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Goodness gracious no! I'm with you! I do not camp out on a boat! If I'm living aboard it is a comfortable place to live. Homey is the word I would use, even on the hardest working tugboat, never mind one's retirement home on the water. I know it's a matter of choice, but come on folks, this is a...

We just repowered an Onan generator with something like 19,000 hours on it. It was still running like a top, but freeze plugs and other circulating water system problems were showing us a failure in the near future. A well maintained and often used (absolutely the most important factor) diesel...

I love inflatable dinghies, but I dislike RIBS. I won't have one. I've always used real inflatable boats with good floorboards, out of wood or aluminum. We are currently on our second Zodiac Mark 1 classic. Our last one lasted nearly ten years of very hard service. It never had a leak, not...

I can't speak for others, but I bought my first liveaboard boat in 1969 and have not been a dirt dweller since. After a circumnavigation under sail, it became my profession, operating just about any sort of vessel including one contract as the master of a small cruise ship. Visiting friends or...

Nothing, absolutely NOTHING beats a Clear View screen! If you absolutely, positively want to see in rain, sleet, snow or seas breaking on the bridge windows, buy a Clear View screen. Period! Clearview | Circular high speed rotating ship marine window wiper | Solarglide

I built my own. First I searched to find a new (2 hours as a test pump @ Cruise RO [Rich is a great source of help, w/o the hard sell]) motor/pump combination for less than half the price of a new one. Then, knowing the pump capability I purchased the membrane and other parts to assemble a 35...

You did not mention which coast of Fla, but perhaps it doesn't matter to my answer. With limited time off and a good income, you will be able to venture much further afield with a faster boat right now. The Keys, Dry Tortugas, and even the Bahamas could be well within your range with a Tiarra...

I don't play golf, but the shoes are great for launching ramps. lol

I know you are not going to like to hear this, but you really need to get an anchor with a much bigger fluke size. Up until now, you have primarily been relying on the weight of your JIS anchor to hold the boat, but now you actually need holding power, and the more the better! A huge plow type...

If she's a twin screw vessel, you really shouldn't need any bow or stern thruster, but given you apparently want one, go for a more expensive bow thruster and don't waste your money on a stern thruster. Controlling the stern is what twin screws are all about! However, the whole secret to...

Rather shoddy science as I'm not sure that the majority of the posts are by owners of composting heads. Also, I'm guessing timing is everything, in this case, like in most, as my wife has told me of three 'ladies who sail' cruisers who have thrown their composting heads in the trash over the...

There's no electrolytic action between copper and silicon bronze (marine bronze), or stainless steel, to speak of. Not that there's much copper in antifouling these days. I've been painting the running gear on vessels of all types, even steel, with antifouling for over 5 decades and I haven't...

I wish you luck, but why not just use that bottom paint? It looks to be doing a very good job. Honestly though, in over 5 decades of messing about with boats, mostly professionally, I haven't found a single thing that actually works, even on boats like sports fishing boats that operate almost...

Coupled a rebuilt engine to my old Onan generator last year and though quite economical, it was a mistake. Being out in the Caribbean, I didn't want to rebuild as shipping of parts would have been very costly, especially considering that you may find you need parts you didn't order, on a daily...

Right around the time I bought my first big liveaboard boat (1969) in the Bay area, we on the yachts became the pollution be all and catch all of the waterways, even though factories and the farming industries upriver were polluting the rivers with some very serious toxins. The CG and local...

Y'all may want to do some research before installing composting toilets these days. It seems the tide is changing on these things. "Subject: Annapolis Harbor Disallows Composting Head Use for Long Term Stays Posted by: Kathy Barth on 9/8/2018 at 10:30 AM View/reply online Reply via email to...

Since you really should have a fuse within 6" of the battery, there should be no connections directly to your batteries before that fuse, other than possibly a battery monitor with its shunt. All the batteries should be connected together as needed, then all other connections should be on a...

Every windlass instruction sheet I have ever read said not to use the windlass to pull the boat to the anchor. They recommend you power up on the anchor and use the engine to power it out of the bottom. If you have not been doing this, then perhaps this is why you need a new windlass. Therefore...

I think it is very important for you to understand that unless you have great gobs of money, you are going to need a lot of knowledge and experience to maintain any bigger boat you intend to go voyaging on. Driving the boat or being captain is the easy part. Changing the oil and fuel filters on...

I would never, ever operate a windlass to pick up my anchor from anyplace other than where I could see the gear coming up! Even if it was raining, snowing or sleeting. The picture below is of a grapnel of about 250# fouled in the chain about halfway between the anchor and the boat's bow. Had we...

Known affectionately as 'Screaming Jimmies' because of their unique and fairly noisy sound, they are one of the simplest and most reliable diesel engines ever produced. 71 is the number of cubic inches per cylinder, and there is a series of engines (1 through 24 cylinders in straight and V...

Why do you think you need a kit? Buy the panels you want and a charge controller to suit and install. Simple as pie. I highly recommend the Morningstar charge controllers. Ours has been operating 5 years, trouble and maintenance free.

The 6-71 is by far the simpler and more reliable engine, in my opinion. However, they are noisier and prone to leaking oil. Cat parts are just plain expensive, whereas 6-71 parts are not. The 6-71 is a two stroke diesel with tube fed injectors, so no bleeding necessary when changing filters...

I can't imagine why you would say that. Well maintained diesels should easily go 10,000 to 15,000 hours and our old genset was near on 19,000 when we did a rebuild on general principles, not by necessity. If you are only expecting 3k hours out of your diesels, I'd suggest some serious changes...

No AC is a significant eye-opener. I do not believe one can even order a new boat like that w/o air. Then add the Phasor genset w/o a sound shield and I'm thinking a hurricane damaged boat refurnished by a cost-conscious crew that's cosmetically OK, but may have many hidden problems. I'd be way...