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By examining spark plugs, you can learn a lot about whats going on in a gas engine, whether its an inboard Atomic 4 or your dinghy outboard. Monitoring the look and smell of your exhaust and paying attention to the sounds you hear underway are the best everyday barometers, but the state of your plugs when you change them is revealing.

- Oily plugs.These are your best indicators that something deserves attention. If the plugs are wet with oil it means that oil is entering the combustion chamber. The blow by could come from worn piston rings, valve seats, or perhaps the head gasket. It might also point the finger at faulty timing. In a two-stroke engine, oily residue can indicate a fuel mixture that contains too much oil. An oily plug is a sign to heed.

- Burned, pitted plugs.The insulator tip is gray, and you may see other signs of heat deformation. The engine has been running too hot due, perhaps, to a too-lean fuel mixture. Also check your cooling system, especially the thermostat if the engine has one.

- Normal plugs. If the plugs before you are dry and free from carbon deposits, and if the insulator tips are tinged with tan or slightly brown and there is very little pitting of the electrodes, it is a sign that your engine is running well.

For more than 1,000 tips, suggestions, evaluations, and nuggets of hard-won advice from more than 300 seasoned veterans, purchase Sailors' Secrets: Advice from the Masters today!

When it comes to marine cleaners, theres no end to the choices available - as it should be, since theres seemingly no end to the things aboard a sailboat that need cleaning. Beyond the essential and multi-purpose cleaners, there are specialty products: cleaners designed to tackle specific tasks - like removing grime from fenders, fogging from plastic window, or grease from the engine room - and green cleaners, those designed to have little or no impact on the environment.

It often seems that this whole boat-cleaner craze is getting out of hand. These days, the shelves of marine chandleries are crowded with specialty cleaners. Practical Sailor has tested many of these products and come to the conclusion that a mild solution of biodegradable boat soap and some elbow grease is often all that is needed. However, when it comes to deep cleaning, or attacking stubborn stains, a specialty cleaner is sometimes worth the modest expense and can save a great deal of time. The good thing about using a specialty cleaner is that it is designed to clean but not harm the target surface.

To help you determine which specialty products are worth adding to your cleaning arsenal, Practical Sailor has put together a downloadable ebook entitled SPECIALTY MARINE CLEANERS. In it, youll find information on maintenance products for tasks above the waterline, cleaning sails and ropes, degreasing, reviving inflatable dinghies and fenders, and those that will suit the eco-conscious sailor.

To help you determine which specialty products are worth adding to your cleaning arsenal, purchase and download Practical Sailor's ebook Specialty Marine Cleaners today!

To read even more about the cleaning and maintenance of all your boating surfaces, buy the entire three-part series for the price of two! Available for purchase and download is Practical Sailor's ebook series, MARINE CLEANERS. This three volume set contains the ebooks GELCOAT MAINTENANCE AND RESTORATION, ESSENTIAL MARINE CLEANERS and SPECIALTY MARINE CLEANERS.

You'll get one complete ebook FREE.

When it comes to maintaining lines, running rigging, ropes and sails, using the right cleaner takes a backseat to using the right cleaning method. Properly maintaining ropes and sails will extend their lives for years, but using the wrong cleaning procedure can weaken their fibers and cause irreparable damage, shortening their lifespan.

In search of definitive guidance on rope cleaning, we turned first to manufacturers for advice. Although the advice varied in some details, all agreed on the following points.

- Wash only with a very mild detergent. For relatively new ropes, this means something like Woolite or a half-dose of a modern laundry detergent. For the first few years, ropes still contain thread coatings and lubricants from the factory that provide an easy hand, as well as offer some protection from UV radiation, abrasion, and water absorption. Washing a new rope in a cleaner touted as a degreaser will harm this protective coating. After several years, when these lubricants have clearly been washed away by rain and worn off by normal use, ordinary laundry detergents at ordinary doses are acceptable.

- Wash on the gentlest cycle. The rope should be tightly coiled or tied in a daisy-chain, and then place inside a pillowcase. Without coiling or daisy-chaining, a rope can turn into an impressive tangle. The pillowcase further restricts the motion of the rope and prevents the rope from wrapping around the central agitator.

- Avoid contact with acids, bases, and solvents. Both polyester and nylon (polyamide) are vulnerable to certain chemicals, so manufacturers broadly warn against using them.

- Fabric softener at recommended doses is approved.

- Power washing is not recommended. While it can be an effective method for cleaning marine growth from mooring pendants and dock lines, a power washer in the hands of an inexperienced operator can do significant damage.

- Bleach is not recommended by any manufacturer in any quantity.

- Hot water is not a problem. Nylon and polyester are undamaged at normal water-heater temperatures (120 to 135 degrees).

- Dont dry with heat. The rope should be flaked loosely on the floor and left to dry.

To help you determine which cleaning methods and products are best for your lines as well as other specialty products that are worth adding to your cleaning arsenal, purchase and download Practical Sailor's ebook Specialty Marine Cleaners today!

To read even more about the cleaning and maintenance of all your boating surfaces, buy the entire three-part series for the price of two! Available for purchase and download is Practical Sailor's ebook series, MARINE CLEANERS. This three volume set contains the ebooks GELCOAT MAINTENANCE AND RESTORATION, ESSENTIAL MARINE CLEANERS and SPECIALTY MARINE CLEANERS.

You'll get one complete ebook FREE.

Sails arent cheap, and it makes sense to maintain them just as you would maintain a diesel engine or a set of winches. Sails should be inspected, mended, and washed every year, either by you or a sailmaker - that depends on price, DIY expertise, and the amount of room you have for the project.

You can clean most sails yourself, but its a chore that can be cumbersome and time-consuming. Here are some best practices and cleaning and storage tips worth following.

With a few notable exceptions, modern sailcloth is impervious to all normally encountered chemicals. (This means they will not lose strength. They can still stain.) The exceptions:

1. Kevlar and Nylon, which are both extremely sensitive to chlorine (bleach). Kevlar and Nylon sails should never be washed with any cleaner containing any amount of chlorine, or rinsed in a swimming pool.

2. Laminated sails. The adhesive can be softened by acetone, MEK, and similar powerful solvents, as well as protracted immersion in petroleum-based chemicals like gasoline and diesel fuel.

Although ordinary Dacron (polyester) sails are not weakened by most chemicals, it is best to use the mildest cleaner that will get the job done. Remember that some threads used in stitching may be more vulnerable to strong chemicals than the actual sail material.

To help you determine which cleaning methods and products are best for your lines as well as other specialty products that are worth adding to your cleaning arsenal, purchase and download Practical Sailor's ebook Specialty Marine Cleaners today!

To read even more about the cleaning and maintenance of all your boating surfaces, buy the entire three-part series for the price of two! Available for purchase and download is Practical Sailor's ebook series, MARINE CLEANERS. This three volume set contains the ebooks GELCOAT MAINTENANCE AND RESTORATION, ESSENTIAL MARINE CLEANERS and SPECIALTY MARINE CLEANERS.

You'll get one complete ebook FREE.

Sailors - cruising sailors in particular - are famously thrifty. When each saved dollar translates to another mile voyaging, the incentive to save is pressing.

In the spirit of maritime thrift (if there isn't such a term, there should be), Practical Sailor editors did a little research and decided to concoct our own homemade grease cleaner. Recipes for homemade degreasers abound, and most of them have two key ingredients mixed in water: a surfactant to loosen surface tension between the water and oil (dishwashing detergent will work), and a high-alkaline solution to loosen the grease (ammonia is the most common choice for this). Many recipes suggest boosting the cleaning power with hot water, no surprise since this is an element in nearly all commercial degreasing processes.

The recipe we settled on was one of several we found on www.tipnut.com: lemon-scented ammonia, hot water, and Dawn dishwashing liquid. We filled an empty liquid dish detergent bottle half full with household cleaning ammonia, then topped it off with hot water. We then added a few squirts of Dawn dishwashing detergent.

A half-gallon of lemon-scented ammonia set us back $1.89, the Dawn was borrowed from the galley. We didnt have a spray top like the degreasers in our test, but we could have bought one for less then the money we saved.

Practical Sailor matched the homemade remedy against the top two performers in the grease testing - Krud Kutter Degreaser/Stain Remover and Mary Kate Grease Away Engine Degreaser. Practical Sailor tried the trio of cleaners on a variety of greasy surfaces, ranging from windows, stoves, and grills, to our fiberglass test panels. The tester followed the same general procedure as he did for the degreaser test, using small clean rags and comparing the amount of grease each picked up.

In the first test, all three cleaners did a decent job of removing the thin layers of grease from smooth surfaces (windows and countertops). When it came to cleaning grills and other tough grease stains, the homemade cleaner also did a very good job - as good as Mary Kate Grease Away Engine Degreaser. However, it was obvious that Krud Kutter worked faster than both the Mary Kate and the homemade blend. The stuff works really well.

Bottom line:The ammonia-water-Dawn cleaner was effective (the ammonia was 3-cents per ounce) but was very difficult to work with due to the high ammonia content. If you can stand the eye- and throat-burning ammonia, go for it. If youve got a really tough job on your hands, Practical Sailors Best Choice is still the Krud Kutter.

To help you determine which cleaning methods and products are best for your lines as well as other specialty products that are worth adding to your cleaning arsenal, purchase and download Practical Sailor's ebook Specialty Marine Cleaners today!

In it, youll find information on maintenance products for tasks above the waterline, cleaning sails and ropes, degreasing, reviving inflatable dinghies and fenders, and those that will suit the eco-conscious sailor.

To read even more about the cleaning and maintenance of all your boating surfaces, buy the entire three-part series for the price of two! Available for purchase and download is Practical Sailor's ebook series, MARINE CLEANERS. This three volume set contains the ebooks GELCOAT MAINTENANCE AND RESTORATION, ESSENTIAL MARINE CLEANERS and SPECIALTY MARINE CLEANERS.

You'll get one complete ebook FREE.

Choosing a Bottom Paint for Dummies

It's easy enough to choose the most effective paint from our semi-annual bottom paint reports, but that paint might not always be the best for your circumstances or location. For this reason, Practical Sailor always recommends a variety of paints, each suited for a specific preference or situation that a sailor might face.

Unless youre prepared for more prep work than a light sanding, the first step in selecting a bottom paint is finding one thats compatible with whats on your hull now. All of the manufacturers in our test will provide guidance on this, either over the phone or on the company website. If youre voyaging internationally, Interlux (under the brand International Paints) offers the widest distribution, simplifying finding a match.

Generally, you can repaint a hard paint with either a hard or soft paint, while a soft ablative paint will need more sanding or a tie-coat primer when being coated with a hard paint. Bare fiberglass or metal will require a primer, and aluminum components like saildrives need a special copper-free paint that wont induce potentially disastrous galvanic corrosion.

Before plunking down nearly $100 or more a gallon, consider where your priorities lie.

Simple application: With no unpleasant solvents, water-based paints are easy and safe to apply.

The environment: Driven by new and pending legislation regulating copper, this is a fast-growing field. In recent tests, the copper-free blends from Epaint have proven the most effective. This is good news for owners of aluminum boats, which are incompatible with most copper-laced paints.

No paint buildup: Over time, ablative paints wear away; hard paints generally form thick layer cakes.

Quick recoating: Hard paints can take a second coat sooner than ablatives, although some of the newer co-polymer ablatives can be recoated after four hours or less. Thin-film Teflon paints for racing boats can dry in a matter of minutes.

Haulout schedules: Some paints (typically hard paints) lose their effectiveness if not launched within a certain time frame, or if the boat is hauled out and then relaunched without painting. Some paints you need to lightly sand or scuff to reactivate before relaunching.

Trailerability: Some ablative paints are designed to resist abrasion from trailering and wont lose their effectiveness during prolonged periods out of the water. Most hard paints will trailer well, but not all are meant to dry out.

Color: Pettit Vivid, Interlux Trilux, and Blue Water Kolor offer broad palette choices. Typically, the low-copper paints (Epaint being an exception) offer more color choices. If potency is what you're after, some makers suggest black, although our panel studies are inconclusive regarding this. Some brands (such as Pettit) put a little more copper in some of their red paints.

For more tips and advice on the care and maintenance of your sailboat, purchase Boat Maintenance: The Essential Guide to Cleaning, Painting, and Cosmetics today!

Many owners whose boats have cockpit-mounted stereo speakers are totally unaware that they can admit sea water at the rate of almost 1,000 gallons per minute if deluged by a 1-foot wave on deck.

Here's how to calculate the potential danger: Q = 3,600 (A) (H) in which Q is gallons per minute, A is the area of the hole in square feet and H is the height of water over the hole in feet measured to the lowest part of the hole.

The calculation for 1,000 gallons per minute is predicated on two speakers, each having a 5" diameter hole. The area of a circle is Pi x R2. The diameter is 5" or .417 feet. Half of .417 is .208, so the math is:3,600 x 3.14 (.208X.208) x 1= 489 GPM, per speaker.

It is not uncommon to have more than a foot of water on deck. Sea water weighs 8.6 pounds per gallon, so one would get more than four tons of water below per minute with 1' high waves washing through blown-out speaker cones.

Fortunately, it is relatively easy to install deck plates over existing speaker holes. ABI and Perko make chrome-plated, cast bronze deck plates with screw-in centers in 5" and 6" sizes. Beckson has plastic 4" and 6" screw-in deck plates.

I bolt the deck plate through the speaker structure and a 3/4" thick plywood backing plate. Half-inch long screws hold the speaker (generally without the decorative grill) to the backing plate behind the fiberglass cockpit side. A black fiberglass window screen glued to the front of the backing plate makes an attractive speaker grille and will not corrode. With deck plates covering speaker apertures, one can enjoy music on good days while maintaining watertight integrity in heavy weather.

For additional tips on securing your deck, purchase out Bill Seiferts Offshore Sailing, 200 Essential Passagemaking Tips today!

Damage in severe storms is nearly unavoidable. Securely moored vessels are frequently harmed by skyrocketing debris and by those boats less securely moored. Storm surge can wreak havoc on even the best prepared boats. But it is possible to minimize the destructive forces of a hurricane through prudent planning, proper techniques, and appropriate equipment. The first step - planning ahead - is often the most important.

Make a Plan

Uncrowded marinas well inland may offer safety, but those vulnerable to storm surge are a poor choice of refuge. Insurance data indicates that hauling the boat and securing it ashore increases the odds of survival, but you need only look at what Hurricane Ivan wrought on Grenada in 2004 to know dry storage in a boatyard presents its own risks.

If hauling, ensure that your boat is securely tied down and supported with multiple jackstands. Ideally, the yard should be well inland, roomy, and well managed. Tightly packed boats and hasty haulouts can lead to shortcuts (like leaving furling gear on) that put your boat and neighbors at risk. Unstepping the mast and tying it down lessens the risk of wind damage.

Bob Adriance, the technical director at BoatU.S., says: "If a marina gets hit by a hurricane, its very difficult to minimize the damage if a boat is in the water." Several owners of boats in Southwest Florida survived the devastating 2005 storm season by moving upriver and using homemade hurricane moorings in isolated spots.

The reality is that in most localities, the majority of sailboats will remain in the water-docked or moored-during hurricanes. If a marina or dock is your only option, see if it is possible to move into a larger slip prior to the storms onset. Securing boats to more distant pilings and cleats means that they will have greater latitude to move and can rise and fall with the surge more safely. Adriance and his colleagues also advise using much larger-diameter lines for docking in these situations, and they recommend using long lines tied to secure fixtures well away from the boat to accommodate storm surge. Centering the boat in a canal is one tactic that many sailors used to survive the Florida blows.

Whether youll be keeping your boat at the dock, on shore, or moored elsewhere, its imperative that you eliminate windage by removing sails, biminis, dodgers, and other on-deck accessories (barbeque grills, radar radomes, etc.). Adriance also recommends unstepping your mast if at all possible. This, he says, is critical for boats kept on shore.

For additional tips on storm preparation, purchase out Bill Seiferts Offshore Sailing, 200 Essential Passagemaking Tips today!

Line Choices

Simple common sense tells you that increasing the number of dock lines means decreasing the chances that a boat will break loose. In the case of Hurricane Fran in 1996, a BoatU.S. catastrophe team that visited the landfall site in North Carolina estimated that as many as 50 percent of the boats damaged could have been saved by using more and better dock lines. The team collectively specified the need for lines that were longer, larger, arranged more sensibly, and better protected against chafe. This information appears in BoatU.S.s publication "The Boaters Guide to Preparing Boats & Marinas for Hurricanes," a useful, 12-page booklet available at www.boatus.com. What you wont find there is exactly what kind of line to use.

Practical Sailor investigated nylon line, and after breaking several used docklines (some as old as 12 years), testers found that some of the lines broke at one-third their ratings when new. This is due to UV degradation as well as the wear and tear of load cycling. Testers also determined that larger-diameter lines are definitely better. They have more mass to withstand chafe longer, and surging waters can move a boat so violently that dock lines stretched over a chock or rail will create sufficient heat to begin melting the fibers internally. The larger the line, the less stretch and the less chance of internal melting.

Line experts at New England Ropes recommended three-strand nylon line for its elasticity (to absorb dynamic loading), toughness, and the ability to withstand physical abuse. Other studies have suggested joining nylon and polyester line in the same tether. Their argument: Nylon absorbs dynamic loading better, but polyester line (like Dacron) has shown better abrasion resistance and is less liable to heat-related failure.

The authors of one study conducted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on line chafe suggest connecting nylon and polyester ropes via eye splices in each, with the polyester portion leading through a chock or over the rail to the connecting splice. Anyone taking this approach should factor in roughly a 10-percent drop in line strength due to that splice. (Knots diminish line strength even more. Practical Sailor tests indicate that bowlines reduce line strength at the knot by about 30 percent.)

With due care to splices, chafe gear, and unions, adding a polyester tether to cope with inevitable chafe points is viable. In Practical Sailors view, however, conservatively sized, new-or lightly used-high-quality, three-strand nylon line and superior chafing gear are a suitable, cost-effective, and practical means of securing to fixed points ashore during a storm. To reduce elasticity or increase chafe protection, increase line size.

Although three-strand nylon line has excellent elasticity, it is likely that a snubbing device to absorb shock loading will lengthen the lines lifespan. There are numerous products on the market that have been developed to do that: Shockles and Bungy Schock Absorbers are among those products reviewed in the past by Practical Sailor testers.

These products are generally designed to absorb some of the line strain in normal docking and anchoring conditions, and although we have load tested a few of them to their useful maximum, we have not used them in actual storm conditions. While some of the more rugged units should help reduce chafe and heat build-up in the early parts of a storm, they would likely break or stretch beyond their useful limit in a storm. Again, any knots or splices will weaken a system. A relatively new entry into the field are lines with integrated snubbers, such as those sold by Synergy Marine. Synergy offers braided polyester dock lines from half-inch to 1-inch diameters. The shock absorber is simply a section of bungee cord that is inserted during the braiding process. Practical Sailor has yet to test this product.

Ultimately, the best storm strategy regarding dock lines is to make sure you keep new lines on hand for heavy-weather applications. Go with the largest diameter that your boats cleats or deck fittings will accommodate, maximize chafe protection, and double up on each line.

For additional information on maintaining healthy dock lines, purchase Bill Seifert's Offshore Sailing, 200 Essential Passagemaking Tips today!

How To Help Your Boat Survive A Major Storm

Lack of proper preparation is the major cause of boat damage in a storm. Theres no excuse for that type of loss. What can you do to reduce your risk?

Know Your Ground Tackle

Is your mooring really a 1,000-pound mushroom with 3/4-inch chain? It may be worth hiring a diver to find out, preferably before a storm threatens. Likewise, all shackles, chains, and mooring pennants should be examined at least once a season to make sure they are in good shape. If the condition of any component of the system is questionable, replace it. If your insurance adjuster sees a corroded through piece of chain or a mooring pennant that is badly worn, he may well be reluctant to approve your claim in case of loss.

In crowded harbors, permanent moorings may lack adequate scope to deal with the high tides associated with storm conditions. It may be possible to increase scope for a storm by replacing or lengthening the mooring pennant. Just as with an anchor, the holding power of a permanent mooring is increased by additional scope. Some moorings are equipped with large, inflatable surface buoys. The positive flotation of these buoys may reduce the holding power of the mooring in extreme high tides, so it may be worth removing the buoy before a storm. Just don't forget to replace it before casting off the mooring pennant once the storm is over.

For more advice on preparing your boat for an upcoming storm, purchase out Bill Seiferts Offshore Sailing, 200 Essential Passagemaking Tips today!