On Board with Mark Corke

Antique and clasic boat festival

    I am using this picture with permission of the Antique and Classic boat festival which is also a reminder that this fantastic festival of boats takes place next month at Hawthorne Cove Marina in Salem Massachusetts. The festival is just on for couple of days, the boats assemble on Friday 21 and the show proper is Saturday and Sunday 22nd and 23rd. The entry fee is just a $5 for adults and you can see and board many of the classic boats on display and finally if you needed another reason to be there I shall be judging the boats. 

    It is very friendly and low key event, a lot of fun with a ton of great boats. See you there, maybe.

Blokart

We are nearly into August and with the season almost half gone I am frustrated by the weather, its been bad here in New England so far this year and I'm fretting about my lack of days out on the boat. As a panacea to my woes I have been wondering how I just might extend the season out as long as possible. I had been thinking about a DN ice boat but then I had the chance to have a go on one of these beauties. Called the Blokart for obvious reasons they are a lot of fun and boy are they fast. This is not my video, (turn the sound down on your computer - the music is annoying) I was holding on while sailing at 35 mph up the beach but you get the idea. Prices start at a shade over $2000 and go up from there depending on the configuration, carbon spars, brakes and so on.

Lumitec reading lights

    OK, I promise that after this posting I will not do anything more on LED lights for a while. I know that I keep banging on about them but just when I think that there is all that there is to say along comes another light that I have not seen before and I am smitten all over again. At the MAATS show last week Florida based Lumitec were displaying their range of lights and I have to say I loved the look of these nifty looking little task / reading lights. called the Ripple they are available in either a polished of white finish as standard with other finishes to special order. Small but beautifully formed and chucked they out an impressive amount of light.

    There are  several light output options available, the white will most likely prove to be the most popular which draw a diminutive 90 milliamps so could easily be wired in with 22 awg cables. You can also get a four or two color light output, which cycle through with each push of the on off switch. They are small as I said with a height of only two and quarter inches and a diameter of an inch and a half. They do look very sexy and I am just trying to think up how I might incorporate couple into my own boat. If you want some they retail for around about the $125 each depending on finish and light output colors required.

Vacuum bagging

    Some time ago I wrote of my intention of have a go with a food style vacuum bagger for gluing up small parts and I am happy to report that trial have been a complete success as you can see from my home video above. Of course you cannot glue up super large components but for that I have a larger vacuum bagging outfit. Years ago I used to have a vacuum bagger that was powered by a proper vacuum pump and this is definitely the way to go whereas the large system that I have now is run by a venturi pump connected to a compressor. I'll do more on that system later suffice to say that it is not as good as the proper vac pump as the compressor has to run nearly all the time, which is both wasteful and noisy. This then was my reason for wanting a simple quick and efficient way of bagging up small parts for which I have found the Foodsaver works a treat. After all a vacuum is a vacuum and once the air has been withdrawn and the bag sealed up the part can be left to set up overnight or whatever then removed and is ready for additional work.

    There are other machines which I am sure would work equally well but the bags that come with the Foodsaver model are relatively cheap at $10 for an 11 inch by 18 foot roll. You can buy quart, gallon or other size bags but the roll is the one to go for in my book. You simply have to cut off however much you need so quite lengthy parts can be glued up but obviously they cannot be more than about 10 inches wide or they will not fit into the bag. The cheapest sealer unit is about $80 to which you need to add the cost of the bags so for less than a 100 you can have your own vacuum bagging unit with which to laminate all sorts of boat parts.

Treadmaster TKC - Imitation teak decking

    Treadmaster decking has been around for many years and although not that well known on this side of the pond many boats in Europe were shipped from the factory with the diamond pattern decking applied. Although undoubtedly a good product it does have something of an industrial look to it, tough and hard wearing we even had it on the lifeboat that I used to crew on. Recently however the factory has started to bring out other products which are somewhat more suitable for the recreational market, one of which is called TKC. The picture above gives some idea of what the product looks like and as I write this I have a sample on my desk in front of me and I does look very good and close to the freshly laid teak appearance. It is about and eighth of an inch thick and has to be glued down to the deck with a two part epoxy which Treadmaster supply with the panels and if it is anything like the stuff that they have been using up till now once it is down it is down for life. Having tried to get up some 25 year old treadmaster up I know that this is strong stuff indeed. Panels are available in standard sizes with the seams 45 mm apart which will suit most boats although custom panels can be made from a customer supplied  template and the seams which are routed in with a CNC machine can be placed anywhere so swept decks, margin boards and so on can be integrated into the design which you can just make out on the hatch lids in the picture.

    There has been so much interest in teak decking on the On Board site that I am thinking that a comparison between real teak and all the different brands currently available may be in order, ease of laying, durability, cost and appearance. Let me know what you think

Center console towers

    One of the exhibitors at MAATS was Atlantic towers who were displaying their tower in a box which I confess I was unaware of before the show. Apparently  they have been making towers for some 28 years and although they do make purpose built towers the tower in a box I found intriguing. Essentially  the actual top is separated from the legs which have a very beefy but stylish clamp arrangement at the top which holds the top solidly in position when the top is erected on the boat. Because the top is bolted to the legs this means that the whole assembly can be flat packed in a card board box for assembly by the owner thus saving on shipping costs and ensuring that a bulky awkward complete tower does not have to be shipped. Secondly the spacing of the legs can be adjusted at the time that the tower is installed on the boat so accommodating varying widths of different center consoles.

    I am going to be starting work on building a new center console skiff soon and I shall be wanting a T top so this looks like the way that I shall be going offering a good marraige of good looks and price, the tower costs a dollar under $1500. The only alteration is that I may go for a hard top instead of the Sunbrella which I think will be better suited for mounting the radar scanner and other antennas. The installation looks very straightforward and any competent boat owner with a decent tool kit should be able to easily complete the project in a weekend. Check out the installation instructions here which will give a good idea of the tools and skills required. I would also like to hear from any On Board reader that has actually installed one of these units and hear if it is as easy to install at it appears.

MAATS - New products

    I apologize for the reflections in the picture but this was taken through glass from the press office at the MAATS show. MAATS stands for marine aftermarket accessory trade show. Previously this was held in Las Vegas but for this year it has moved down to Orlando in Florida. I am here for couple of days checking out some of the new and interstingf stuff that is on display and once I have got back home and trawled through all the brochures and paper work that I have been lugging around I'll bring a sensible round up of things which I think are worth a mention and hopefully a picture to go along with the write up.

As a taster one of the products that I am excited about is the HDS 10 side scanning sonar from Lowrance the images are amazing and it is possible to see underwater obstructions and fish with excellent clarity. Although I am not much of a fisherman this is going to make finding fish just that bit easier.
Lowrance were also showing their new HD radar which was similarly impressive. I'll have extra details on that and all the other products in a couple of days.

Mast climbing

    I don't especially like heights so climbing up the mast is not something that I do for fun but sometimes there is no alternative and up I must go. The other day I had to mouse up a couple of shroud fittings which necessitated a trip up the mast.

Safety is paramount when  working aloft, it is important that you get all your tools and stuff sorted that you will need when you get up there and that whoever is hoisting you up knows what they are doing. Most accidents happen not when going up but when descending. If the rope is around a winch then the person hauling you up has pretty much just got to grind on the winch then when you get to the required height the halyard, topping lift or whatever rope was used to pull you up is made fast to a cleat, holding the person safely in place. Coming down the rope needs to be let go very slowly, the person up the mast dictating the rate of decent by instructing the person on the winch. There should be at least three or four turns on the winch drum which should obviously be released from the self tailer and this will provide plenty of friction for the person letting out the rope to allow a very controlled decent.

    The sailing and boating forums are filled with debate on which is the best method for mast climbing and I suspect that opinion will always be divided on which is the best method, I feel most comfortable in a climbing harness, it feels more secure than a bosun's chair and it is almost impossible to fall out of it. Last year I tried the Topclimber which many sailors seem to like although I found it a little slow to ascend. The big advantage of the topclimber is that you can go up and down unassisted but you do need to be reasonably fit to operate it.

Go faster sailing - a free upgrade

    Every sail boater knows that the propeller, unless it is one of the those expensive folding or feathering types presents a lot of drag and can slow the boat down a fair bit. One way to reduce the amount of drag that the propeller exerts on the boat is to align the prop up and down so that it is as far as possible in line with the keel. Aligning the prop up and down is easily done when the boat is hauled out of the water otherwise you may want to don the mask and snorkel and swim under the boat while anchored and rotate the prop until it is facing up and down. Then on the inside of the boat put a mark on the shaft with a permanent sharpie pen as I have done here. Then next time after shutting down the engine you can rotate the shaft by hand before putting the engine in reverse to lock the shaft. With the prop hiding behind the keel you will gain a bit more boat speed.

I should add that this technique only works with two bladed props as for obvious reasons it is is impossible to get a three bladed prop to line up with a keel.

Noisy Halyards

    I'm posting this blog entry at the suggestion of my marina neighbor Shannon after I spent half an hour going around the docks tying off flapping halyards. Walk around almost any boat yard or marina and you are sure to hear the rhythmic ting, ting, ting of rope frapping against the mast. As the wind picks up as it has today this cacophony only gets worse. It irks me that perfectly sane people let ropes bang against the mast like they do,not only is the noise extremely annoying but it wears out the rope and strips the anodizing of the spar and I hate to see that. All that is needed is a bungee cord to pull the offending halyard away from the mast, I tie mine off to a convenient shroud. It only takes a moment and your neighbor who is trying to get some sleep below will thank you for it.