Over the last four decades as a wooden sailboat owner, I've purchased and tested countless tools for maintaining my boat. Among them, the 7 products listed below stand out as my favorites. I use these regularly and have frequently recommended them to friends over the years. The images included feature the actual tools I own; if you see a hand in a picture, it's mine.
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Many sailors I know find their boat's electrical system daunting. The very same people who will tinker with practically every mechanical device on their vessel, will for some reason, shy away from the electrical side of things. Perhaps this view is shaped by those salty-dog authors who dismiss electrical systems as new fangled, and prefer stinky kerosene instead. Or perhaps, sailors have forgotten their high-school science, although it is hardly more complicated than Ohm's Law.
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Follow this blog of my struggles with mold and humidity or jump to the end where the data is in. The conclusion is keep all the compartments open an inch, use a StorDry to provide low level heat that promotes air circulation and get lots of air moving through. A couple of nice humidity calculators are included.
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Controlling mold growth on your boat
I saw Dave reading the electrical meters yesterday and we got to talking. He told me that some boat owners are running space heaters 24/7 to control the mold in the cabin. A few years ago I ran a series of experiments to find a way to control the mold on Papoose, my 36 foot wood sloop. The mold was so bad it was literally eating the hats I hung up below. When I opened hatches, water would be dripping from the cover. The boat was wet. This is the shortened version of what I found
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As part of a project on bonding on boats, I have put together this reference to various articles on lightning.
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Lightning strikes a boat with a bonded through hull and it sinks in an hour. See the photographic proof in this short article. Be sure to read the
"Bonding Your Boat"
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The topic of bonding on boats has more myth and misinformation than most any other topic. This article tries to present the reasons to and not to bond so you can decide what to do.
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New sails represent one of the biggest investments you make in your boat. So when getting ready to make that purchase what things should you consider to make sure you get the product that best fits your needs and to insure you spend your money wisely?
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Given the cost of purchasing new sails for your boat these days, some are turning to the used sail market. Here at Pacific Sail Trader we wish to give you the lowdown on how best to do it. Purchasing a sail without seeing it in person is the greatest concern of most buyers. Not being able to actually touch it seems to be the missing sense.
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The ground for my antenna combined with a new lashing of my lifeline to the shroud almost caused the rig to come down.
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In many area calibrating a Knot Meter is a simple matter of setting it to read what the GPS reads. But if your boat is in areas where there are tides, local current can make this method inaccurate.
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How to Calculate the Dimensions of a Wedge Pad for a Foot Block Turning Block. I take into account the distances involved and determine the angles and heights of the bad that goes under the turning block to make the leading angles fair.
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I have not tried this but it looks like it would be a very accurate way to measure rig tension.
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They didn't look very accurate to me until I found out that you have to do a little trick not covered in the instructions. Before that, I got readings at mid scale from two new Loos gauges that differed by 26% or more. See my write up. Now my gauge agrees with what I know to be correct from the measurements discussed in the article.
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I admit it, this is sailing nerdiness at its extreme. When I was a teenager I was a sailmaker at Spencer sails in Huntington New York. That was almost 40 years ago! I used to make the telltales when I worked there. It was always fun bringing pockets full out to customer's boats and giving them away like bringing cake or wine to a visit.
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The replacement of the cockpit drains on Papoose April 2009, the planning, the parts, and the finished result.
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If your present engine is always hard to start, has constantly smoky exhaust, burns or leaks a lot of oil, is low on power, has coolant or water in the oil, or parts are difficult or expensive to acquire, repowering solves ALL these problems.
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Boat Dimensions
BOAT |
I |
J |
P |
E |
| Lapworth 36 |
40.5 |
13.5 |
35.5 |
17.5 |
Click Here
for other boat types
Sail Area Calculations
Mainsail = (P x E) / 2 = 311 sq ft
155% Genoa = (( J x I ) / 2) x 1.65 = 451 sq ft
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Over 900 FREE Manuals
Another generous donation of 84 manuals from the J/109 Class Association brings the total number to over 900 for the L-36 manual collection. Check them out! Donations like this are very much appreciated and help keep L-36.com going.
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Oh the horors of having tape pull up the paint below
Seemed like a simple enough project to paint the deck on my boat. Add some non-skid and repair several years of little cracks where the old non-skid was coming off. It turned into the project from hell when the masking tape pulled off the paint below. In spots it did not pull anything off. In spots it pulled off my fresh paint. In other spots it pulled off 10 years of paint leaving rather deep ridges. In one spot it pulled off all the paint, 60 years worth, all the way to the base cloth. This was a low stick tape. It was not as low stick as the tape I once used so I started looking for more of that tape. I could not find it but I did find a list of tapes and how sticky they are. This is not very easy to find so I thought I would share the results of the several hours I spent online finding this information.
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Gray Marine 4-112
Just a quick reference for owners of Gray Marine engines
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