Projects

The All-Purpose Impeller Puller

by Nigel Calder, Posted November 19, 2008

My brother was hanging upside down, peering through a 9-inch square cutout in a bulkhead at the raw-water pump housing on his 3-cylinder Yanmar marine diesel. “How the heck do you get the impeller out of there?” he asked me.This is a very good question. Removing an impeller is something that should be done on a regular basis; Yanmar recommends replacing the impeller on this particular

Honda Engines Ready for 2010 EPA Standards

by Sail Staff, Posted September 9, 2008

Honda Marine’s full line of current production models can meet the rigorous emissions standards set forth by a new EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) standard introduced Thursday, according to a company announcement."The EPA's new exhaust standards are based on those currently set forth by California Air Resources Board (CARB) 2008 marine regulations," said John Fulcher, senior manager,

Spare-Parts Counter

by Sail Staff, Posted August 28, 2008

Carry the spares that keep critical systems runningBy Don CaseyOur multi-year cruise was still mostly in front of us when our Yanmar diesel engine uncharacteristically refused to answer my call for more revolutions. We reached our next port on reduced rpm, and the following morning the engine would start, but not keep running. When an otherwise mechanically sound

Fuel and Water Don't Mix

by Sail Staff, Posted August 27, 2008

This wasn’t the first VHF call I had taken from someone seeking advice for an onboard problem, and the caller was clearly distraught. He had accidentally filled his diesel tank with fresh water. To make matters worse, when he tried to start the engine, fresh water had been sucked through the fuel system. Always interested in a challenge, I went over to his boat. Together we fixed the problem

Ready for Sea

by Sail Staff, Posted August 25, 2008

Simply hoping that your rig is trouble free is not a good strategy, says Chris LabYou need to keep up to date on the condition of your standing and running rigging, both before you launch in the spring and continually throughout the season. Your rig is an integrated system, and anything that happens to any part of it can quickly turn your sailboat into a slow-moving

Geezer Think Smart

by Chip Lawson, Posted August 25, 2008

Making sailboats easier to handle (“Sailing for Geezers,” September 2007) apparently touched a responsive chord. Here are more improvements I’ve made on my 30-year-old Pearson 40 to make it easier and safer for me to handle. Since I’m approaching 60 years of age, easier also equals fun. The Geezer mainsail reefStaying in the cockpit when the wind is building is a

Charging Into the Future

by Nigel Calder, Posted August 22, 2008

For the past 30 years, lead-acid batteries have always been the principal limiting factor in the design of high-capacity DC systems for sailboats. Over the years a number of technologies have been developed that attempt to circumvent this roadblock—NiCad, nickel metal hydride (NiMH), lithium ion (LiI), fuel cells—but none has had sufficient life expectancy at a price affordable enough to be

Rigged!

by Sail Staff, Posted August 22, 2008

Castaway gets a new sparFor the last two years we’ve been involved in the full refit of Castaway, a 1978 Ericson 34T. We recapped the story of this BoatWorks Bailout project in the January issue, and now the boat is at last in the water. Any old-boat project runs into some kinks, and we hit a literal kink with Castaway when the mast was found to be so badly

Adding Mast Pulpits

by Peter Dubler, Posted August 21, 2008

Call me old-fashioned, call me daring, call me crazy, but I prefer not to have my cockpit full of lines that have been led aft. I enjoy going forward and working at the mast. It hasn’t always been that way. During my first crossing from Isla Mujeres, Mexico, to the Dry Tortugas off Florida many years ago as crew on an Irwin 38, each trip forward was a crawl on my hands and knees. Oh, how I

Coil with the Sun

by Tom Cunliffe, Posted August 21, 2008

In general, a line is happier and therefore behaves better if you coil it in a clockwise direction. Any three-strand line will try to kink up if you force it the other way. A multibraid line may be able to go in either direction, but the habit of right-handed coiling should be so ingrained that you couldn't do it counterclockwise if you wanted to. Old-time sailors called it "coiling against the