Mailport & PS Advisor

In regard to PSs marine sanitation hose test report (PS April 2012): One of the issues we have run into is winterization. Several hose manufacturers state that their hose is not resistant to glycol-based antifreeze, which is what most winterization fluids use to depress the freezing point. After we ended up with a really bad stink, we read up on the hose manufacturers website and realized that our hose was not compatible with the fluid we had used. (This actually caused me to renew my subscription to Practical Sailor.) It would be good for your next articles Value Guide to include a column on winterization compatibility.

The U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) recently released a safety alert regarding unapproved recreational and commercial vessel navigation lights, and they also issued a reminder that using some decorative lighting onboard (rope lighting, underwater lighting, etc.) may be a violation of the Nautical Rules of the Road.

Mustang Survival recently issued an urgent safety recall of several inflatable PFD models with fluorescent green bladders. In the U.S., those models are the MD3183, MD3184, and MD3188; in Canada, they are the MD3153, MD3154, and MD3157. Note that the recall is only for those models with fluorescent green bladders that were manufactured between September 2014 and September 2015.

I cannot eliminate the smell of diesel fuel from my boat. The previous owner had a fuel leak that soaked the wood under the fuel tank. The tank has since been fixed, but the odor remains. Any advice?

Vanderbilt University is offering a free online course in celestial navigation fundamentals. The course-developed in collaboration with PS Technical Editor Ralph Naranjo, made possible by the Blended & Online Learning Design (BOLD) Fellows Program, and hosted by Vanderbilt-covers the basics for completing a sight reduction form to obtain a line of position (LOP). Using videos and an online worksheet, the course includes an overview of celestial navigation (astronav) concepts, the mechanics of plotting an LOP, and examples of using a sight reduction forms to obtain values to plot the LOP of a celestial body. According to Vanderbilt, this course serves to address the lack of widely available instruction in celestial navigation.

We recently purchased a Webasto Airtop 3900 do-it-yourself (DIY) kit from Defender Industries. The instructions were very comprehensive, and the installation and product work exactly as they should, which typically would lead me to recommend this as a great DIY product. The issue, however, came when we tried to register the product for warranty.

Weve noticed an odor and a buildup of caked-on solids in the holding tank. My thought is to fill the holding tank with fresh water and the right additive, then let that slosh around underway, and then pump it out. What do you suggest for an additive?

I have taken courses (most recently with Jeff Isaac, organized by Ocean Navigator) on offshore emergency medical issues, and there are many who believe that suturing on board is generally not wise. Its much better to butterfly bandage or some other less zip-locked method of repair. The thinking appears to be that it is impossible to have a sterile environment on a vessel, so the bad stuff is likely to get locked into the wound, where it will cause infection. So, its much better to have a more open repair.

Reader Fred Jensen and his wife, Barbara, of Sandusky, Ohio, pointed out an error in our illustration in the August 2015 issue of Practical Sailor. The photo-illustration depicted a bow-roller and headstay, and lines indicated wire stays with turnbuckles that were required to counter the headstay loads when the boat is under sail. It was the published answer to a puzzle that rigger Brion Toss posted in the May 2015 issue of Practical Sailor in his photo-essay The Hidden Causes of Rig Failure. The corrected illustration appears at right.

On the recommendation of Practical Sailors water filter test (see PS June 2015), I bought a two pack of Camcos RV Taste Pure water filters through Amazon after finding sediment in my water tank. One of the filters dumped 1/8-cup of the carbon/KDF granuals all over when I took the protective cover off the filter, and it continued to shed the media when I shook the filter. If I had connected the filter to my water supply, it would have contaminated my water system and probably ruined my water pump. Only one of the two filters is dumping carbon/KDF material, so I assumed that this is a product defect.