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Avoid Breakdowns and Expenses |
 Create a Custom Checklist for Your Boat
Almost every boat in Canada gets "winterized" in the fall and "summerized" in the spring. Here is an easy way to make sure it's always done properly, to avoid breakdowns and expenses.
We suggest that you invest in about two hours of time from the marine technician at your dealership and together, create a winterizing and summerizing checklist.
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Coping with Ethanol Enhanced Fuel |
 In both California and now in Florida, class action suits have been launched against gasoline companies alleging that they knowingly sold gasoline to boaters containing ethanol and that the ethanol would attack and damage the fibreglass fuel tanks in older boats.
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Does Your Boat Have Hardening of the Arteries? |
 Pardon the joke, but few people think in terms of vital arteries on board their boat. Of course, there are several. In some cases, a clogged artery can cause a fire. In others, a burst (or disconnected) artery can sink your ship in minutes.
And, yes – old rubber arteries can harden with time, exposure to heat, petroleum and water. Then, they can crack or fail.
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 Engine room fires are mercifully rare, but every so often, one does occur. The engine room is the most likely place on your boat for a fire to get started and if the fire breaks out while you are out on the water, the lives of everyone on board are at risk.
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Is a Battery Left Over a Year Any Good? |
 I've never seen an official survey on this, but I'll bet the primary reason people wind up poking around in their engine room is because they have battery problems. Especially with today's new fuel injected engines; your battery only needs to crank the engine over a couple of turns and it starts right up, running happily with your alternator charging and all systems go.
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 A quiet boat is a good boat. “Quiet” says well engineered, solidly built, comfortable to ride in…new. New boats are quiet. Old ones are noisy – power or sail. Why is that? In a recent technical presentation, we learned that the life expectancy of the sound absorbing materials in most new boats is about 10 years.
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Webasto Dual Voltage Climate Control System |
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 At IBEX, Webasto announced their dual-voltage A/C and reverse-cycle heating system that operates without a genset. Called the FCF-DV, the new system runs on standard 115-volt AC shore power and then automatically switches to 12-volt DC battery power while away from the dock. The noise and vibration from an onboard generator is eliminated, and the skipper can enjoy a night on the hook in peace and quiet while keeping his or her cool...
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 Almost every boat in Canada gets “winterized” in the fall and “summerized” in the spring. Here is an easy way to make sure it's always done properly, to avoid breakdowns and expenses. We suggest that you invest in about two hours of time from the marine technician at your dealership and together, create a winterizing and summerizing checklist.
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