Ask Sail

Jim Liggett of Cornish, New Hampshire, asks:”I am installing a lightning- ground system and plan to use a 5/8in rod extending at least 6in above my VHF antenna. Does it matter whether the pointed rod is solid copper or can it be copper-coated steel, as is often used for grounding rods on shore? If the steel rod will work equally well, is there a good way to keep the tip

Robert Miller of Port Isabelle, Texas, asks:”If I don’t bother to clean my radome when it gets covered with dried salt spray, dirt and dust, will that have any effect on the efficiency of my marine radar antenna?” Gordon West replies:It could be significant, which is why you should always keep your radome as clean as possible. Soot, dust,

Steve Karas of Spring Grove, Pennsylvania, asks:”My 1985 Catalina 27 is in good shape except for some tiny spider cracks in the foredeck gelcoat. The previous owner tried to repair the cracks by drizzling loose gelcoat into them, but the repaired deck looks worse than it did before.I had to sand it all down—losing the non-slip prism deck pattern in the process—and then I

Henry Meyer of Chicago, Illinois asks:”I’m thinking about getting a satellite radio receiver so I can download all the marine weather products that are available these days. But I’m curious: Will I have to mount one of those softball-sized antennas above my deck?”Gordon West replies:Before you do anything about mounting the antenna, first

Gene Cramer of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, asks:”Where can I get a galvanic isolator of the sort you mentioned in your excellent piece on wiring a boat for shore power? Also, the circuit you described in that piece doesn’t seem to provide ground-fault protection either for the battery charger or for other branch loads, such as the water heater, which would be hard-wired to the

Karl Westman of Ocean City, New Jersey, asks:”Is it all right to use magnetic headings on my chartplotter to adjust a new compass?”Tim Bartlett replies:In theory, definitely not. But in practice I’d have to give you a very guarded “maybe.” The problem, of course, is that your heading is the direction your boat is pointing in. Your

Mark Karwowski of San Francisco, California, asks:”Recently we had trouble starting the diesel engine aboard our Nordic 40. Although all the lights and other electrical equipment aboard worked fine, whenever I touched the starter button, the starter motor hesitated at first then sped up. We checked the batteries and found that they were eight years old, so we decided to

Dragonfly is a sweet 1983 Bristol 35.5, based in Marblehead, Massachusetts. She still sports most of her original deck gear and the old Merriman genoa lead cars and tracks, while still functional, had seen better days. Owner Tim Sheehy sails shorthanded and wants to get the best performance out of his new suit of North sails, so he decided to upgrade to Lewmar sliding bolt track and

Your mast is back in the boat—or it may have been there all winter—the shrouds are tuned, the engine is checked, and all the battens are in the sails. You are ready for your first sail of the season. Without doubt, many boatowners follow this path, but if you’re one of them, be ready to act quickly if a piece of gear holding the mast suddenly fails and the rig begins to

As part of my hybrid-propulsion research I have been looking carefully at large-capacity Litihum-Ion batteries as a possible energy source on modern cruising sailboats. Lithium-ion batteries are common in cell phones and laptops, but they are rarely used in higher capacity applications. This may rapidly change, because the hybrid automotive and electric vehicle markets are in