Mailport & PS Advisor

My Tayana Vancouver 42s mast wires and cables were cut when the keel-stepped mast (63 feet) was removed. The wires include those for a tri-color with strobe, DataMarine 5000, VHF radio, radar, and nav lights. I am thinking of using a terminal box for the connections when the mast is replaced, but Im concerned about bilge moisture over time as well as the multiple wires in the cables. The wires exit the mast just above the step. I tried to leave sufficient wire for a terminal box, but I don't think a box outside the bilge is currently possible without additional wire extensions. Thoughts and recommendations?

When my boat was hauled out in August 2007, there was extreme fouling in some areas. Two coats of Pettit Hydrocoat were applied in March 2006, and the boat remained in the water during the winter. By March 2007, the growth was slowing the boat. When the water was warm enough to dive, I found several areas badly fouled, including from the waterline to about one foot below all around, the rudder and skeg. I spent two hours scraping the rudder and skeg and around the waterline. Ive been using Hydrocoat for the last six seasons, painting the bottom every other year when hauling out. No significant problems before. My boat requires approximately two gallons of bottom paint. Growth showed only in those areas in which I applied the second gallon of paint. I told Pettit that what concerned me was that everything indicates that the second gallon of paint failed. Because of that, I now have to haul out the boat, scrape the bottom, sand the bad paint, and repaint. If a bad batch of Hydrocoat is the cause, I feel Pettit should provide me with an adequate remedy.

I want to be able to tell how discharged my batteries are in order to maintain them properly (not let them discharge below 50 percent of their capacity). Im dealing with deep-discharge batteries ("house" and for trolling motors). Relying on sources such as Nigel Calders books, Im told that the approximate voltages corresponding to 100 percent, 75 percent, 50 percent, 25 percent, and 0 percent of a batterys capacity are 12.65 volts, 12.45 volts, 12.25 volts, 12.1 volts, and 11.9 volts, respectively. However, contradicting those figures, the standard for measuring ampere-hours (Ah) is based on how long it takes a battery, providing a standard flow of current, to drop to 10.5 volts. This would mean that the battery is 1.4 volts lower than when its considered discharged to 0 percent (according to Calder). Whats the difference in meaning between the 11.9 and 10.5 volts?

A basic survey of mainsail slide and car systems ran in our Feb. 1, 2005 issue. Product reviews ran in the June 15, 1996 and Jan. 15, 1997 issues. You might consider a solution that is often recommended by Carol Hasse, owner of Port Townsend Sails, in Port Townsend, Wash.: a Tides Marine Strong Track (http://www.tidesmarine.com/) system with a Schaeffer Battslide (http://www.schaeffermarine.com/) receptacle, which allows you to adjust the batten [IMGCAP(1)]tension at the luff. The Strong system isn't as slippery as some of the slides with bearings, but its plenty slick and lots cheaper. Hasse says shes found that, in the long term, the Strong system maintains its slipperiness better than bearing-types. Port Townsend Sails specializes in building serviceable, durable sails for cruisers. The Strong System and Battslide have gotten favorable reviews from readers and contributing editors in the field. We will begin a new series on mainsail handling systems in our December issue with a look at the Dutchman (http://www.mvbinfo.com/).

Two years have passed since I stepped into the oversized editorial shoes at Practical Sailor, and it is a good time to deliver a status report to the most valuable stakeholders in all of this: the subscribers. Now going on 33 years of publication, Practical Sailor is one of the longest-running North American sailing publications. It has for more than three decades been one of Belvoir Media Groups flagship publications and one of its most popular. It is the only no-advertising sailing magazine that tests and evaluates boats and sailing gear. Its contributors range of experience is vast. Its readers are brilliant and immune to flattery.

I have a keel bolt issue with my 1981 Freedom 33. To bolt the keel to the hull, Freedom set stainless J bolts into the mold and then cast the keel around it. While I was trying to torque one of the six keel bolts (5/8-inch), it sheared off. The rest seem fine. As much as 100 foot-pounds of torque, and repeated hammer blows have not had any effect on them. However, I plan to install multiple sister bolts to be safe. Here is how: Drill bolt holes within a few inches of the old ones, then fill them with fresh water. Drill a small-diameter hole horizontally, from the outside, to intersect the bolt hole. When that "pilot hole" is in the right location, the water in the new bolt hole will run out of the pilot hole.

We subjected some volunteer bare feet (and the individuals to whom they are attached) to the same test used in the comparison of mens and womens athletic-style boating shoes (June and July 2007, respectively). On average, bare feet gripped as well as the top performers in our shoe test: Bare feet lost grip at a 35-degree angle on fiberglass (wet and dry) and 40 degrees on teak (wet and dry). We suspect the "grippiness" of bare feet can vary greatly according to each individual, so these conclusions probably cannot be applied broadly. Several readers also inquired about other style boat shoes, including sandal-style and the familiar Sperry Topsider moccasin style. We will compare those in future tests.

One Practical Sailor contributor, the manager of a custom boatbuilding and repair/refit yard, had this reply: "Not all filters are created equally: There are differences from filter to filter. We see no problem using after-market filters whose reputations are proven: brand names such as Fram (makes filters for Honda, Chrysler, and others), NAPA, Wix (Wix actually manufactures NAPAs Silver and Gold series filters), Fleetguard (owned by Cummins Filtration), and Baldwin to name a few.

Weve gotten a lot of interesting responses to our sunblock test, including a correction from a chemist pointing out that our description of potions that rely on physical blockers as sunscreens "don't have any chemicals" was inaccurate.

There is a lot of dispute about the benefits of diesel-electric propulsion over traditional diesel, and comparable numbers are hard to come by. Could you arrange a test? Diesel-electric benefits in charging house batteries and powering the fridge are obvious, but propulsion is less so. What I would like to see is a chart of the kinetic energy of each system in the X-axis, and in the Y-axis, consumed fuel. That ratio should be the value that counts. Of course, a range of appropriate propellers would also have to be tested.