Boat Maintenance

After a decade-long sailing sabbatical in the 1990s, my wife Theresa and I swallowed the anchor and settled into our first apartment. It was a two-room studio across from the hospital in Newport, R.I. I gasped when the owner first showed us the place.

If measured in dollars per hour on the water, the cost of owning a boat can seem an expensive proposition. According to one study, nearly 16 million recreational boats in the U.S. sit unused for 348 days of the year. In a January 2006 article, we looked at fractional ownership as a way to offset costs. Todays burgeoning share economy has opened up another option: peer-to-peer (P2P) boat rental.

With a little imagination and some inexpensive materials, you can put together a leakproof mast boot in a few hours. 1. Roofing Rubber One reliable boot sealer is self-adhesive ethylene propylene diene monomer (EPDM), a common rubber-membrane roofing material. Sold at local building supply stores, the rubber is black in color and comes in a roll that is 5 inches wide. (Dont confuse it with ice and water shield, which is much thinner.) Peeling the plastic backing from the underside of the EPDM material exposes the sticky side. Arrange precut strips prior to permanent installation. We suggest using American-made products as the imported stuff doesn't adhere well to itself.

Leave water from any source in a storage tank for a while, and interesting things will start to grow. Only the purest water in an airtight bottle will have a long shelf life. But not all bottled water is what the label says it is. For a cruiser, there are two water-testing tools that are important, and a third tool that is helpful in determining what is going into a tank and managing the quality of fresh water on a long-range cruising boat.

It always happens. Youre ready to embark on your first overnight cruise of the summer; you flick on the masthead light, and . . . nothing. Even if you don't plan a full-time career as a rigger, youll want some way of getting aloft for repairs or emergencies. We recently had the opportunity to try a chair made by the Connecticut-based sailmaker Hathaway, Reiser, & Raymond, makers of the Galerider drogue. The chair, which was designed by professional riggers who spend hours aloft each day, is constructed of heavily reinforced Dacron that can be adjusted to fit snugly around the thighs. A thick, adjustable webbing strap supports the back, and a safety tether and heavy-duty snap-hook are stitched onto the lifting ring. Velcro pockets on either side hold tools.

Im in the process of installing new teak and holly veneer in the interior of my boat. I have the old floor out and have the new plywood/veneer cut. I am ready to varnish/seal the new veneer, but I am in gridlock as to how to go about it.

I just received the June issue and was pleased to see the sandbaggers Bull and Bear on the cover. However, when I looked inside for the cover photo description, I saw one, possibly two errors. The description reads: The replica 1860 Sandbaggers, Bull and Bear, offer students in Maine a real-world exercise in sailboat stability.

As I write this, the resurrected VO65 Vestas Wind has just rejoined the Volvo Ocean Racing Fleet in Portugal for the last two legs of the nine-leg, around-the-world Volvo Ocean Race. Barring any further misfortune, the rebuilt hull should arrive safely in Gothenberg, Sweden, along with the rest of the fleet. No matter where Vestas Wind finishes during the final leg, I wont be surprised if the boat attracts as much media attention as the winner-a twisted ending to a truly bizarre tale that holds as much significance for the cruising sailor as it does for the offshore racer.

After a brief-and for testers, much needed-hiatus from testing wood finishes, we recently launched a new long-term evaluation of exterior wood coatings. Our last round of tests, a two-year death match, wrapped up in 2011. Although the test field this go-around is smaller than the previous tests lineup, it includes some new products and some that have been reformulated since the last long-term test began in 2007.

Spring is a good time to check your fire extinguishers to be sure they havent expired, but if you own a Kidde extinguisher, youll want to also be sure yours wasnt part of the companys recent recall. Well-known fire extinguisher manufacturer, Kidde, in conjunction with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), announced a voluntary recall to replace certain Kidde fire extinguisher units, according to Boat Owners Association of the United States (BoatUS).