WHO - WHERE - HOW - TIPS - TECHNIQUES
This
page is here to help you with the maintenance of your boat. I plan to give
you information about the places that I have taken my boat for maintenance, how
to do maintenance tasks that are "creative" as I have experienced them and any
special tips and techniques that I come across that I think might be of interest
to you. This is a "work in progress" so be patient -- I
will be putting information here periodically
TIP #1
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TIP #2
While having a second throttle cable installed -- the first cable was installed wrong and only lasted one and a half day sails -- I asked the mechanic for any ideas he had that were a little unusual and that he has found handy when working on boat engines.
He ducked into the cabin and came back with a small square of paper towel torn off of a roll from the galley in his hand. He placed a small square of paper towel into the open end of a socket so that the piece of paper lined the sides and bottom of the socket.
The bolt or nut goes into the socket with the paper toweling around the outside of it. The friction provided by the paper towel holds the bolt or nut in the socket when the socket is straight up and down and he cannot get his hand or finger into the space to retain the item. He said this is one of the things he uses a lot when working in tight spaces and most work on boat engines is in tight spaces!
TIP #3
I do not know if this qualifies as a "Tip" but I thought I would put it here as it relates to the above Tip # 2. The first mechanic I had install my boat's throttle cable that had broken from corrosion did the job and it looked okay to me but then what do I know? Not much about stuff like that! I was really pleased with the job at the time as all he charged me was $40.00 an hour. It took 2 hours (it's a time consuming job and I had to help with getting the cables back up into the pedestal). The cable cost $40.00 and I also replaced the shift cable at the same time (another $40.00). All told for just the throttle cable replacement the job cost me about $100.00. Good price except for the fact that the cable was installed wrong and only lasted a very short time as noted above. The cable tip ended up being bent forward against the wheel chain that controls the rudder when the throttle was pushed down to kill the engine.
To get it fixed right I took it to a boat yard mechanic. The cost this time was $96.00 per hour for one hour and a new throttle cable purchased at a 50% discount for $20.00 - sum total of $116.00.
Moral to this story: It pays to get the job done right the first time and the $40.00 an hour was no bargain as I ended up wasting about $100!
Click on the red
sailboat and you will arrive at a web site done by John Kohnen titled "The
Mother Of All Maritime Links". I think it is absolutely amazing and I
suspect you will also find that to be true. I have links to his
site throughout The Sailors Place because the information he provides is
"encyclopedic" and covers so many things a sailor needs to reference.
This site was last updated 10/02/09