Mailport: November 2020

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Shredding old Classics

Ralph Naranjo broke my heart with his reference to the 31-foot Tripp Seafarer being sent off to the chipper (see PS October 2020).  This has been my 53rd season sailing that boat’s cousin, a 1961 Seafarer Polaris by Tripp, also built in the Netherlands. Something is wrong with the world when functional sailing vessels are abandoned to the landfill. This summer I encouraged the twenty-something kid next door to buy an old 25-foot Hinterhoeller, a sound vessel that he has put many sailing hours into in this year’s short season. It was inexpensive and he’s already amortized his purchase price having fun.

But Naranjo was right when he identified annual costs as the real issue.  Many of us can do most of our own maintenance. But waterfronts, once industrial sites, are now prized as sites for homes and condos, often occupied by those who want to look over the water, not use it for recreation.  Marinas can be squeezed out and the remaining ones can escalate the cost of dockage and winter storage.  This may be the real crisis for sailing, changing it from an activity for DIY types with limited budgets into one for wealthy status-toy collectors.

Chris Campbell
Traverse City, MI
1961 Seafarer Polaris, Baker’s Dozen

Mailport: November 2020
Reader Michael Tagney nearly lost his one-year-old Mercury RIB at sea when a D-ring
opened (above). He replaced the ring with a stainless steel shackle
D-Ring opens on mercury RiB

I have a Mercury RIB. It’s a year and a half old, hanging on my sailboat’s davits. In rough weather a D-ring opened up and that side drooped down. (It’s not a solid D but one they bent into the supporting fabric patch’s loop.) Happily the other D held and the stern Ds are into solid material. The dinghy is dangling awkwardly, down at forward starboard side with just three points of suspension The US representative for Mercury says there is no warranty on “parts” such as the D ring. That Mercury representative had neither apology nor solution. Nada. The dealer offered no solution other than that I replace the flawed D with a shackle. People should be warned that the Mercury and perhaps other brands have the problem that the D rings open up under pressure. I’ll try the shackle. I suppose I should break apart the other D and put a shackle there also to even the weight distribution and prevent the next failure.

Mailport: November 2020

Michael Tagney
Gozzard 37
Stamford, CT

We have not seen this before and will be following up. In our own experience, it is the glued reinforcement patch that fails. In such cases, patches with pre-fitted D-rings are available to make a repair. If any other readers have had this occur, we’d like to hear from them by email at practicalsailor@belvoir.com. We do not recommend carrying a dinghy on davits while at sea. Many of these davit installations—much less the D-rings on most RIBs—are simply not built to sustain the loads of a breaking wave. The excessive windage also creates problems.

Winter Projects on Tap


Mailport: November 2020

Spring may still seem like a long way off, but the spring will be upon us before we know it. Don’t wait until the last minute to take care of maintenance chores or upgrades you’ve been putting off.

Sail Cleaning

For tips and product recommendations regarding sail cleaning, check out the “Dealing with Dirty Sails” Inside PS blog post and the April 15, 2002 PS Advisor in our online archive.

You’ll also find articles on canvas care (February 2014 issue) in the online archive, and head-to-head product tests of mildew treatments and stain removers (November 2013 issue). If you’re the DIY type, the blog post “Homemade Mildew Preventers that Really Work” offers a recipe for an effective, homemade mildew preventer.

System Upgrades

If you’re adding or upgrading a wind-sensing system, our three-part series on wind instruments and a review of the Maretron ultrasonic wind sensors are must-reads. The series launched in the March 2014 issue, and Part 2 looked at data displays and user interface (May 2014 issue). Part 3 (August 2014) focused on the best system combinations, while PS March 2015 focused on ultrasonic products.

Mailport: November 2020

Pre-season housekeeping is also a good time to check your sanitation system. How are your joker valves holding up (see July 2013 online)? Is the holding tank stench unbearable (see March 2012 and December 2013 online)? Or is it time for a new throne? Check out our tests of electric-flush toilets (February 2011), vacuum-flush toilets (August 2011), and composting toilets (November 15, 2002). If you prefer to have all in one place—rather than searching for them individually online—you’ll like the “Marine Sanitation Systems” two-part ebook series, which is available in the PS online bookstore. Part 1 looks at toilets, while Part 2 examines holding tanks, plumbing, and odor control.

Mailport: November 2020

PS’s Exclusive Ebooks

Our new three-volume water report will ensure that your crew will stay healthy and hydrated with clean, fresh-tasting water straight from your tanks. Volume One compares the most popular water filters on the marine market and describes some cost-saving do-it-yourself options. In Volume Two you’ll learn secrets to ensuring that your water supply remains clean and good-tasting throughout your voyage. In Volume Three, you’ll see the results of our head-to-head testing of the major brands of watermakers sold today. Available at www.practical-sailor.com/products.

Lateral thinking

I have just read Jonathan Reeves’ September 2020 article “Lateral Thinking & Anchors.” In that article he spends a great deal of time on the advantages of two anchors set in a V-shape and on their deployment. Two advantages stand out for the author: diminished yawing and diminished veering. Never is there a mention that a skipper can accomplish both, with far less trouble, by the use of a well-designed riding sail.

One anchor with riding sail (when needed) will also mitigate three other problems with V’d anchors that went unmentioned in the article. The first is that V’d anchors provide a “funnel” channeling boats that drag into a tangle at your bow instead of sliding past (both are ugly to contemplate, but the tangle at the bow is far more dangerous to crew and to boat). The second is that they can be “un-neighborly” as a boat anchored such may swing quite differently than the majority of vessels. Finally, there is the issue of wind shifts often leaving the vessel lying to one anchor anyway or, with a little bad luck, leading to a tangle at the bow that might make difficult or dangerous any attempt to recover an anchor during a night time fire drill.

I believe this advice is generally dangerous, not only for the reasons mentioned above, but for the occasional midnight fire drill where you have to get up and moving with a minimum of fuss.

I do believe that creative lateral thinking is necessary on some anchoring challenges and the author spells out a number of examples. For the vast majority of anchoring situations, I suggest it is safest and easiest that one determine their ground tackle to enable anchoring to one anchor making deployment and retrieval simple, safe, and straightforward.

Dick Stevenson
Valiant 42, Alchemy
Larchmont, NY

We’ve always been strong proponents of single-anchor arrangements, and we can make that clearer in the most recent report. We’ve also recently completed a series of articles on ways to prevent veering at anchor (see “Rest Easy with a Riding Sail,” PS August 2019). In most of our reports on twin anchor systems, we usually include the following advice and have added it to the most current one as well.

 “If you are consistently having problems setting your primary anchor, rather than immediately experimenting with tandem anchors, or other unconventional approaches, we recommend that you review basic practices and consider getting a larger or deeper-setting anchor that better suits your cruising grounds.”

We did load testing on tandem anchor setups that should produce similar outcomes to what we’d find with twin anchors set in a V (See “Tandem Anchoring,” PS August 2016).

The object of that test was to provide a solution for a small boat caught in soft holding ground where no matter what anchor a sailor uses, it might not have enough holding power for the substantial squall on the horizon. We made it pretty clear that such a person should be looking for a better anchor, but this is a challenge in some soft-bottom anchorages like those found in the Chesapeake, where not even an oversized anchor for a 40-footer, much less the small, lightweight anchor for a daysailor, can hold in winds over 20 knots. (See “Anchoring in Squishy Bottoms,” PS December 2014). Interestingly, some naval engineers and the U.S.C.G. Auxilliary recommend a much smaller 10-degree V for hurricanes, which would seem to bring the anchors closer together (http://cms5.revize.com/revize/floridainland/studies_and_information/hurricane_manual/docs/hurricane_manual.pdf ).

Mailport: November 2020

What about Mr. Buddy?

Just read the PS email on heaters and noted that you don’t recommend the Mr. Buddy portable propane heaters. I’ve been using one for some years now with good success. Just curious why you don’t like it? Obviously one has to make sure adequate air is coming into the boat and keep it away from flammables, otherwise it appears perfectly safe to me. What should I be concerned about?

Andrew Burton
Andrew Burton Yacht Services
Newport, RI

We covered this product way back in April of 2005. It performed fine during testing, but the manufacturer was unequivocal about it not being recommended for boats because of the consequences of a propane leak aboard a boat are more serious compared to  more common uses—heating RVs, hunting blinds, or ice-fishing huts. In the PS advisor this month  Drew Frye talks about how little fuel is needed to cause an onboard explosion. We are unaware of any recalls on this unit, but there have been reports of leaks. In light of all this, we can’t recommend this heater for boats.

PS Tester Bristol 35.5 “First Light” Needs New Owner

Mailport: November 2020

There have been a lot of “test boats” floating in and out Practical Sailor’s 45-year history. Former editor Dan Spurr painted the bottom of his C&C 33 in zebra stripes in an early effort to glean bottom paint data. Drew Frye’s multihulls and Ralph Naranjo’s Ericson 41 make often appear in these pages.  

Ted Hood and Dieter Empacher drew the lines for this well-regarded centerboarder—taking after Hood’s successful string of Robins. Bristol crafted our boat just three years after the ink was wet on Practical Sailor’s inaugural issue. Like the many test boats before her, she’s given us a chance to evaluate bottom coatings, roller furlers, a new windlass, mainsail luff track, a new GPS and other odds and ends. Now she is for sale.

Other boats beckon, and our sturdy, all-glass, shoal-draft cruiser with the lustrous interior will find a new port of call and a skipper who’ll love her as we have. For more information, send me an email at Tcole@belvoir.com. I’ll send back a .pdf with a cascade of pictures, specs, inventory, and what we believe to be a fair price.

– Tim Cole, Publisher , Practical Sailor

Darrell Nicholson
Practical Sailor has been independently testing and reporting on sailboats and sailing gear for more than 50 years. Supported entirely by subscribers, Practical Sailor accepts no advertising. Its independent tests are carried out by experienced sailors and marine industry professionals dedicated to providing objective evaluation and reporting about boats, gear, and the skills required to cross oceans. Practical Sailor is edited by Darrell Nicholson, a long-time liveaboard sailor and trans-Pacific cruiser who has been director of Belvoir Media Group's marine division since 2005. He holds a U.S. Coast Guard 100-ton Master license, has logged tens of thousands of miles in three oceans, and has skippered everything from pilot boats to day charter cats. His weekly blog Inside Practical Sailor offers an inside look at current research and gear tests at Practical Sailor, while his award-winning column,"Rhumb Lines," tracks boating trends and reflects upon the sailing life. He sails a Sparkman & Stephens-designed Yankee 30 out of St. Petersburg, Florida. You can reach him by email at practicalsailor@belvoir.com.