Offshore Log: Setting Up a Maintenance Program

Know the whens, whats, hows, and how longs of your maintenance chores. No sense letting them get ahead of you.

Regular maintenance of the toilet ûwhen it's working well will save you a major hassle later.

When the Volvo Ocean Race fleet arrives in port after every leg, shore crews swarm over the boats at the same time the sailing crew climbs off. Within a few hours, every piece of removable gear inside, from the galley pot to the emergency flares, is off each boat. Within a day, most of the rigs are out of the boats, with every piece of standing rigging and running rigging removed for examination or replacement. Literally inch by inch, every piece of each boat gets examined in detail by the shore crew. With as little as two weeks between a finish and the next start, the pace is fast, but…