Belowdecks & Amenities

The writers and editors at Practical Sailor are perpetual tinkerers-always looking for creative, do-it-yourself solutions to even the smallest onboard problems. We figure our readers likely suffer the same challenges on their boats, so were obliged to share such projects.

Weve compiled a list of books fit for summer reading, whether youre relaxing in the cockpit, hanging in a hammock on the bow, or parked on the beach. The list includes page-turning tales of adventure and survival, and lively accounts of maritime history.

Staples of the modern home kitchen, Crock-Pots and rice cookers are time-savers, enabling chefs to prepare long-cooking meals without tending the stove for hours. But theres another way to slow-cook foods, one thats easily portable and doesn't require a constant electrical source: retained-heat cooking.

There is a learning curve when using retained-heat cooking. Here are a few of the lessons we learned during testing.

We think of all stick-and-rip, hook-and-loop fasteners as Velcro-just as we ask for Kleenex after a sneeze-and most tend to have uniformly low performance expectations of these velcro products, assuming that they will have limited holding power from the beginning. These assumptions are not totally unwarranted. Velcro will inevitably be the first component of a canvas project to fail, with ultraviolet rays degrading the fine threads and holding strength dropping to zero within two to four years. When used to mount even the lightest equipment, the velcro fasteners vibrate loose without warning. The Velcros adhesive can slowly ooze off in heat, buckle in humidity, or simply turn to dust. So do any of them actually work? PS testers decided to find out.

Ultra-violet light is a relentless villain that destroys vinyl, gelcoat, paint, and lines, bit by bit. The best we can do is delay the inevitable for a season or two with regular maintenance chores like waxing and preventative measures like covering eisenglass or Lexan. Windows, both soft vinyl and the rigid polycarbonate or acrylic sort, are particularly vulnerable and expensive. To protect them, we use light-proof hatch covers, which reduce heat in the summer and provide insulation in the winter.

Anyone thats ever hopped on a Jacobs ladder at a fall festival can relate to the feeling of the rope-attached steps swaying wildly from side to side under your weight. Suspended boat-boarding steps can inspire that same unsteady feeling. Ascending the steps, which curve in along the chines of a boat, can throw a climbers center of gravity backward, away from the hull-possibly sending the climber into the drink.

There are simply too many white lights in and around a municipal anchorage. A required white anchor light must have 360-degree visibility. But a white light at the tip of a mast can get lost in the stars or a background of city lights, making it a poor marker for a sailboat 60 feet below. Also, a light in the sky is not in the normal plane of view of other small vessels maneuvering in an anchorage. An additional white light on a stern arch is a better marker, but it also can become camouflaged by city lights onshore and will be obscured, by a small degree, by the mast. But Inland and International Rules state in part no other lights shall be exhibited, except such lights as cannot be mistaken for the lights specified in the Rules, which makes the growing use of LED flashing blue or white lights and non-flashing red, green, and pink lights illegal to use as anchor or on-deck lights. Such lights are easily confused for lighted buoys, channel markers, lighthouses, or police boats.

While new finishes-paint, epoxy, or varnish-may be beautiful to look at, they are also as slick as can be when a little seawater hits the surface. You can cover your handiwork with nonskid tape; slather on a coat of bland nonskid paint; try one of the nonskid paint additives like crushed walnut shells (favored by PS Technical Editor Ralph Naranjo); or you can try an easy, age-old method that PS tester Drew Frye favors: salted varnish (or paint).

Although rules of thumb for heating requirements exist, every boat is different. A simple way to measure the heating requirements of a boat is to use a space heater and a few simple calculations. A typical electric space heater is 1,500 watts, or 5,150 British Thermal Units per hour output when set on high. Pick a cool day (does not need to be the coldest expected day) and observe how many watts it takes to warm the boat and how many watts are required to hold that temperature. Several hours should be allowed for this test (it takes time for the furnishings and hull liner to warm up), and it is best done at night when temperatures are cooler.