Captain Ron's

Sailing and Cruising Pages

The List of Things that Work

by Capt Ron

Here's a list of things that while I won't rave about them, they do what they're intended to do with a minimum of fuss and fooling around. I like these products but I'm not ready to say that there isn't something better. Show me something better and I'll use that instead. No problem, Mon.

I'll try to add (or delete) to this list as things come to mind. There's no particular order here.

Bar Keepers Friend

This is a cleaning product that is usually found in grocery stores or say WalMart w here you find clansers like Comet or Bon Ami (they still sell that don't they?) ... BKF is for cleaning stainless steel as typically found in the stainless steel sinks in restaurants and bars. It is primarily Oxalic acid in powder form although it does have a mild abrasive in it. I haven't found the abrasive strong enough to scratch anything though. It works well on rust stains on stainless pulpits, railings, funnel ventilators and even some rust stains on fiberglass ... best part is that it's way cheaper than many 'marine' cleaners found in the boat junk stores.

Yamaha Outboard Motors

There is no other outboard as far as I can tell. I've had two 15hp outboards. One ran for years on the back of my son's J12 Carolina Skiff which sat parked behind our waterfront house in Largo, Fl and got used only once in a while. We even had it on the back of our Stiletto catamaran for a while. It never received any maintenance and yet always started and ran. The one we have now on our Caribe 10.5 ft hard bottom dinghy is the same breed. Always starts and runs strong. We are more careful about maintaining it than we were with the other one, hoping to a lifetime of use out of it. When we hear cruisers on the radio in Georgetown asking for outboard motor help, the request is always for some other brand of motor ... we won't have anything else.

Xantrex Stuff

I'm not saying this is the best stuff in the world ... we did have one of their voltage regulators fail on us last year but their customer service was excellent and they replaced it without question or the original sales receipt. We also have a Xantrex battery charger (Tru-Charge 40) that has never hinted at trouble and we have a Xantrex Battery Monitor also trouble free. We just bought a Xantrex 1800 watt Inverter. We'll let you know how that goes.

Blue Seas Electrical Stuff

I like everything we've used from Blue Seas. Usually this is small stuff like connectors, switches or terminal blocks but we did buy their Main DC power panel that allows separate switching of house bank and start battery with a keyed cross-over switch so you can start the engine from the house bank ... very nice device and I highly recommend it not just the switches and panel but the wiring schema that it represents.

Gulf Coast Filters

We have installed an auxiliary oil filtering system that extends the time between oil changes significantly. The system we chose is the O1-JR from Gulf Coast Filters. This system uses a filter element inside a canister that gets changed along with the spin-on full flow filter that is standard on the engine. This system receives pressurized oil from the oil pressure switch fitting and returns filtered oil directly to the crank case. The OEM full-flow filter is still in place and still doing it's job. The difference is that the full-flow filter is filtering particulates out of the oil down to about 10 microns where the O1-JR is filtering down to 2 microns. We have had the used oil tested by a testing lab and our oil has tested fine after 400 hours of use twice now. Originally we tested every 100 hours which is when we change filters. We have just decided not to push our luck and so change oil at 400 hours. This system is used on long distance trucks that go 100,000 miles between oil changes. Cost was about $150 and the filter elements cost about $50 for a dozen. So far so good. You can figure out the benefits.

Furuno Radar

We have the older 1600 series unit that came on the boat. I never had radar before but now I would miss it if it went away. It is a great comfort factor, especially sailing at night. You can accurately track shipping and other boats. If you've done much night sailing, then you know how tricky it can be to interpret lights moving in the distance. Radar helps eliminate the guess work. Ours also displays the helm GPS data and shows you where the next waypoint is on the screen. With the GPS interfaced like this, it doesn't matter which screen you're looking at you can see what you you need to see. Never gives any trouble either.

Kato Davits

I'm not sure that I would do davits again on a boat this size but if I did, they would be Kato davits. They are strong and functional and Kato has finely polished them so they look good. We not only haul the dinghy around on them (with the motor in place) but we have our solar panel mounted on top of them. They're expensive but they're very good, too.

Bruce Anchors

Love my Bruce ... I should write a seminar on anchoring ... lord knows some of you out there need the help. Our Bruce always hold once it's set and we go to great pains to make sure that it sets well. If we can move it by backing down on it ... it ain't set well. Here of course I'm talking about the real thing. I wouldn't say the same for one of the knock offs ... Sure sometimes it won't set, usually because of grass on the bottom. OK, then we move and try to find some sand but I have to tell you it usually sets on the first try. If you get one, buy the next larger size from the recommended one.

Fortress Anchors

These are great anchors. They dig in deep and stay there. Plus they generate awesome holding power. Read my hurricane articles if you want the full testimonial about these fine pieces of equipment ... don't leave the dock without one. Here too, bigger is better ... also back it up with lots of chain. They don't like grass either and they can be difficult to set in that real soft mud because the shank tends to sink into the mud whle the flukes float on top giving the pull a reverse angle ... but in sand or dense mud

, they're great.