A scrap board with a rope tie hole at both ends and two bumpers is easy. See illustration. Storage of the board is no big problem and it is a quick and easy way to protect your boat.
Saturday, June 13, 2015
How to bumper a boat at a piling
When you tie up at a dock, there are times your boat will be next to a piling or ruff uneven surfaces. I have tried to get creative to protect my boat, but using a fender board and two bumpers is the easiest and it keeps the boat safe.
A scrap board with a rope tie hole at both ends and two bumpers is easy. See illustration. Storage of the board is no big problem and it is a quick and easy way to protect your boat.
A scrap board with a rope tie hole at both ends and two bumpers is easy. See illustration. Storage of the board is no big problem and it is a quick and easy way to protect your boat.
Friday, June 12, 2015
Boy had problem getting back on boat
It can be a bit of a problem getting back on board your boat from the water. Boat ladders are great but they also take up a lot of room to store. A easy way to get back on a boat if no ladder is available is to just make a loop of rope that that can hook over a tie up cleat with the other end in the water that you can put your foot in and use as a step.
I watched a fat boy try to get on board a boat he had jumped off of to swim. He could not do it. His friends were not helping him and he was starting to panic. I had him swim to my boat and use the ladder on my boat and then tool him back to his boat.
I showed him how to make a loop ladder. Using it takes a little effort because your foot and leg want to go under the boat when you push down on it if the hull dose not go very deep. But it will give you a way to help get you out of the water.
Davis sells a Swim Stirrup, a pre-made loop type ladder that sells for about $25.00 that you can get, or you can easily make one. It will take up little room and makes getting back on your boat much easier.
I do not carry this product at the Digital Compass Shop but I can order one for you if you want one and can not make one on your own.
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I watched a fat boy try to get on board a boat he had jumped off of to swim. He could not do it. His friends were not helping him and he was starting to panic. I had him swim to my boat and use the ladder on my boat and then tool him back to his boat.
I showed him how to make a loop ladder. Using it takes a little effort because your foot and leg want to go under the boat when you push down on it if the hull dose not go very deep. But it will give you a way to help get you out of the water.
Davis sells a Swim Stirrup, a pre-made loop type ladder that sells for about $25.00 that you can get, or you can easily make one. It will take up little room and makes getting back on your boat much easier.
I do not carry this product at the Digital Compass Shop but I can order one for you if you want one and can not make one on your own.
Spot touch up on your wood brightwork
All the gaffs and spars on the schooner were wood and I try too keep them in proper Bristol fashion.
It is a lot of work to completely refinish a spar, gaff or boom for just a few dark spots that develop.
The reason wood booms and such are varnished is so you can see a crack or deterioration in the wood. If you paint them the paint hides these problems. When the varnish gets chipped the wood can discolor at that spot.
What you need to do to just refinish that area is use a scraper or knife blade to scrape down to the spot and scrape and or sand the spot clean. A little bleach on the dark spot may be needed to get rid of the discolored wood. The scraped area edges need to be feathered up to the level of the rest of the varnish. When you re-varnish the scraped spot use a few thin coats starting at the lowest scraped spot and slowly build up the new finish so it fills the depression made by the scrapping and feather the last coat in to the old varnish.
If you take your time it feather in to the original finish and can hardly be noticed.
It is a lot of work to completely refinish a spar, gaff or boom for just a few dark spots that develop.
The reason wood booms and such are varnished is so you can see a crack or deterioration in the wood. If you paint them the paint hides these problems. When the varnish gets chipped the wood can discolor at that spot.
What you need to do to just refinish that area is use a scraper or knife blade to scrape down to the spot and scrape and or sand the spot clean. A little bleach on the dark spot may be needed to get rid of the discolored wood. The scraped area edges need to be feathered up to the level of the rest of the varnish. When you re-varnish the scraped spot use a few thin coats starting at the lowest scraped spot and slowly build up the new finish so it fills the depression made by the scrapping and feather the last coat in to the old varnish.
If you take your time it feather in to the original finish and can hardly be noticed.
Wednesday, June 10, 2015
Combo instruments
All the manufacturers are coming out with combo instruments and the price of these dual instruments is the same as single use instruments for the most part. One thing I like about these are that it can give you a redundancy of instruments. For example Standrd Horizon Matrix 2200 AIS/GPS is a VHF radio that is a 30w, with integrated 66 channel WAAS GPS antenna, Automatic identification system and GPS on the radio and it also has a Compass. It has waypoint and GPS status pages. It is about $600.
A VHF Radio, a GPS, and a compass all in one. An other combo unit is the Humminbird Helix 5 Sonar / GPS combo. This guy has Chart plotting and is a dual beam sonar with a GPS.
These are just two samples of combo units. It makes safety sense to have back up systems if you go out of sight of land. If you are near land, the Smart Phones now can be navigation units: Phone, GPS, compass. I often use my I phone on the boat...it is quick and easy and it gives me basic information.
digitalcompassshop.com
I still like the basics when I boat. A magnetic compass, a hand held VHF and a depth sounder are the 3 things I use most. Mainly the depth sounder. I must be getting old...the new high tech stuff is nice but ...
A VHF Radio, a GPS, and a compass all in one. An other combo unit is the Humminbird Helix 5 Sonar / GPS combo. This guy has Chart plotting and is a dual beam sonar with a GPS.
These are just two samples of combo units. It makes safety sense to have back up systems if you go out of sight of land. If you are near land, the Smart Phones now can be navigation units: Phone, GPS, compass. I often use my I phone on the boat...it is quick and easy and it gives me basic information.
digitalcompassshop.com
I still like the basics when I boat. A magnetic compass, a hand held VHF and a depth sounder are the 3 things I use most. Mainly the depth sounder. I must be getting old...the new high tech stuff is nice but ...
Thursday, June 4, 2015
Hi cost of boat repair
I think all of us dislike the cost of getting our boats repaired and new equipment like electronics for our boats. My web page :Digital Compass Shop ( http://www.digitalcompassshop.com/) only carries things that I feel are good a good value and for the most part will be used. In the next few weeks I am going to be going over the things on my site to make it better.
I have come to the conclusion simple and redundant is the best way to go. With much of the new electronics there are many things in them you most likely will not use. The features are nice, and there can be compatibility problems between items. Unless you put them in yourself that can cost you big bucks. Not to put you off from buying something from me, if you are putting in a complete system in the boat and can not do it your self, have the place you buy it from install it, and get a warranty on the installation (in writing). Also a system all from one manufacturer will give you less problems.
On repairs in the boat, there a lot of things that you can do your self. One thing I check regularly are hose connections...to through hulls. Hose clamps rust away, and many stainless steel hose clamps that are sold may not have a stainless screw in them.
Your batteries: they need to be in a non-conductive battery box with a lid on them. That way if something falls or is put on them there is no short out. I also like to see a switch that will disconnect the battery from everything be near the battery. That way when you check the batteries for water or clean the terminals or work on other electronics you can be unplugged from the boat. There is enough power in a battery you can do light ark welding with it.
LED lighting. It is the way to go. I have replaced all my lighting wit LEDs. You can pick up inexpensive LED fixtures at dollar stores, or an auto parts store or marine stores. I just wired them in to the boat fixtures that were all ready on my boat and remove the incandescent sockets. My running lights use almost now power. The cabin lights are now brighter and produce no heat to speak of and I even put in Red LED's in some fixtures for night vision. Cheap, solar powered yard lights will light your cockpit all night and are not even even tied to your boat batteries. LED's are just the way to go.
I have found that a good quality oil base paint works well on a older boat. The surface painted does not have to be glass smooth to get a nice finish and because it is not supper glossy like many high gloss marine paints the small imperfections do not stand out. You get a nice pain job at a lot less money. And when the paint surface is wet it is as glossy as the marine paint.
I have come to the conclusion simple and redundant is the best way to go. With much of the new electronics there are many things in them you most likely will not use. The features are nice, and there can be compatibility problems between items. Unless you put them in yourself that can cost you big bucks. Not to put you off from buying something from me, if you are putting in a complete system in the boat and can not do it your self, have the place you buy it from install it, and get a warranty on the installation (in writing). Also a system all from one manufacturer will give you less problems.
On repairs in the boat, there a lot of things that you can do your self. One thing I check regularly are hose connections...to through hulls. Hose clamps rust away, and many stainless steel hose clamps that are sold may not have a stainless screw in them.
Your batteries: they need to be in a non-conductive battery box with a lid on them. That way if something falls or is put on them there is no short out. I also like to see a switch that will disconnect the battery from everything be near the battery. That way when you check the batteries for water or clean the terminals or work on other electronics you can be unplugged from the boat. There is enough power in a battery you can do light ark welding with it.
LED lighting. It is the way to go. I have replaced all my lighting wit LEDs. You can pick up inexpensive LED fixtures at dollar stores, or an auto parts store or marine stores. I just wired them in to the boat fixtures that were all ready on my boat and remove the incandescent sockets. My running lights use almost now power. The cabin lights are now brighter and produce no heat to speak of and I even put in Red LED's in some fixtures for night vision. Cheap, solar powered yard lights will light your cockpit all night and are not even even tied to your boat batteries. LED's are just the way to go.
I have found that a good quality oil base paint works well on a older boat. The surface painted does not have to be glass smooth to get a nice finish and because it is not supper glossy like many high gloss marine paints the small imperfections do not stand out. You get a nice pain job at a lot less money. And when the paint surface is wet it is as glossy as the marine paint.
Tuesday, June 2, 2015
Concrete Beach Ball 8-(
I admit some of my friends are strange. One I have has a warped idea of what is funny.
Where he found a concrete ball I have no idea, and it is about the size o a beach ball. Karl painted it like a beach ball and put it in his yard near his mailbox. It is about 2 or 3 feet from the mailbox and it just begs for some one to kick it back up towards the house. He keeps the grass around the ball clipped so it looks like the ball is just sitting there.
I have to admit that it is funny to see someone kick it. There foot just stops and they crumple over. Unique words often come out of there mouth also.
He also has a few drinking cups he has filled with concrete and they are siting around. The look you get when someone try's to pick them up is also priceless.
As I said, I know a few strange friends.
Where he found a concrete ball I have no idea, and it is about the size o a beach ball. Karl painted it like a beach ball and put it in his yard near his mailbox. It is about 2 or 3 feet from the mailbox and it just begs for some one to kick it back up towards the house. He keeps the grass around the ball clipped so it looks like the ball is just sitting there.
I have to admit that it is funny to see someone kick it. There foot just stops and they crumple over. Unique words often come out of there mouth also.
He also has a few drinking cups he has filled with concrete and they are siting around. The look you get when someone try's to pick them up is also priceless.
As I said, I know a few strange friends.
Just put a 3-prong plug on my Trolling Motor .
On our little 21 foot sailboat we use a 55 thrust trolling motor to move to and from the dock. It is more than enough to do the job, and it is quiet, and no gas has to b stored on the boat. The only down side is that it is a pain in the back side to attach the leads of the motor to the battery and take them off when done. It is really not a big deal, but it is time consuming. Also the leads that attach to the battery can be very hot after using the motor.
What I did was to attach a heavy duty 3 prong 110 electrical plug to the trolling motor cord ( Male ) and made a short pigtail cord with a heavy duty female end on it that attached to the battery. With the 3 prong plug you can not plug the motor in the wrong way. I wanted the female end pigtail coming out of the battery box so there was no open contacts that could short to anything. It works very well and it is quick to just plug and unplug the motor.
Make sure you use heavy duty plugs... a lot of current flows through them and the could get hot.
I made 2 pigtails...one for the deep cycle battery for the motor and one for the battery that is for everything else on the boat. That way I can use that battery if needed and it just takes unplugging one battery and plugging it in to the other. Again it is fast and easy.
What I did was to attach a heavy duty 3 prong 110 electrical plug to the trolling motor cord ( Male ) and made a short pigtail cord with a heavy duty female end on it that attached to the battery. With the 3 prong plug you can not plug the motor in the wrong way. I wanted the female end pigtail coming out of the battery box so there was no open contacts that could short to anything. It works very well and it is quick to just plug and unplug the motor.
Make sure you use heavy duty plugs... a lot of current flows through them and the could get hot.
I made 2 pigtails...one for the deep cycle battery for the motor and one for the battery that is for everything else on the boat. That way I can use that battery if needed and it just takes unplugging one battery and plugging it in to the other. Again it is fast and easy.
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