Mailport & PS Advisor

As you gear up for another summer of sailing, it is also a good time to double check that none of your essential safety equipment is subject to a recall. Two helpful websites track recalls that can impact sailors. the Consumer Protection Safety Commission (www.cpsc.gov) focuses primarily on mainstream consumer goods like the Kidde fire-extinguisher (see below). There is also a U.S. Coast Guard site (www.uscgboating.org/content/recalls.php). Here are a couple recalls you should be aware of.

Regarding your recent blog post on cleat strength (Inside PS blog Striving for a Stronger Boat Cleat), a stout-looking Herreshoff-style aluminum cleat on my 1984 Sea Sprite 34 failed while moored in a storm in Maine last fall. The wind and waves were strong enough to lay the boat on its beam ends, with bare poles. The aluminum failed near a 5/16-inch stainless bolt, but the other three bolts held, as did a similar cleat with a backup line to the mooring. Take the problem seriously: there was no obvious sign of failure before it broke, and had it been a two-bolt cleat I think the whole thing would have gone. Im replacing both cleats with bronze cleats from Spartan Marine.

Diesel problems usually begin at the tank. Most fuel tanks more than 5-10 years old have accumulated a mix of water, live, or dead bacteria and algae, rust, etc. in the bottom. If possible, use up most of the fuel in your tank, remove the inspection port and visually inspect the bottom of the tank. You may be surprised. If you are confronted by black sludge or water, youll need to remove it to ensure you have a clean fuel supply.

Regarding Folding vs. Feathering Props, (PS February 2018), we sailed with a Max-Prop for a number of years. The Max-Prop caught lobster pot lines daily and often more frequently when cruising Maine. One day I dove three times to cut the like off my prop and we are very careful to watch and steer around pots as best as we can. We finally switched to Flexofold and never in many more years have we caught a line. We are still very careful to steer around pots or immediately put it in neutral if we think we have run over a pot. I would not recommend cruising Maine with a feathering prop. I highly recommend a folding prop for line infested waters like the coast of Maine.

Seakindly with sweet lines and good bones, the 30-foot Allied Seawind remains for me the benchmark of a good small bluewater sailboat. Designed by Thomas Gilmer and launched in 1960, 161 of these sturdy vessels were produced by the end of the run in 1973. That was the same year I bought my own Seawind, hull #122, built in 1969. I had no idea at the time that I would still be sailing the same boat 44 years later.

Considering the excitement a failed seacock can generate, the lack of attention they typically receive is almost criminal. Tucked away in the dim recesses of your bilge, seacocks typically don't get a second thought with regards to preventative maintenance or inspections - until they fail to operate or even break off in your hand during operation (it happens, Ive seen it, and it isn't pretty).

As a long-term subscriber to Practical Sailor, and a former Clipper Round the World crewmember on the 2015/2016 race onboard IchorCoal, I needed to respond to your Risk Management and Renting Adventure article recently published (PS, January 2017 online). Your normal review articles on all things sailing have always been done with a very even-handed manner, providing your readers the information we need to make decisions on spending dollars and time on our sailboats. In my opinion, in the subject article, you have strayed away from the pure professional presentations and presented incomplete and damning comments specifically about the Clipper Round the World Race and its owner, Sir Robin Knox-Johnston.

In response to your request regarding safety tether knowledge or suggestions (see Safety Tether Warning, Inside Practical Sailor) please test and include information about Glowfasts HLR Safety Line system.

I have a West Marine Watertender 9.4 with a polyethylene hull (versus polypropylene for the Walker Bays) and am wondering if there is an anti-fouling paint that is suitable. Looking through the product info for both, the manufacturers both claim that the plastics are slippery enough to not need paint, however, the plastic wrap (unknown material) on the wooden pilings on my own docks in Florida have marine growth on them, so I suspect the same will happen with my Watertender (currently stored on the dock).There are conflicting reports/opinions on various forums as to if there is a paint that would actually stick to the hull, as well as potentially damage the plastic.

We have an ACR Global Fix EPIRB and an ACR Aqualink PLB. We had the EPIRB battery replaced 5 years ago in the USA, and it is time again to do so. We are currently in New Zealand and have been given a quote of close to $350 to replace the EPIRB battery and $120 for the PLB.