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).
Continue reading "Water, Water Everywhere, but Can You Drink It?" »
Continue reading "Water, Water Everywhere, but Can You Drink It?" »
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.
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:
That prompted some research into electric bilge pumps on
my part.
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.
Continue reading "Vetus Easy Tank: A flexible hard tank, or a hard flexible tank?" »
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?
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…
Continue reading "Build a Standpipe, Save your Head Hoses" »
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.
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.
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.
