Building Ravn: a 19-foot faering: Ravn's Rowing Report

Since launching Ravn Aug. 21 I've taken her rowing four times and I'm happy to report that, true to her Viking heritage, she handles like a dream under oars. There's no question that she has some weight when you take that first pull, but the extra glide seems to more than make up for it. She also just brushes off small waves.

The other thing I'm really pleased about is how stable she is. While rowing alone I used all of my 250 pounds to try and push the gunwale down at the middle of the boat. I didn't even get my knuckles wet. On another occasion I took my wife, daughter and her two kids rowing with me. At one point during the voyage four of the five of us were standing and moving about the boat and it didn't feel at all "tippy." The grandkids had a ball running around on the boat.

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Putting a Boat Away for the Winter?
What You Need to Know About E-10 Gas

The Octane issue:

Over long winter storage periods, E-10 gasoline loses octane at about the same rate as non-ethanol gasoline. So leaving the gas tank mostly empty - and then refilling in the spring in the hopes of "refreshing" the fuel to regain any octane loss - is not necessary. However, a nearly empty gas tank introduces another problem: the strong possibility of phase separation.

Ethanol (an alcohol) attracts water. It also absorbs water - about 10 times more than regular gasoline. When ethanol can no longer absorb the water, it will "phase separate" from the gasoline. Should phase separation occur, the (water soaked) ethanol will settle to the bottom of the tank, which is where the engine's fuel system pick-up is located.

The problem with leaving a tank mostly empty is that it increases the tank's "lung capacity" to breath in moist air (water) through the vent. If the tank is mostly empty over the winter, there will also be less E-10 gas in the tank to absorb the moisture. This combination of more water and less absorption greatly increases the chances of phase separation. Adding fresh gasoline in the spring would not remedy the problem - the phase-separated ethanol would remain separated at the bottom of the tank.

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WEST System Blog:

Career Opportunity

Posted by Glenn House on 6 August 2010

Gougeon Brothers Inc., the manufacturer of WEST SYSTEM® and PRO SET® Epoxy, has a second full-time job opening for a Technical Advisor.

Job Description

The Technical Advisor fields customer questions about the product and offers advice on proper use, construction methods, product properties, etc. The Technical Advisor also participates in problem solving, product design and development, and product testing. The Technical Advisor may also be asked to write and review articles related to the product.

Read the complete WEST System Blog entry.

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Open Lighthouse Day brings historic landmarks to public

PORTLAND, Maine - Maine's second annual Open Lighthouse Day will take place on Sept. 18, 2010. The Coast Guard, in partnership with the Maine Office of Tourism and the American Lighthouse Foundation will open 25 ocean, river and island lighthouses for the public to visit and tour.

An event will kick off with lighthouse authors and historians William Thomson and Jeremy D'Entremont speaking at Portland Head Light at Cape Elizabeth, Maine, during an opening ceremony at 10:00 a.m.

Most light houses will be open to visitors from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Visitors are encouraged to check www.lighthouseday.com for specific details about each light including information regarding parking and light house accessibility. Open Lighthouse Day is an opportunity to visit many of Maine's historic lights not normally open to the public. A full list of accessible light houses can be found at the Web site.

The Coast Guard, the Maine Office of Tourism and the American Lighthouse Foundation are very proud to support and preserve Maine's renowned maritime legacy through Open Lighthouse Day 2010.

For more information about Open Lighthouse Day, contact Charlene Williams at (207) 623-4177.

For more information on this release, contact 1st District Coast Guard Public Affairs at (617) 223-8515.

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Building the Ebihen 15 Sailboat, a boat building blog: Motor Well

August 22, 2010

Finishing up on the motor well area. Support pieces have been added to the transom and upper rear deck to attach the cover.

The motor well has been sealed and a thick coating of epoxy put on. Still more sanding to do, cutting of the rear decks and priming.

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Massachusetts boatyard closes its doors

The Edey & Duff boatyard in Massachusetts, founded in 1968 by Mait Edey and Peter Duff, has ceased operations.

The company was unable to continue after the unexpected death last December of longtime general manager Dave Davignon, Boatinglocal.com reports.

The yard specialized in classic designs during its 40-year run, turning out such sailing classics as the Sakonnet 23, the Doughdish, the Stone Horse 23, the Stuart Knockabout and the Fatty Knees dinghy, as well as the Hunt-designed Conch 27 center console.

Click here for the full article.

Edey and Duff website

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Hurricane Earl Advancing on US Coastline; Boat Owners Group Says 2008 Hurricane Has Lesson for Boaters

ALEXANDRIA, Va., August 31, 2010 - Four days before 2008's Hurricane Hanna struck the South Carolina coast and ran up the eastern US seaboard, she was downgraded to a tropical storm. But that still didn't stop the damage to hundreds of recreational boats deluged by the storm's intense rains. And with Hurricane Earl now forecast on a parallel course just eastward of Hanna's old track, Boat Owners Association of The United States (BoatUS) is again urging boaters from the Mid-Atlantic to New England to protect their vessels from the forecasted heavy precipitation.

"Normally it's a hurricane's storm surge and high winds that cause the most damage to recreational boats," said BoatUS Director of Damage Avoidance Bob Adriance. "But a hurricane doesn't have to score a direct hit to sink boats. Heavy rains can cause significant damage, especially with boats stored on lifts, or those stored in the water that have their scuppers or drain holes clogged by leaves or other debris."

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Panbo Blog: Raymarine SeaTalk-SeaTalkNG converter, nice

Aug 24, 2010
Ben Ellison, Editor

What's yellow, white, and blue, and will help a lot of boats integrate older Raymarine SeaTalk1 instruments and sensors into SeaTalkNG/NMEA 2000 networks?

Well, check out the new SeaTalk-STng converter above, which retails for $95 and is also putting the Plus in Ray's new Raystar 125 Plus GPS. The manual PDF can be downloaded here, and I think it will please a lot of people who've messed with this stuff.

Those yellow connectors above let you not only adapt a mini network of up to five SeaTalk devices -- like ST40 and ST60+ displays and their transducers, and/or a LifeTag wireless MOB system -- to a SeaTalkNG backbone, but also power them...

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Inside IYRS: A visit to the composites technology program

Written by: Tom
8/8/2010 7:56 PM

Although the wooden boat restoration program is often what people think of when they envision IYRS, the school has been steadily developing other marine trades programs. The systems program, for instance has been running strong for a number of years now, and this year we are rolling out a new composites technology program. You can read all about the program here.

The program is set up in Bristol, right next door to the System Program facility. The space was still being set up when I visited a few weeks ago. Here's a glimpse of how things are looking so far.

One of the first things you notice when you walk in the shop is that they have some BIG things there. For instance, it's pretty hard to miss the walk-in oven.

Click here to read this entire IYRS Blog entry. (Lots and lots of photos.)

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On Board with Mark Corke: Battery Connections

You see all sorts of things when surveying boats and one of the most common has to be problems with the electrical system. Not only do things need to be both neat and tidy to make fault tracing easier but there is a safety concern too.

This photograph shows how not to connect up your batteries and has at least 5 infringements of the ABYC guidelines but there may be more, not to mention that it looks just plain wrong.

Firstly there should be no more than 4 connections to each battery terminal, frankly I think that is too many and if you need more than two or three at the outside then a bus bar should be installed and the loads wired back to that.

As you can see this terminal has 7 cables attached to it, some of those are the wrong color,i.e. red when they should be black or more commonly yellow these days. There is at least one cable with no captive ring terminal and the wire end is simple squashed under the ring terminal above. One of the cables in addition to being the wrong color as already mentioned is suffering from heat damage causing a breakdown of the insulation possible caused by an undersized cable causing resistance in the wiring. Finally, the terminal should be covered with a protective shroud to prevent short circuits.

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