Tips, Tricks & Thoughts:
Tips
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Dive Weights Are Useful In The Workshop
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Read more: Dive Weights Are Useful In The WorkshopIt’s amazing how often I use the stack of dive weights I needed to get neutral when wearing my Arctic-level dry suit, (bought when we were cruising the high latitudes) to hold stuff down or together while glue is kicking off. In the photo above the weights were invaluable while I was splatting¹ new TreadMaster […]
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Winch-Cleaning Solvent
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Read more: Winch-Cleaning SolventI have always cleaned winches with kerosene, but I hate the smell and I’m guessing that breathing the vapours for hours is not good for us. So last winter I tried this water-based degreaser from WD-40, even though I don’t like or use their spray lubricant. The stuff really works. After a good soak the […]
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Check For Correct Winch Pawl Springs
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Read more: Check For Correct Winch Pawl SpringsWe have to check everything on a new-to-us boat. The top spring is for Lewmar, the bottom for Harken. All of our Harken winches had a mix of both. Trust no one, least of all boatyards who will often use whatever is to hand. Would the wrong spring cause the winch to slip? Probably not, […]
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Credit Where It’s Due: McMaster-Carr
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Read more: Credit Where It’s Due: McMaster-CarrPhyllis and I have been buying tools, fastenings, and half a hundred other things from McMaster Carr for decades, and are such fans that I often say that if the company goes out of business I’m selling our boat and taking up golf…and I hate golf. Over all those years, and hundreds of orders, I […]
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Navigation Where It Belongs
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Read more: Navigation Where It BelongsI don’t care how much butchery it takes, we are having a plotter/radar at the forward end of the cockpit where it belongs, to supplement and backup the iPad we use for navigation. The plotter below-decks is useless when shorthanded and we don’t like plotters on the binnacle, either. The new on-deck plotter will act […]
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Gel Batteries a Winner?
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Read more: Gel Batteries a Winner?While researching for an upcoming article I noticed something interesting: Victron rate their Long Life Gel batteries at 2500 50% cycles, as against their AGM Super Cycle Battery at 1000 cycles, and not a lot less than their much more expensive lithium batteries at 3000 cycles. Could it be that the pivot away from gel […]
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Sealing a Paint Can
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Read more: Sealing a Paint CanIn this case there is $250 worth of my paint in this can that will likely be ruined by next season. I have brought this to the attention of the yard in question. All yards make mistakes, but if we want things to get better we need to bring it up when they do, but […]
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Good Rivet Gun
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Read more: Good Rivet GunIf you need to pull 1/4” stainless steel rivets you need a good gun. This one has worked well for me. Available from the good people at McMaster-Carr.
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Dripless Shaft Seal Bellows Adjustor
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Read more: Dripless Shaft Seal Bellows AdjustorEver tried to get the bellows perfectly compressed to specification on a dripless shaft seal, while at full-arm stretch in the bilge, and then get the little set-screws tight before the stainless steel rotor slips back? Sucks, right? But if we don’t get this adjustment right think sunk boat. Our friend Phil, he of the […]
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Self-Tailing Winch Stripper Positioning
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Read more: Self-Tailing Winch Stripper PositioningLast summer I tweaked the position of the strippers on our sheet winches. Makes all the difference to usability and sheet holding if we get a full wrap from the stripper to the direction the crew will pull really right. Before the change we were having trouble with the sheet slipping out of the stripper […]
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New Year’s Resolution
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Read more: New Year’s ResolutionWhile dealing with all of the expense and aggravation, it’s easy to forget what a wonderful privilege it is to own a sailboat and be able to go sailing any time we want. We took quite a few people sailing last summer, but my New Year’s Resolution is to share sailing with even more people […]
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New Iridium Go! exec
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Read more: New Iridium Go! execPredict Wind have a preliminary announcement video for a new faster version of the Iridium GO!. Not a lot of details yet, but it’s supposedly a lot faster, although not fast enough to use for actual internet surfing. The big drawback will be if the unlimited data package available with the original GO! is not […]
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Disturbing Failure Modality In Some Fall Arrest Devices
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Read more: Disturbing Failure Modality In Some Fall Arrest DevicesWhile researching fall arrest devices I came across the video below from a seemingly credible source that explains how several popular devices can fail to arrest if the attaching carabiner gets oriented in ways that I can easily see happening when climbing masts. Worth 15 minutes of your time, particularly if you use climbing backup […]
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Important Update To Recent Mast Climbing Article
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Read more: Important Update To Recent Mast Climbing ArticleI have just updated my latest mast climbing article in light of some very important and counterintuitive new information that climber, sailor, and AAC friend-in-the-comments Drew found. Don’t miss this (scroll down to second alert box).
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A Crash Jibe Looking For A Place
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Read more: A Crash Jibe Looking For A PlaceI’m in the throes of replacing the autopilot computer on our J/109 (more on that in a full article). First off, when I opened this box to connect up the drive and clutch I was distressed to see this terminal type. These things have no place on a boat, at least if they rely on […]
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Cruiser Tools—Jesus Pliers
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Read more: Cruiser Tools—Jesus PliersYears ago, when the world was young, I worked as a mainframe computer technician for NCR Corporation—yes they made computers, great big ones. In the workshop, which I shared with a bunch of techs who fixed mechanical cash registers and accounting machines—fiendishly complicated contraptions that it took great skill to work on—a common cry was […]
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Cruiser Tools—Files
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Read more: Cruiser Tools—FilesOn our McCurdy and Rhodes 56 I had a whole bunch of different files, but that was a 25-ton boat where weight, while important, was less of an issue. Since selling that boat, along with all my tools, I have found that the three files shown above will do most things, and while I have […]
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Wire Tie Best Practice
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Read more: Wire Tie Best PracticeOur new-to-us J/109 was filled with wire ties like the one on the left. Horrible things because when changes and additions are made people tend to just add more wire ties over the existing bundle. So, as I clean up the wiring, I’m replacing the ones on the left with those on the right (first […]
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Don’t Play With Your Phone When On Watch
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Read more: Don’t Play With Your Phone When On WatchI think we would all agree that smart phones are seductive and, as a gadget freak, I’m as susceptible to their siren call as anyone. Here’s a really good reminder to me, and everyone else, from none other than the US Coast Guard, of why we should not give in to smart-phone temptation: For approximately […]
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Q&A—New Lead Acid Batteries From Victron
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Read more: Q&A—New Lead Acid Batteries From VictronMember Kimbal asked: I’m looking at an ad on Yachtworld for a boat that has “New Victron Super Cycle AGM batteries – 3 x 125ah (2022) – Note: These batteries are a new type of AGM which approach lithium in some respects, and matches the Carbon Foam Firefly batteries performance – capable of up to […]
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Cruising With Starlink Reports
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Read more: Cruising With Starlink ReportsWe have received some favourable reports from Members about using Starlink while cruising. First on a tip we already published. And recently two more: Three weeks ago I installed a Starlink antenna on BJoyce. Contrary to some skeptics this thing works GREAT! Hasn’t buffered once and fast. No limit on devices or anything else. The […]
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Is It Time To Consider a Robot For Watchkeeping?
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Read more: Is It Time To Consider a Robot For Watchkeeping?OK, that was a clickbait title, if ever there was one. Anyway, I have been vaguely interested in the AI lookout and collision avoidance technology that has been used in the singlehanded racing game for some years, called OSCAR. Now I see that the company has rebranded as SEA.AI and their entry level product is […]
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Tools: The Little Details Matter
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Read more: Tools: The Little Details MatterI just took the Edson steering system on our J/109 apart to service it. A fiddly job that requires undoing a bunch of fasteners in awkward places only accessible through the top of the steering pedestal after removing the compass. This job was way easier and probably took half as long using my new Wera […]
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Heritage Intrepid 35
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Read more: Heritage Intrepid 35As most of you know, I’m a sucker for most any boat from the drawing boards of McCurdy and Rhodes. Normally, to get a M&R boat you are looking at custom boats, or those from Hinckley, so deep pockets required. But, while I was researching something else, I discovered that, back in the 70s, the […]
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Sailing In Close Quarters
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Read more: Sailing In Close QuartersI have to confess that over the 30 years we owned our McCurdy and Rhodes 56 I let my close-quarters sailing skills get rusty. It’s not that the boat is unhandy, far from it, with main and staysail she can be sailed into the smallest and most crowded of spaces. But somehow, in the the […]
