes of time and weather and for all those areas that would be impossible to gain access to once the boat was constructed. Environmental and other concerns have made many of these old time paints and compounds hard to come by but they are available I am happy to report from Kirby paints in New Bedford, Massachusetts. Red lead primer at $225 a gallon is far from cheap but the chances are that in many cases it will only be applied once after which it will be left to do it's job for years to come. Red lead can be used for all sorts of things, of course you need to be aware of the health hazards but it is unsurpassed for protection and as an undercoater on both wood and metal. It is perfect for steel keels and centerboards and the timbers in the bilge.

I need to add that I am not being paid to write this I am just enthusiastic about the products which come from a small firm that has been in the same family for the last 150 years or so and is today I understand run by George Kirby the forth. In addition to the red lead they make white lead paste and traditional boat enamels. Their website is basic by many standards but they do publish prices and have an on-line color chart so  you can see what they do offer. You can buy direct or you can order their products from Jamestown Distributors  who seem to be about the only other stockist of their products.

Spooners Boat

This is somewhat unusual, it seems that some people will go to great lengths to enjoy a day boating. Enjoy.

    

Hovercraft accident

 

 

I get to survey a lot of boats but rarely get to look at a hover craft which can be registered as a recreational vehicle or a boat. They are pretty rare and are hardly a quiet mode of transport  requiring the use of ear defenders or plugs at all times. The other things that they require at all times are the use of lifejackets for the pilot/helmsman if you will be traveling over water.

Close to were I live is lake Winnpesauke which at this time of year is mostly iced over although by now the ice has at long last started to thaw and therein lies the problem. The ice at this time of year is getting thin and is no longer able to support the weight of a snowmobile or even a person.  This is a problem for some of the year round residents of the islands in the middle of the lake, too much ice for a boat and too little for a snowmobile so they use a small hovercraft like the one shown above. This past weekend there was a tragic accident when a 62 old man died after what appears to be an incident where the skirt of the craft caught on the edge of the ice tipping him into the water. He was not wearing a life jacket. Now this is all supposition and the life jacket may or may not have saved his life but what we do know is that he was conscious when he went into the water as his shouts were heard from the shore, rescuers rushed to his aid and got him to shore. By this time he had stopped breathing and despite the rescuers attempts at CPR he was was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital.

Whether or not a life jacket would have saved his life is open to debate but what is understood is that he had one in the hovercraft but was not wearing it at the time which in a roundabout way brings me back to boat surveying. Of all the boats that I survey nearly all the boats without exception have the life jackets still in their wrappers tucked away in some bilge locker or other such difficult to reach location which leaves me to the conclusion that not only have the people that own the boat never used the life jacket they could not get to it in a panic and would not know how to wear it should the need arise. You can have the best life jacket in the world but it won't save your life if you don't know how to use it and you never wear it.