On Board with Mark Corke

Totally Bonkers

Before I start ranting on about plywood I just wanted to let readers know that I still owe a story on installing a fuel polisher. I promised that a couple of weeks back and I will get that story to you just as soon as I can. The blog has taken a bit of a back seat of late as I have been very busy trying to organize a move into a new house and workshop, but just a soon as that is complete the fuel polishing step be step story is sure to follow.

Anyway back to the main point of todays blog and that is on the subject of the origins of plywood and other associated lumber products. I was in the local DIY store picking up some plywood and was shocked to find that almost half the plywood in the store had a made in China sticker on it. Nothing so unusual in that these day I suppose but it's just that the plywood was advertised as North American red oak which is just what it appeared to be. Just as I was wondering if the raw material was felled here in the USA shipped to the China made into plywood and then shipped back I noticed a banded pallet of 2x4's which had come from Germany. Now I may be no economist but I do wonder how the wood can come from so far away and still be sold at a profit. We have a plentiful supply of raw material in the continental USA and I cannot for the life of me understand why or how we are buying common or garden lumber from China and Europe. The lumber was proudly stamped with the FSC logo which incidentally stands for Forest Stewardship Council meaning that the lumber is certified to come from properly managed sources. I am all for that, but come on just think of all the fossil fuels that must have been burned bringing that 2x4 from Germany. That can't be environmentally friendly can it?

Merry Christmas

Seasons Greetings from On Board

Cheap boating

How about this then? Not the most elegant of craft I'll warrant but how fun. I spotted this boat while searching for something on the internet. Apparently it is made from three sheets of three eights ply wood from Home Depot or some such other emporium. Although yet unpainted it will according to the builder have a total cost of less than $100 which presumably will be excluding the motors which appear to be a 3.5 hp Johnson and an electric minn kota trolling motor.

If you look closely you can see just to the left of the main engine a cool bag which presumably is for keeping the beer cold. I am not sure what sort of keel the boat has but in anything above a whisper of wind it must blow around all over the place. I don't think that the builder intended it to be any other than a bit of fun, but which ever way you look at it you can't get on the water any cheaper.

Air hoses

I use air in the workshop and on the boat a lot. Air powered tools are generally lighter and more efficient than their electric counterparts. There are less moving parts and they tend to be tougher I have found. Even one of the small compressors is a useful addition to the boat builders workshop and the ability to shoot staples when building something like a strip planked boat or canoe is great the only downside is often the air hose itself. Most often seen are the coil type air hoses that seem to kink and snag on every little thing, they knock over paint and epoxy cans and generally are big nuisance. Their one and only one benefit is as far as I can see is that they are cheap. Far better I have found to spend a little extra and get something far better. The picture above shows the hose that I have recently started using. About three times the cost of the coil types but made from soft material it won't kink, or knock opened cans across the boat or from a bench top. I got mine from Home Depot and I have to say that I have fallen in love with my air tools all over again.

The hose has a working pressure of up to 300 psi which is far more than you or I are ever going to need and for the lack of aggravation alone has to be worth the money. It comes in a 50 foot length so one should be fine for almost all of us but if you have a very large workshop or are building a mega yacht then you could obviously join a couple end to end.

Moving day

I am aware that i have not written much of the hands on and how to content that I like to share of late. The reason being is that I am in the middle of a house move that happens to coincide with the Christmas holidays. I have several boats and a workshop to move from one place to another and when I get to the new house have to set up studio and workshop. This is all going to take a couple of weeks but bear with me, after the move the workshop promises to be bigger and better than that which I have now so all being well I should be better placed to bring you plenty of new and exciting projects.

Ice Boating

The temperature is plummeting up here in the north east and the 'proper' boating season seems a long way off. So this is what landlocked sailors do in the winter, go ice boating. By the way if you are wondering why the camera work is a bit shaky it probably has something to do with trying to hold it steady at 85 miles per hour! Enjoy.

Worn cutless bearings

I was out in the cold today down at the boat yard taking some pictures for my new book on boat surveying which will be out at the end of next year when I spotted this boat with a very badly worn cutless bearing. It's very short video but if the prop can be wiggled like this when stationary imagine what is going on when the prop is going around at a thousand revolutions per minute! The noise and vibration must be terrible and shake the whole boat. The shaft bearing is completely embedded into the end of the shaft tube which itself is encapsulated within the deadwood and I suspect that the owner knowing it is going to be a pain to remove has put the job off year after year.

Incidentally I found this helpfull on the web link to sailboatowners.com which gives a good idea of what is involved in replacement  of a cutless bearing which you can view by clicking here.

Bow thruster

I've had a couple of questions via e mail about correct bow thruster installation. Although this is not a job that I would recommend for the average DIY boatowner installing a thruster is popular upgrade. This posting is not about the actual installation itself but it is about the difference between a bow thruster tube that is not faired in and one that is. This is a pretty neat video which shows very clearly the amount of turbulence that is generated around a tube that is not faired in. Turbulence decreases the effectiveness of the thruster and generates vibration.

Pipe thread sealing

I am just getting down to working on a fuel polisher installation story that I will bring you later this week but in the mean time I wanted to just mention the correct way to seal pipe joints especially those that are in the fuel line.

One of the most common methods of sealing pipe threads has to be PTFE tape otherwise known as Teflon tape

Teflon tape is a popular choice and with good reason, it's easy to apply, you simply have to wrap it around the threads before screwing in the fitting. Although fine for water and other plumbing jobs it is best not to use it for fuel lines. Gasoline and diesel can and will disolve the tape and tiny particles can then be carried into the fuel stream which will block filters and injectors. Far better to use some pipe sealant specifically made for the purpose. A couple of such are  Rectorseal and the other is Permatex. Both products work better than the tape as they wont clog filters and so forth although they are a little more messy than the tape.

Ethanol in gasoline

Boaters may be getting a reprieve, at least for now of plans to increase the amount of ethanol in gasoline. Gas at the pump now contains up to 10% ethanol but the EPA was supposed to have decided by the 1st of December if they were to allow the use of up to 15% ethanol.

Although newer outboards and other gas engines can cope with ethanol in fuel many older installations cannot. Ethanol often called E10 contains solvents that eat away at some flexible hoses, seals and other parts of gasoline fuel systems. If the ethanol levels increase to 15% then any problems may be exacerbated.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said on Tuesday it needs more time to decide whether to approve an industry request to boost the amount of ethanol blended into gasoline.

The EPA was supposed to decide by Dec. 1 on a petition from Growth Energy filed on behalf of 54 ethanol producers to let gasoline contain up to 15 percent ethanol.

U.S. gasoline is now approved to contain up to 10 percent ethanol, which is made mostly from corn.

The U.S. ethanol industry was hard hit in 2008 by the economic downturn and a drop in crude oil prices to nearly $30 a barrel. Many companies were forced into bankruptcy and a large percentage of production capacity was idled.

Although the EPA and other groups are most concerned with the effects on the auto industry little thought has been given to the boating community. Although the fuel usage is tiny by comparison with the amount of gasoline used in road vehicles many boaters found themselves with hefty repair bills when ethanol was first introduced into gasoline. Any increase in the amount of ethanol could have further serious consequences for boat owners.

I'll keep you posted on developments.