Capt'n Pauley's Virtual Boatyard -- Projects Galore!!!

Water, Water Everywhere, but Can You Drink It?

Ask any ten boaters what they think of their onboard freshwater quality and at least half of them will admit to not using it for drinking purposes. Yet keeping onboard water supplies good tasting and drinkable isn’t rocket science (although some components may be traced to the Space Program).

Capt'n Pauley's Sketchbook - Cutting Thru-Hulls

Installing a Holding Tank Monitor

How well I remember the first (and only) day I overfilled the holding tank. The good news was that nobody was standing beside the boat when the noxious fluid came shooting out of the vent.   After cleaning and deodorizing the dock, I knew I had to prevent such an occurrence from ever happening again.  

Capt'n Pauley's Sketchbook - Installing Seacocks

Dual Bilge Pumps

This project came about because of a glaring item on the surveyor’s report: “Vessel has only one manual bilge pump installed, no backup pumps, manual or electric, are present”. Just to put some number with the problem, considerer this: Hollander and Mertes, in their book “The Yachtsman’s Emergency Handbook” quotes the following approximate flow rates:

• Three-finger sized hole near the waterline:            4762 gal./hr.
• Three-finger sized hole 3 feet below waterline:        7937 gal./hr.
  

That prompted some research into electric bilge pumps on my part.  

Vetus Easy Tank: A flexible hard tank, or a hard flexible tank?

A recent discussion on one of the forums I belong to revolved around problem water tanks. Solutions ranged from replacing the tank with a new plastic molded tank, a stainless steel tank or a flexible bladder tank.

Build Yourself a "Pumpstick"

Holding Tank Vents - Revisited

 Reader TJH wondered if it would be better to crisscross the vent lines to keep water from entering the tank in the event of a knockdown. A more likely event would be sewage draining overboard. Crisscrossing the lines as shown should prevent either scenario. Anyone see a flaw in this arrangement?

Capt'n Pauley's Sketchbook - Holding Tank Vents

Build a Standpipe, Save your Head Hoses

In the Odor Control post, I mentioned installing a standpipe in the outlet of my holding tank. Some of you have asked what the heck I was talking about. Well here it is…

Impeller Wisdom

Ever stop to think how dependent your boat is on a little rubber impeller? Or how many of them you have aboard? Depending on the size of your boat, it could be from one to as many as seven or more. They reside in your outdrive, electric head, pressure water system, washdown pump and oil change system, for example. Failure of any of them could result in consequences that range from a smelly mess to a possible sinking or expensive damage to your engine and drive train.

Seacock Troubles

One of the comments I often hear at the boatyard is, “This seacock is too expensive, I can get the same thing at (a favorite home improvement store) much cheaper.” Well, yes, you can find something there that looks a lot like a seacock, or more correctly a ball valve, but it isn’t the same.

Installing Flexible Tanks

Introduction:
Call them flexible tanks or bladder tanks; they may well be the answer to your water storage problem. These tanks can be easily retrofitted to almost any boat. A few possible reasons for doing so are to:

• Replace leaking metal or plastic tanks
• Replace integral (built-in tanks)
• Add additional water capacity
• Provide ballast that can also be used for drinking

These tanks are available in many different sizes and several different configurations. In this article, I’ll cover the general design of the tanks, proper location, correct installation techniques and some first hand experiences.

Yes Virginia, there is a difference!

When it came time for me to replace the old seacocks on one of my project boats, I thought I’d do it up right, replacing the thru-hulls as well as the seacocks. Based on my experience with another, older, boat, I was prepared to have to cut the thru-hulls out. I didn’t think I would have any problems getting new, bronze, thru-hull like the ones currently installed on the boat. After all, they haven’t changed the thread sizes lately have they? ¾”, 1”, 1-1/4” and 1-1/2” pipe threads are still the standards.