Boat Maintenance

Practical Sailor recently spent a week experimenting with three handheld products geared toward performance sailors. These portable tools are for tracking and improving sailboat speed. Unlike conventional portable GPS units, which have relatively small displays and deliver a wide range of navigational data, these products display large digits that can be read from a distance, and the view options are limited to those that relate exclusively to speed and racing performance. Practical Sailor tested the Speedwatch and two GPS units, Velocitek SC-1 and SpeedPuck. These instruments make good training tools for young sailors and will give all around-the-buoy sailors the ability to quickly quantify performances.

A bottom-paint job is unpleasant from start to finish, and wiping down the hull with acetone plays a role in that unpleasantness. So when a Cinnaminson, N.J., company sent us an acetone alternative called Bio-Solv, we were more than keen to test it. Bio-Solv is a non-toxic, non-flammable cleaner that works better and is safer than acetone, lacquer thinner, or Xylene, according to Anthony Severino of MAS Epoxies, which began selling Bio-Solv last year. The company buys it from a proprietary manufacturer.

The February 2010 issue of Practical Sailor has letters on the following topics: requests for more used boat reviews, foggy electronics, hard varnishes, propane fridges and Iphone apps.

Practical Sailor searched for the top liquid degreasers to tackle heavy grease on marine stoves and marine engines. Eleven products were tested, including Chomp oil eater, Holy Cow degreaser, Kafko degreaser, Krud Kutter degreaser, Mary Kate Grease Away, Star brite All Purpose Citrus Cleaner Degreaser, and Star brite Sea Safe Cleaner Degreaser. Practical Sailor tested the liquid marine cleaners on grimy fiberglass panels and on aged, greasy farm equipment engines.

To decide which marine inverter-charger best meets your onboard power demands, first consider how it will used, how and where it will be mounted and what is required to fit with your electrical system. After testing multiple marine inverter-chargers, Practical Sailor offers this report on the units’ inverter capabilities and a follow-up review will report on the units’ charger functions. There are two classes of marine DC inverters: true sine wave (TSW) and modified sine wave (MSW). Each uses a different method to produce AC voltage. Practical Sailor evaluated modified sine wave units from Charles Industries, Magnum Energy, ProMariner, and Tripp Lite, and true sine wave units from Magnum, Mastervolt, ProMariner, and Xantrex.

If you think your boat is a bear to maintain, you might take some consolation in this months used-boat review of the Union 36. It is a fiberglass boat, but considering the amount of teak on deck and belowdecks, it might as well be made of wood. Not that there is anything very wrong with that. The 32-footer my wife Theresa and I cruised on for 11 years was very similar-a big, heavy double-ender-and ours was made of wood. While our 1937 William Atkin Thistle design differed significantly from the Union 36 and the modern double-enders that Bob Perry would later unveil (the Tayana 37 and Valiant 40, among the better known), these boats can be broadly traced to a common ancestor: the North Sea rescue boats designed by the renowned Norwegian naval architect Colin Archer.

Practical Sailor found that the full brightness that LEDs offer, coupled with a huge energy savings, a wide tolerance to voltage changes, and a very long expected lifespan, make LED a great alternative to incandescent lights for masthead tri-color. The tradeoff is the considerable heft of the price tag. Practical Sailor tested LED tri-color lanterns from Orca Green Marine (OGM), Signal Mate, and Lopolight. We also evaluated LED tricolor bulbs designed to replace those in the popular Aqua Signal Series 40 tri-color light. Those were bulbs from Lunasea, Dr. LED, and LED Shop.

Over the years, I’ve heard various timeframes for when to replace standing rigging, but I’ve never seen any empirical data to back up those recommendations. It would be very informative to know from a metallurgical/metal failure point of view estimated lifespans of the average wire used for standing rigging.

Practical Sailor applied dozens of liquid boat waxes to fiberglass test panels in 2009 to determine which was easiest to apply and was the best for long-term protection of a fiberglass boat. The panels were set out to suffer in the Florida weather for six months, when testers checked in on them to see which waxes still had a gloss and which could still bead water. Topping the marine wax test field in their respective categories were products from Star brite, Cajun Shine All, Collinite, 3M, Nu Finish, Yacht Brite, and West Marine Pure Oceans,. Testers’ top picks for a shiny hull that lasts and is protected from UV damage were the 3M Scotchgard Marine Liquid Wax and Star brite’s Premium Marine Polish.

From gut-wrenching novels to marine maintenance manuals, lessons in boatie Spanish, a sailor’s cookbook, an anchoring handbook, and a new twist on an old classic—here are a few sailing books we’ve plucked from the Practical Sailor library to help get us through the winter. The reading list includes the Annotated Sailing Alone (Rod Scher / Joshua Slocum), the Motion of the Ocean (Janna Esarey), Ten Degrees of Reckoning (Dr. Hester Rumberg), and the Outboard Motors and Marine Diesel Engines maintenance and repair manuals.