McMaster-Carr

by Phyllis May 18, 2007
Some hard-to-find bits that we found at McMaster-Carr.

During this last refit, we had custom wood bezels with embedded helicoils built to fit permanently around the cabin ports (we’ll discuss these further in our Refit Series). During cold weather, we screw Plexiglas covers to the bezels and voila…no condensation! However, after installing them we realized that the little chains with small bars at [...]

Tops In Quality

by Phyllis November 1, 2007

Over the years that we have owned Morgan’s Cloud, there have been many custom stainless steel items that we have had fabricated by Tops in Quality: cabintop handrails, liferaft cradle, lifeline stanchions, etc.

Loctite

by Phyllis January 1, 2008

Vibration and movement are always present on a boat at sea and can easily loosen screws. To avert the substantial problems that even a single backed-out screw can cause, we use Loctite thread lock fluid. Use Blue if you want to undo it easily, Red if you want to work at it and Green if [...]

Plexus

by John February 1, 2008
The manufacturer provides several automatic mixing dispensers.

It used to be that when we wanted to attach something to our aluminum hull we had it welded. This requires special equipment and a skilled operator, not to speak of all the attendant mess and paint damage. Not anymore, we now use Plexus.

Tef-Gel

by Phyllis March 1, 2008

Maintaining an aluminum boat has made us especially paranoid about making sure we use an anti-corrosive agent whenever we screw anything to anything else. We have found that Tef-Gel, a teflon product, does the best job. Stainless steel screws back easily out of aluminum even after several years if they’ve been applied with a liberal [...]

Bock Marine Soothes Boatyard Hell

by John June 18, 2009
I was at the top of the mast because we decided that before transiting under the charted 86-foot clearance high voltage cable with our 74-foot mast, it might be a really good idea to remove the 3-foot lightning conductor.

“Boat Yard Hell” is our term of endearment for Morgan’s Cloud’s annual date with a boat lift. There just isn’t much fun to it: living at the top of a 15’ ladder, peeing in a bucket, the morning dash to the toilet building, and of course day after day of boat chores as we try [...]

A Great Resource

by John April 4, 2011
PS_thumb.jpg

Practical Sailor is the only magazine we still subscribe to. We have been getting their great information on all things boating gear for over 25 years. In that time the magazine has saved us untold amounts of money, not to speak of frustration and wasted time, by helping us to source the best gear available [...]