On Board with Mark Corke

Sea Vision

 

 The new range of sea vision lights available from Hella Marine but actually manufactured by Underwater lights USA look pretty cool. I don't seem to be able to find prices for the lights yet but no underwater lights seem to be that cheap. The jury still seems to be out on which technology is best for underwater lights and I am still a fan of LED's not only for their low power consumption but also because they run so cool. Metal halide and Xenon gas discharge lights are hard to beat for shear power output but the down side is that they run so hot and rely on the water surrounding them to keep them cool. I have some LED lights made byAqualuma on my boat and I am very pleased with them and unlike the more conventional lights that rely on halogen technology can actually be run out of the water with no ill effects.

 

This is a picture of a tungsten underwater light fitted into the transom of a 10 year old 45' Sea Ray which I recently surveyed. At first glance it looks like corrosion but is in fact damaged caused by the severe heat of the underwater light. In reality it looks worse than it is and I did not detect any laminate damage but the heat is forcing the anti fouling off the boat and was thus covered with growth when the boat was hauled. So we have a situation where the light output is very intense but the paradox is that the light causes damage to the anti fouling leading to extreme marine growth which obscures the light output to some degree.

Happy Thanksgiving

 

Have a happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving

 

Have a happy Thanksgiving

Electronic flares

 
 

The photo and the schematic above show very interesting possibilities for the future, an electronic distress flare. Some time ago I blogged about the disposal of out of date distress flares and how they are almost impossible to dispose of in a safe, legal and environmentally responsible way. Judging by the amount of e mails and comments that I received it seems that I am not the only one who has had this frustration, but a solution may soon be at hand for recreational boaters. Called the ODEO flare it is in fact not a flare at all but has high intensity revolving LED's that give off a super-bright red light with similar characteristics to a normal pyrotechnic flare. Apparently according to the blurb it is powered by a couple of lithium ion batteries but will run on normal AA cells as well if needs be. With a fully charged set of batteries the makers claim that the light will run continuously for 12 hours which is really cool, a normal red flare burns for 20 seconds if you are lucky. It is not approved for commercial vessels as yet but you can use it aboard a recreational boat. It's made in the UK and costs 100 pounds stirling but I doubt if it will be long before it is available for US suppliers. If you can't wait you could order one on line as it is safe to send through the regular mail unlike a pyrotechnic.

 

Fatty Knees Dinghy

 
I was not the only person who was sad to see Edey and Duff the venerable Mattapoisett yard close some time back. The smallest of the boats that they produced was the Fatty Knees dinghy. This popular boat was designed by Lyle Hess is 8 feet in length with a beam of over 4 feet and can be sailed, rowed and motored with a little 2 hp gas or electric outboard.

After my last post I had an e mail from David Foynes, who before Edey and Duff closed their doors was sales manager at the yard to say that he had bought the rights to the dinghy and was now producing them. Apparently he has already built three of them, the last of which is headed all the way to New Zealand.

I hope that someone takes up the mantle  for the other boats that Edey and Duff were producing, in particular the Stone Horse which although have not been made for some years still have an almost cult following.  Originally designed by Sam Croker back in the 1930's it was adapted  for fiberglass construction in the sixties. I have sailed on several of them and each of them seemed to have a slightly different layout below. As far as I am aware some 150 of them were built in fiberglass and despite being only 23 feet in length were a solid and seaworthy cuiser.

 

This shows the basic layout as drawn by Edey and Duff but many differed from this reflecting each owners individual style.

Incidentally if you are interested in ordering your own Fatty Knees dinghy from Dave Foynes you can contact him at  P.O. Box 1549 Sagamore Beach, MA 02562

Clean Hands

 
Sometimes the little things make all the difference. As someone who regularly gets their hands dirty inspecting and working on boats and engines but does not always have easy access to facilities for cleaning up then these little clean up wipes are just the ticket. Apparently they were originally designed for cyclists but are now being marketed to all sorts of people who need a fast clean up for greasy hands. Grease Monkey wipes are available individually wrapped or in a pop up dispenser which for most boat owners is going to make the most sense. Citrus based the wipes cost just under a buck each, not cheap but the dispenser makes more economic sense at $4.99.

They work well but if I do have one complaint and that is they area little small measuring 8 by 7 inches, I'd like to see them larger as one wipe is not going to cut it if your hands are really dirty. 

Storm Damaged boats

 

 

I have just got back from the marina and took a few minutes of video to show how much damage was done to many of the boats in the Harraseeket harbor including mine. Apparently a couple of 40 foot lobster boats sank in the 70 mph gusts  and quite a number of other boats broke free from their moorings and rammed into other boats including mine doing several thousand dollars worth of damage to my boat alone. I now have a bunch of additional work to do to the boat during the winter which I had not banked upon, but at least I will get to show you how to replace some topside planking.

Cheap dust control

 

With the colder weather comes times when I will be locked away in the workshop sanding some part or scraping some varnish or paint. Almost every project seems to generate at least some dust which can be both annoying and at times dangerous to your health. Keeping dust under control is a major concern to me not least because I don't want to breath it in and I don't want airborne dust to settle on every shelf in sight.

There are a ton of fairly expensive electrostatic air cleaners on the market which do a pretty good job - at a price. My solution is to use a cheap $25 box fan from Walmart and tape a suitable furnace filter to one side of the fan as shown above. Note however that the filter should be attached to the 'suck' side of the fan. The filters last a fairly long time if you vacuum them once a day with the shop vac. Because the fan is light weight you can move it close to the work area but remember they you may still need to use a face mask to protect yourself. 

Poly Planar MRD80

 

Funny how things turn out. Just after I had finished writing up the last posting about installing waterproof speakers an e mail arrived in my inbox with a press release for a new water proof stereo from  Poly Planar.  I had heard of them before and knew that they made water proof speakers which would be ideal for installation in the cockpit or anywhere else exposed to the weather but I did not know that they made stereo systems also.

The MRD 80 shown above comes in two versions which look the same from the front but like the Fusion stereo this flips down to reveal a CD slot or a docking station for an ipod. Rather strangely it seems that the ipod version which is the one that I would choose is listed at $349.99 while the less desirable CD version is more expensive at $399.99. I have yet to handle one and give it a try but when I do which hopefully will be soon I will bring you a full review. Assuming that Ican get hold of a trial unit it will be interesting to compare it side by side with the fusion unit which I still think looks sleeker and more robust, but I could be convinced otherwise once I get to try the Poly Planar unit out.