Mailport & PS Advisor

In November 2010, Practical Sailor posted a Reader Workbench article written by subscriber Ed Mini of Mystic, Conn., on a do-it-yourself Wi-Fi booster/antenna assembled from parts ordered primarily from Data Alliance and Home Depot. The system did a good job of boosting the distance users could connect with onshore hotspots, and the cost was under $100, not counting labor. About a year later, PS tester Ron Dwelle decided to put together a similar system, but he used the components that commercial vendors use. Heres a rundown of his system, which has stood up well for three years.

Has Practical Sailor reviewed sunglasses since the 2009 article? The feature wed really like to have is to be able to read our chartplotters screen without removing sunglasses. A review of that particular feature would be extremely helpful.

PS Reader Mark Baldwin wrote: "I used Uni-Gard pink antifreeze (rated for -50 degrees) to winterize my boat. The leftover jugs all froze solid at -14-or perhaps they froze before the night got that cold. The consequence for my boats systems? No telling until the spring, I guess."

We trailered our boat from Montana to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and sailed across to West End, Bahamas. We cruised in the Abaco islands for 1 months, and on the night before the crossing back to Florida, we had a horrible night in an anchorage, and we ended up with a bent Danforth primary anchor.

Tankless propane water heaters carry serious risk of causing carbon-monoxide poisoning or oxygen depletion when mounted in a tight or sealed space. Because a boat is more tightly sealed than a shoreside home, the carbon monoxide is more likely to become trapped. Multiple boater deaths have been attributed to tankless water heaters, and several brands have been recalled over the years-among them Wolter Water Heater, Paloma, and Rheem-Rudd-because they posed a carbon-monoxide poisoning hazard.

Sailboats have a bit of advantage over their power cousins in that we have more high spots that can be used creatively. In my installation, the diesel vent line (fuel-grade hose) loops high inside at the transom and back down to the through-hull. Through the use of a check valve, air flows out, but intake air comes in through the AVD, which is attached to the underside of the deck; no additional support needed. The unit is readily available for inspection or replacement through the transom locker, and it is not in the way of any equipment that needs to go in or out. Love the H2Out AVD2 vent filter; kudos to Pindell Engineering.

I was re-reading your review of in-boom furlers in which you compared five different manufacturers products. You did not review the unit made by Southern Spars, which is a spinoff of the Leisure Furl system by Forespar, but I wonder whether you have ever reviewed and compared the Southern Spars in-boom roller furling system?

Your mention of dissimilar metals and also chlorinated water rang a bell with me. The pressure-relief valves on many water heaters are made of bronze or another metal. One year, on the advice of a friend, I removed my water heaters valve for cleaning and found some of the most foul hydrogen-sulfide odor imaginable, along with some black gooey substance. Its a powerful smell. Since then, Ive been removing, cleaning, and flushing that valve at the start and in the middle of each season; 95 percent of my water odor problems disappeared.

I have often referred to (former PS Editor) Dan Spurrs book, Spurrs Guide to Upgrading Your Cruising Sailboat, and I was going to follow Spurrs advice and build a plywood/glass tank to add auxiliary diesel tankage to my Morgan 382. But the Gougeon Brothers / West System website (www.westsystem.com) makes it sound contrary to standards and potentially damaging to insurance coverage.

Terry Thatcher,
Morgan 382
Portland, Ore.

Your tape test (PS, October 2013) did not include 3M 256, but I thought Id pass on a lesson learned to your readers. Having recently completed painting my deck, for the first time in 37 years, I encountered an unforeseen problem.