On Board with Mark Corke

Outboard fouling prevention

 

This past year I have been carrying out a test of Interlux Trilux 33 anti fouling paint for out-drives and outboards. I prepared the surface as outlined in the manufacturers instructions which I followed to the letter; sanding the new outboard with 80 grit paper, wiping the surface with the correct solvent and so on. The pictures speak for themselves I feel and are of brackets for 250 hp Yamaha outboards of the same vintage. One is the outboard bracket of an untreated outboard and the other is coated with Trilux 33. I am impressed but it seems others have been less so. A quick trawl of the internet shows that same users have reported poor results from Trilux but this has certainly not been my experience. My guess is, although I cannot be certain that the correct preparatory work was not carried out on the metal prior to application. Although it is somewhat hard to take abrasive paper to a brand shiny new outboard bracket this step cannot be skipped or done improperly if things are to go well. Outboard brackets are somewhat fiddly and have many nooks and crannies and I spent at least a couple of hours on each bracket before I felt I was ready to apply the coating. Application is straightforward once the rubbing down has been done but you do need to mask off the surrounding area well and if applying it outdoors do it on a windless day, I still have a few spots on the back of my pick up where the wind blew it.

 

 

With Trilux 33

 

and without.

Waterproof I Pad case

 

 

I have found that I have been using my I pad more and more as a chart plotting tool on the boat. I use the Jeppesen and Navionics charts and like them both but keeping the I pad safe from harm is high on the list of priorities. Setting it down on one of the cockpit benches is dangerous because I am scared that a crew member may step on it but my biggest fear is preventing damage from water. Putting the I pad into a zip-lock bag sort of works but you loose the functionality of the unit and the plastic is hard to see through and if I did that I cannot attach it to my new mount that I bought a few weeks back. I did experiment with my vacuum bag food sealer which works great but you have to cut the I pad out of the bag when you need to charge it and frankly carrying a mains voltage vacuum sealer on a boat is a bit of overkill not to say inconvenient. The Dry Case seems to overcome these problems, I can attach it to the vacuum mount system, it is almost optically perfect and the controls on the touch screen work as if the I pad was not in the case. I plan on using the I pad on a long cruise this summer so I will be interested to see how it holds up. With a price of 60 bucks it seems like cheap insurance.

Good idea, bad idea

Here is an very interesting and sensible idea that I have seen on few boats but it would not be a bad idea to include on many more. What we are looking at is the main battery isolator switches and circuit breakers which are all neat and tidy but  what is really interesting is the red and black covered battery terminal posts to the right of the picture. What these are for is to enable the operator of the boat to jump the engine start battery with a suitable spare battery or jumper pack should the main battery be flat and the engine will not start. All connections inside a gasoline powered engine room must be ignition protected or in other words there must be nothing that will produce a spark that could ignite gasoline fumes. But all that goes out the window if and owner simply opens up the engine compartment and connects a set of jumper leads to the engine start battery. It is basically impossible to connect up a set of jump leads and not produce some sparking, not a big deal under the hood of the truck but in the confined space of a boats engine room could be disastrous, thus all that is avoided with these senisble connections. Unfortunately we shall never know just how deadly jumping the batteries in the engine room can be because many of those boat owners who have used the technique are probably singing to the choir now at the great marina in the sky.

 

It is therefore somewhat paradoxical that on this same boat where there have done something very sensible they have also done something very stupid; I find a cut out above the fuel tank neatly covered by a lift out panel to offer access to the sender unit. This is all fine and good but the balsa coring is completely exposed. Now sure, this was below decks and I am sure that the manufacturer would argue that it is not going to get wet but my counter to that is that everything on a boat is going to get wet at some time. I would not have been that complicated or taken that much time to reef out some of the core, back to say a half inch or so and back fill it with thickened epoxy then there is no way that any moisture could get into the core and start rot. What is almost more troubling is what other places is the core exposed in areas that it is impossible to see or get to.

Sea Sucker

 
 

Surveying various boats and writing for magazines, and this blog, means that I get to go on many different boats. Some of those boats have a good array of electronics but others do not. Not only that but you can't always rely on there being a suitable chart on board and this is especially important if you will be using an unfamiliar boat in unfamiliar waters. I have got around this in two ways I either take my Garmin 276 or my I pad on which I use the Navionics HD charts. I like the I pad because the screen is large and easy to see. The one down side is that I pads are expensive and you don't want to get them damaged. You also want to have the I pad in a position where it can be looked at easily. Until now I had been propping the I pad up but this was far from ideal and did not work all the time as there is not always some place to lean it conveniently. After a bit of an internet search I splashed out on a SeaSucker mount. This runs to about $100 but works well. Essentially it consists of two identical suction cups with a 12 inch screw in flexible arm between them. The suckers themselves have a small vacuum pump built in so after moistening the lip the pad is simply placed on a convenient smooth surface the plunger is depressed several times until the orange band disappears and hey presto the mount is held tenaciously in place, lifting a small tab releases the vacuum when you wish to remove it. I have to say that I am impressed I have also been using it in my car and I initially thought that the vacuum would slowly give out but I have had the mount in the same position for a week now and firm tug earlier today confirms that it is not going anywhere right now, in fact I would have broken something had I pulled any harder. The sea sucker web site shows a range of products from rod holders to drinks trays all based on the same vacuum mount which has a ¼ 20 threaded insert so I am toying with all the other home made accessories that I can mount.

Looking after your trailer

 

Those of us with a smaller boat that we tow behind the car seldom give little thought to the trailer. We hitch it up and expect it to perform flawlessly. Many trailers sit for weeks of even months untouched and during that time issues can develop. Most of the time the trailer works fine but trailer breakdowns are not uncommon and a little care before setting out on the road can save a lot of hassles later. Even if you are not very mechanically minded there are some things that anybody can do. Whether you are going across town or across the country walk around the trailer and make a visual check. Are the tires in good shape and correctly inflated? If they appear soft then stop off at the gas station and check the pressures. There should be no cracks in the side walls of the tires; storing the trailer with the wheels removed or at least chocked up clear of the ground will do much to prolong their life. Check that the tire have sufficient tread, insert a penny into the treads if Lincolns head disappears then the tires have sufficient tread left. While looking at the wheels make sure that all the wheel nut are in place and correctly tightened, this is especially important if the trailer was stored with it's wheel removed during the winter months. If the hub is fitted with a grease cup remove it and make sure that there is sufficient grease, a hub running dry will soon over heat leading to bearing failure. Ensure that should the worst happen the trailer will stay connected to the tow vehicle by connecting up the safety chain or cables, these should criss cross under the hitch. With the trailer lights plugged in get a helper to operate the turn signals, rear and brake lights while you check to make sure that they are working. Replace any defective bulbs. Check that the license plate is attached to the vehicle, the one shown in the picture is hanging on by a piece of thin rope, ideally it should be bolted on properly. Finally and most importantly is the boat or PWC secured properly and tied down to the trailer? The winch where fitted is OK for securing the bow but the rear of the boat shown also be strapped down. I have lost count of the amount of times that I have been passed on the highway by a large boat on a trailer and the only thing holding the two together is the winch attached to the bow eye. This is very dangerous for several reasons, if the towing vehicle has to swerve or stop in a hurry the boat can become detached from the trailer and secondly the U bolt at the front of the boat is not designed to carry the amount of stress to which it is subjected. The other very good reason if another was needed that a boat should be properly secured is that a boat unsecured on a trailer can bounce up and down independent of the trailer, if the trailer has rollers the point loadings will be tremendous and damage to the boat is a distinct possibility.

 

When you are satisfied that all is well you are set to head out on the road, don't forget to raise the trailer jack and release the handbrake first though. Take it easy remembering that with the trailer on the back you will be at least twice the length of the car alone. Allow more time for stopping, turning and over taking. Pull over after couple of mile driving and place a hand on the wheel hubs which should all be at the same temperature, if one is noticeably hotter than another it could be that there is insufficient grease in the bearing or that a brake is binding on, investigate and rectify before proceeding further or expect bad karma to follow soon.

Incidentally and in case you were wondering the boat on the trailer shown above is a Flyfisher 22 made in wood by students at the Landing School in Maine and I shot this a couple of years ago at the Mystic wooden boat show.