Boat hack; Any trick, shortcut, skill or novelty which increases efficiency on a boat

[LooseGoose]

Add a hose pick, a tack puller and an awl to your toolkit to deal with hose removal. Saves knuckles and a lot of hoses.

[Snore]

In the tool box carry- A surgical too called (I believe) a hemostat - these locking tweezers are great for nuts and bolts that you drop and roll into tiny crevices. Also a dental pick is a handy tool.

Docking? As other said, your home port springs should be set and left at the dock ready for your return.

[swordds]

Many great ideas, a dream boat!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lny6...&feature=share

[Cpt Pat]

My boat is in a cool damp climate on the Northern California coast. Dampness in the cabin can be a year-long issue.

Some skippers use a dehumidifier in the cabin, but to be effective, the cabin needs to be sealed - which only encourages the development of mold.

To keep the humidity below 65%, all one needs to do is keep the cabin temperature 15 degrees F (8 C) above the dew point, and ideally that temperature can track the dew point to save power. And as the outdoor ambient temperature and dew point drop at night, the cabin temperature can be allowed to correspondingly fall with it. You can still maintain passive air circulation to the cabin.

I installed a Honeywell dehumidistat that controls a heater in the cabin. I advise against using any heater that depends on a fan. If the fan fails, the heater can possibly fail catastrophically. Instead, I use an oil-filled convective heater. I set the thermostat on the heater as a temperature limiter.

You can see the cabin temperature, humidity, and dew point in my radio telemetry page here. The sawtooth pattern on the curves is produced by the dehumidistat switching on and off. https://aprs.fi/weather/a/N8QH-9?range=day

[swordds]

I clean and wax my 1973 Alberg 30, exterior fiberglass and interior mahogany, with Zep floor care products. I have been doing this for several years without any problems. I basically follow the instructions on the labels for the stripper, cleaner and high traffic floor polish. I have ignored using the sealer and of course I do not use a buffing pad. Unlike conventional polishing this does not rub off the gel coat. As much as possible I avoid getting the stripper on any finished wood surfaces as it is very powerful and I only use the stripper at most once/year. Anyway, works great for me and I get lots of compliments.

[bcguy]

I use a small, very comfortable kayak life vest with several pockets. One of them is a perfect fit for a portable, float-able vhf radio. Falling overboard with a pfd could still be fatal. The vhf vastly increases your odds of rescue. Couple of hand flares fit in the other pocket, whistle etc . Some water and raisins (have not tried) but would be accommodated.

[bcguy]

Originally Posted by Seattleite

Pasta: Bring water to boil, toss in pasta. Shut off heat. Cover with a lid. Let sit for 15-20 mins. Pasta is cooked.

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by Capt. Hack

When taking wench apart on the boat for cleaning I like to cut a hole the size of the wench . then set it over the one I'm working on. If you drop a little part it drops in the box and not in a crack or the water. Cheap and works well

I'm not sure I want to know about your wench... too much info!

[bcguy]

Put oatmeal and raisins in a bowl. Add boiling water. Cover with a saucer. Optionally, put cut fruit, granola on top of saucer. Wait 6 minutes. Dump optionals in bowl with (now cooked) oatmeal. No need to boil the stuff into a lump of goo. I found large flake (organic if available) fab. But any oatmeal is ok. Quick cooking oatmeal is crap. A German woman sailor admonished all who could hear about destroying oatmeal one day at the dock and showed me "the way".

[bcguy]

Switched to a composting marine head. Use organic material around base of trees or elsewhere near shoreline vegetation for the bin. The fan is 24 hrs. This aerates the unit bin and also pulls air from the boat interior and out. Never go back to thru hulls and holding tanks and boat is always fresh. No odour whatsover from the heads.

[bcguy]

The end of the boom overhangs the main hatch and had become not an in-frequent, bloody DNA collector. Cut a ball in half and secured it over the boom end. Seems a lame "tip" but have received many thanks "geez, glad you had that cover there".

[Simi 60]

Originally Posted by Kit_L

For any doors that rattle in the wind (Greenwell Point's other name is "windy point") a pack of window packing wedges (~$5 at hardware). These hard plastic split wedges come in various thicknesses and can pre-load any rattling panel or door, and in the case of Sea Biscuit, the wheel house sliding doors can be packed from the top when expecting rough seas—the starboard door jumped right off its tracks crossing the Gold Coast bar...

We had that problem and had the wedges but got tired of them dropping out at odd times like 2am and the door rattling again.

I put this in with brush length 2x the gap on front and back edge and it worked well stopping winter wind and rattle




https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Home-Bru...edirect=mobile

Small barrel bolt on top of door frame sliding into door stops door sliding out in seaway as does a bolt stopper at track end.

[Sea Q]

Originally Posted by hellosailor

Most purple grease destroyers are lye based and can do a lot of damage.
There are sprays sold to prevent fogging on glass and mirrors, many products because the chemistry is fairly simple and effective, without the risk of eating any finishes or coatings. Usually sold in tile and bathroom fixture stores.

Any type of spray and shine shower cleaner will do the same job.
way better spray on dry and wipe dry It will leave a barrier coating so it doesn't fog up
PH is lower than a degreaser at around 11 ph I would still be careful of get it on anything other than glass just incase

[Sea Q]

Originally Posted by LooseGoose

Fisheriesupply carries Noflex, the very best holding tank treatment we have ever used. Completely cleared up all associated odor.

plus 2 on the Noflex
For sludge removal and now tank much easier to empty, and fewer odors. This even freed up my tank full sensor gauge that has not worked for a year