Flares
USCG requires most boats to carry a minimum number of day and night distress signaling devices. Usually these are flares or similar pyrotechnics. Besides being expensive, flares have even more serious drawbacks: They are dangerous, awkward to stow and deploy, suitable for only a single use, they expire, and they are difficult to dispose of properly. Flare guns are treated like firearms in some states. Many pyrotechnics are suitable for day use or night use but not both. If you keep expired flares onboard, as most sailors tend to do, USCG requires them to be stored separately from your unexpired flares.An alternative to flares is a battery-powered SOS distress light, for night use, together with a distress flag (3-ft square, orange color, with black square, black circle, and corner grommets) for day use. Carrying one SOS distress light and one distress flag meets all USCG requirements for recreational boaters (33 CFR 175.130). Some tactical LED flashlights have an SOS setting. Although ideal in other respects, such as being much brighter than a normal flashlight and lasting far longer on a set of batteries, they are not strictly legal as a replacement for flares because their SOS function is not dedicated and not always enabled.
Standing
watch
Except when docked or at anchor, there should always be someone on watch. The person on watch should be in the cockpit, dressed for the weather, constantly looking about, and ready always to handle the boat. Singlehanders cannot constantly stand a watch, of course, but 2-person crews can and should.Watches are typically four hours long with the midday watch broken into two 2-hour watches, from 10:00 to noon and from noon to 2:00, so that time on watch varies from day to day. Be always alert for other boats and for changes in the weather. Adjust for weather changes early while it is still easy to do so. When at anchor or in port, the watch rotation continues unabated, and is never suspended, even though no watch is standing then.
Navigation
lights
Imagine the circle around a boat divided into three 120° sectors: At night, the boat will show a red light in the forward port sector, a green light in the forward starboard sector, and a white light in the stern sector. If the engine is on, it will also show a white steaming light, or bow light, aloft. The colors of the navigation lights that you see tell you what sector of the boat you are looking at and whether it is motoring. From this and the wind direction you can tell which tack it is on, its point of sail, and whether it will cross your course.When two boats are motoring and their courses intersect, the boat on the right is privileged and must hold its speed and course. The privileged boat sees a green light when it looks at the burdened boat. The boat on the left is burdened and must slow down or change course. It sees a red light when it looks at the privileged boat. This is how traffic lights at road crossings came to be red and green.
Dinghy
inflation
An inflatable dinghy must not have too much air, particularly in one with a rigid bottom. Over-inflating will make the dinghy skittish under power and susceptible to waves. When you strike the dinghy firmly with a clenched fist, if your fist bounces back, there is too much air. The inflation will vary with temperature, of course, getting stiffer during a hot day.Red light and
night vision
Night vision degrades instantly upon exposure to bright light. It takes 10 or 15 minutes of darkness to recover 10% of your night vision and three-quarters of an hour to recover 80%. Many boats have cabin lights that can switch between a high intensity white bulb and a lower intensity red bulb. The claim is that red light will not ruin your night vision. This is false; it is a myth that probably devolved from the safe light used in photo darkrooms.Any light will ruin your night vision and it is the intensity that matters, not the color. A red light is helpful only to the extent that it is dimmer than the white light alternative. A low intensity white light is often best, when you need light at night, because it lets you discern colors when viewing, for example, a chart.
Good crew
Good crew will follow three basic tenets.- If you open it, close it.
- If you take it out, put it back.
- If you turn it on, turn it off.
A worthwhile fourth rule, for men only, is always sit to use the head. When offshore, moreover, use only the head and never the rail. On the sad occasions when bodies of drowned yachtsmen were recovered, a surprising number had their flies unzipped.
PFDs
If you are going to carry a PFD for each person on board, as surely you will, there is no reason not to have the best Type 1 offshore-rated kind. They cost little more and take up no more space. Any PFD is useless, of course, unless you are wearing it, so put it on whenever leaving the cockpit and keep it on always when above in foul weather.Jacklines
Consider, also, a pair of jacklines that can run from the stern to the bow on either side, along with one or two harnesses to wear when going forward, and tethers for attaching a harness to the jacklines. These allow you to have two hands free instead of reserving one hand, as they say, for the boat. You will not want to leave the cockpit at night, when at sea, nor during a blow, without them. Adequate jacklines and tethers can be made from webbing or line you might have on hand and stout clips. Harnesses come in sizes and must be purchased, although they need not be specifically marine items as long as the tether attaches in front.Mold and
mildew
Boats tend to be damp. Mold and mildew thrive in damp places. Wiping down almost every surface is a spring commissioning ritual in many climates. After cleaning off a surface, let it dry and then wipe it down with vinegar. This kills the spores that were left behind and prevents mold from growing back.Mold and mildew are closely related—they’re both fungi—but in everyday use people are usually describing different behaviors and problems. Mildew is usually flat, thin, and powdery. It can be white, gray, or sometimes light yellow. Mildew grows on surfaces (eg, vinyl, fabric, painted wood, shower walls). Common on boats in cushions, headliners, and lockers, it is easy to remove.
Mold is typically fuzzy, raised, or slimy. It can be black, green, blue, or even orange. Mold can penetrate materials (eg, wood or fabrics) and is harder to remove and more damaging than mildew. It can produce stronger odors and more severe health concerns. In short: mildew is usually a surface nuisance while mold is more invasive and destructive.
A boat is the perfect environment for fungi, having warm air, high humidity, and limited airflow. Also salt, unless in fresh water, and organic dust, which is food for fungi.
To kill and remove what’s there on hard surfaces (eg, fiberglass, plastic, sealed wood) use white vinegar—straight or diluted—or a mild bleach solution of about one part bleach to 10 parts water. Let it sit for 10 to 15 minutes, then scrub and wipe clean.
For fabrics and cushions, use vinegar or specialized marine mildew cleaners, but avoid soaking foam cores. Sun-dry them thoroughly, if possible, because ultraviolet sunlight helps kill the spores. For surface mold on wood, scrub with vinegar. Deep mold on wood might require sanding and resealing.
Never mix bleach and ammonia-based cleaners. Dry everything completely. If you skip this step, it all comes back. Open lockers and compartments, run fans if available, and use a small dehumidifier when on shore power. Sun and airflow are your best allies.
Preventing mold and mildew from coming back matters more than cleaning. Use ventilation (eg, solar vents, cracked hatches, dorades) to keep air moving. Avoid having sealed, stagnant spaces. Use desiccants to control moisture in lockers. Run a dehumidifier when on shore power. Reduce food sources by keeping surfaces clean and washing fabrics often. Keep locker doors slightly open when you leave the boat.
Vented
loop
An anti-siphon loop (also called a vented loop or siphon break) prevents seawater from continuing to flow through the engine after it has shut down. Without one, a siphon can form, allowing water to backfill the exhaust system and end up in the engine cylinders.When the engine is running, seawater flows into the raw water pump, then through the heat exchanger, then through the exhaust elbow where it is injected into the exhaust, and then through the waterlift muffler to the exhaust outlet.
When the engine stops, and the pump is no longer turning, if both ends of the cooling-water circuit are below the water level, gravity can create a siphon that keeps seawater flowing. The water then backfills the muffler, rises up the exhaust hose, and backs into the exhaust manifold where it can enter an open exhaust valve and into a cylinder. The result can be hydrolock, bent connecting rods, and a ruined engine.
Usually located just before the exhaust elbow, the vented loop must rise above the highest waterline level when heeled: 12 to 18 inches above the water level at dock. While the engine is running, pump pressure closes an air valve at the top of the loop and water flows normally. When the engine stops, the valve opens, air enters, and the siphon is broken. The most common design has a duckbill valve at the top. It is compact, inexpensive, and has no overboard discharge. It does, however, need periodic cleaning to prevent it from sticking open or closed.
An open vent with no valve has a small hose at the top that emits a tiny stream of water (called the pee stream) while the engine runs and lets air in when the engine stops. This design is lower maintenance, almost impossible to clog, and easy to inspect. It does, on the other hand, require dealing with the pee stream.
The duckbill or air valve at the top of a vented loop should be inspected at least annually. Common problems are salt buildup, calcium deposits, insects, corrosion and rubber hardening. A blocked vent is the same as having no vent at all. As an alternative to cleaning the valve it might be best to carry a spare.
An antisiphon loop—or two—might also be needed where a marine head is below the waterline when heeled, to prevent seawater from siphoning into the bowl and flooding the boat. The intake side can siphon if a landlubber leaves the head in the wet bowl setting. The output side can siphon, and in a most unpleasant way, if the holding tank discharge thru-hull is left open.
What NOT
to have
aboard
Navy sailors often say that the three most useless things to have on a boat are an umbrella, a stepladder, and a 2nd lieutenant. Even so, there are many other things that have no place aboard a sailboat. These include:Bananas. A longstanding superstition among sailors and, especially, fishermen says that bananas should never be brought aboard. This is perhaps because they release ethylene gas that hastens the spoilage of other foods. It is not a rule; merely a superstition.
Untinned wire. If not tinned for marine use, ordinary wire will corrode throughout its entire length, right inside the insulation, turning black and gaining resistance that lowers power.
Automotive or household electrical devices. This includes extension cords and power strips, small appliances, battery chargers and the like. Only marine grade items are designed specifically for the harsh seawater environment.
Glassware. Whether stemware wine glasses, china dishes, or even food stored in jars, glass objects have no place on a sailboat because it is only a matter of time until they break. Use plastic instead.
Cardboard. Treat it as a shipping container, not as a storage container. Cardboard absorbs moisture and quickly loses all strength while harboring insects—particularly cockroaches and their eggs—in the corrugations.
Anything fueled with propane. Except in a properly designed galley fueled from a vented propane locker and protected by a thermocouple and other safety devices, propane tanks used anywhere on a boat risk explosion and also deadly carbon monoxide (CO). If you must use a propane heater, have also a CO detector.
Spray-on sunscreen, whether aerosol or pumped. The overspray will make a slippery mess in the cockpit that is almost impossible to remove. Sunscreen is important to have, so use gels or lotion instead.
Dark soled shoes. Only the distinctive, light colored soles on true boat shoes will give good footing on a wet surface and avoid marring the deck.
Wire nuts. If there is AC wiring, it might be connected using household wire nuts that will quickly corrode in the salt air. Replace them with splices, suitably insulated (not using electrical tape) and with strain relief.