Luxury Yacht & Speed Boat

Archive for the ‘Maintenance And Technical’ Category

Heavy ground tackle makes for sound sleeping, but when it’s time to weigh anchor, it can be a pain unless you have a windlass to do the heavy lifting. Fortunately for our lower backs, there are windlasses sized to fit any boat and no reason not to have one aboard as an unpaid hand.

When properly installed, a windlass requires minimal maintenance.Here’s what you need to know.

First, rinse the windlass thoroughly after every voyage to wash off the salt, let it dry, and cover it. (Many anchor lockers are now equipped with the quick-connect-type freshwater connections for rinsing.) Read the rest of this entry »

A portable oil-changer is basically a five- gallon plastic bucket with a pump mounted on top; the pump sucks up old lube oil through a cocktail-straw-size tube via the dipstick hole and dumps it into the pail.

I used one of these for a couple of years on my GM-powered Hatteras, and it worked fine, albeit slowly—very slowly. If you’re talking twin engines plus gears, plus a genset, pack a lunch when you change your oil, because you’re going to be there a while.

A better solution is to invest in a built-in oil-change system, comprising a reversible electric pump and a manifold of valves plumbed to your engine crankcases, trans­missions, and genset. You pump the used oil into a container, and then move the exhaust hose into a five-gallon pail of fresh oil (where it now becomes the supply hose), re­verse the pump, and refill. The oil is quickly pumped out and in via the oil pan drain, rather than through the dipstick tube. You’ll also have to find a place to dispose of the old oil properly—ask your marina manager or even your dockmates for their advice.

Reverse, X-Change-R, and Jabsco sell oil- change systems to suit multi-engine setups. Installation is straightforward, but drains each engine before pulling the oil-pan plug, or you’ll have an EPA-size cleanup job. I’d bite the bullet and pay the yard—its mechanics are skinnier.