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Well, after about 55 years of boating with sailboats and trawlers, I guess I am finally out of boating. Got rid of my trawler, which I was no longer using and which needed more maintenance than I am capable of providing at this point in life. The happiest of those 55 years, I suppose, were the...

I'm thinking of removing the old, bedraggled Sea Dek which is on my boat now and painting the deck with Tuff Coat Marine Paint. Anyone have any experience with this product? The ad's look good, but then ad's always do. John

My canvas Bimini top is getting to the point where it needs to be put into well deserved retirement. I was thinking about getting a new one, but then someone suggested that I might want to try a hard top, such as offered by hardtotop.com I looked at their website, and it looks interesting...

Given the current state of affairs in Florida, I try to stay away from crowded places to the maximum extent possible. But now I need to get a new Bimini top, since my old one, like me, is showing signs of age and coming apart. So what I would like to do is to put the old one in a box, ship it...

This is kind of an unusual post, I suppose, but I tend to do that from time to time. I have a 36-foot trawler, located at St. Marks, Florida, and for health reasons am not able to do all the necessary maintenance work on it which badly needs to be done. Probably somewhere on this forum there...

For reasons that are not particularly important, I have a section of SeaDek which I cannot get up. So I want to just paint over it, since the rest of the deck is going to be painted. Just wanted to see if anyone says that I really, really, absolutely should not do that! Lots of experts on...

My port engine is running hotter than normal. It takes it a while to get there, but get there it does. Sufficient water seems to be coming out of the exhaust, so my thought is that perhaps the internal coolant needs to be flushed and new coolant put in. I don't know how to go about flushing...

I think the time has come for me to order some new shore power cables, since the old ones are not only old and weather-beaten (a pretty good description of myself, actually), but also corroded. The dock pedestal is a 50-amp pedestal, so I need two new 30-amp cables plus a 50-amp to 30-amp...

A friend asked me this question. I didn't know the answer, but told him that I knew a place where I could probably get him a definitive answer. And so I am posting it here. My friend went to the Bahamas back in January (sailboat, but he is a good guy), loved it, and thought about leaving his...

I was at the marina yesterday, working on boat things, when the guy in the slip next to me pulled out and headed off. A transit, slip. But I saw that he had left a 30-amp shore power cable lying curled up on the dock, so I called him on the VHF and told him that he had left his shore power...

This is kind of a long shot question, but nothing ventured nothing gained. I am thinking of moving my boat from St. Marks up the Apalachicola River as far as Lake Seminole. The reason for moving is that it needs a lot of cosmetic work, and this would put it close to me, so that I could work...

I got in the clamp meter which I ordered, and plan to go down to the marina tomorrow and do some troubleshooting on the electrical issues on the boat. My first time to use a clamp meter (I only learned about them the other day, when I posted about my electrical problem). So I looked on the...

There are lots of very knowledgeable people on this forum, so I am hoping that someone can volunteer some advice which will help what seems to be a sticky situation. I got a call from the marina the other day, saying that my boat was pulling so much shore power that they had disconnected it...

For reasons that are immaterial I would like to not use the shore power at my marina when I am gone. But I would like to keep a floating charge on the batteries. I was thinking about a solar powered battery charger and wondered if anyone might have some experience/recommendations. Thanks John

My deck, which has SeaDek on it now, badly needs to be redone. I tried to peel up the old SeaDek, but that seems to be pretty much impossible. Some of it comes up but then it tears. So now I have patches where some of the fiberglass deck is exposed. I thought about just putting down new over...

This is just an FYI for anyone who might be interested. The guy who owned the Monk 36 in the wet slip next to me at Shields' Marina in St. Marks, Florida died a few weeks ago. His widow has the boat up for sale. I know nothing about it other than that it is a nice-looking boat, but I'll just...

Anyone have an idea where I can order a Speedseal cover for a Perkins 4-236 engine??? Thanks, John

I bought this boat in 2012, with thoughts of cruising. The previous owner had made many trips to the Bahamas with it. His description of it when I bought it can be found on the Trawler Forum here http://www.trawlerforum.com/forums/s9/creampuff-36-gulfstar%2A%2Asold%2A%2A-5372.html...

Recently the 8D and the 4D on my Gulfstar decided that perhaps they should move on to the next higher plane in life. Meaning that they died. So I replaced them with six 6-volt golf cart batteries (the old geezer cannot lug those 8Ds around these days as well as he used to be able to do!). I...

This is just a curiosity question. My sister and her husband stayed at Spanish Cay night before last, or perhaps the night before that, and she said that there were several sharks swimming around the boat (which made her disinclined to go swimming). Just wonder if anyone might know what...

Interesting article in the NY Times today about the Great Loop. Link is https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/22/magazine/an-improbable-6000-mile-boat-trip-around-the-east-coast.html?hpw&rref=magazine&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well

If any of you in the Melbourne area happen to see my brother-in-law single handing his 40' Mainship ("Harmony," out of Wilmington,N.C,) down the ICW, give him a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY shout. He turns the big Seven Oh today. No better way to be celebrating it than heading south :)

The time has come to do some work on the outside of my old boat, since the varnish looks like something which the cat drug in and the kittens refused. Lots of old curling varnish to get up, and I am wondering whether to use some stripper or a heat gun. Any advice will be welcome from those of...

Would anyone happen to have the instructional DVD which comes with the Sailrite Ultrafeed LS-1 sewing machine? The "Setup, Use and Maintenance" DVD. I have one, which came with my machine, but cannot seem to find it. I could order a new one from Sailrite, but they are expensive, plus I hope...

Just got my notice that the registration on my 1973 Gulfstar 36 trawler needs to be renewed. Because it is an old boat, the cost for a two-year registration in Florida is only $8.50. Every little bit helps . . . :)