When your boat is stationary for any length of time – either at a marina or at anchor, if you’re going to be living on the boat and using the various systems there are several key things to keep an eye on. Below you’ll find a 10-step Sailboat Maintenance Checklist for routine mission-critical daily and/or[Read More]
Maintenance
How to make port screens
Learning how to make port screens to keep out mosquitoes is a necessity for sailing cruisers. After getting bitten alive, I decided to come up with a way to keep the little buggers out. For boaters wanting to avoid bug bites, the first line of defense is to ensure that the boat has screens. Within this[Read More]
Gelcoat Repair | Checklist & Video Instructions
A gelcoat repair on a boat can be inexpensive and easy. Here you’ll find step-by-step instructions and a video on how to use a gelcoat repair kit to make a nick, scratch or chip disappear. Gelcoat Repair Kit Instructions Clean the damaged area using acetone to eliminate dirt, grease and wax. Make sure to avoid[Read More]
How to clean boat water tank
With plans to sail to more remote places it was time to determine how to clean boat water tank. Neither my husband, Simon, nor I knew how to clean a boat water tank but we knew that we’d eventually want fresh clean water coming from it! The first step we took was to locate access[Read More]
Marine Diesel Engine Starting Problem
If you’ve never worked on engines before it’s quite a steep learning curve when it comes to troubleshooting. For over two years, and after a major refit, our trusted Westerbeke Generator has never failed us. That is, until recently! Unfortunately, we experienced a marine diesel engine starting problem. After pre-heating the starter and then turning[Read More]
My top 15 sailing maintenance tips, tricks and little known secrets
During our first year of living on our sailboat I kept a running list of sailing maintenance tips, tricks and little known secrets. Some of the items noted are big-time money and/or time savers and others are simply common sense that isn’t common when you’re a newbie sailor. Considering that this has been our first year living[Read More]
Teak Deck Maintenance using Boracol
After years of asking marine professionals and long term live aboards how to best maintain our teak deck, time after time we’ve been told to use Boracol. Boracol is a chemical that can be used for the management of mold, fungal growth, mildew, slime, dry rot and insect attack. Before being a boat owner I[Read More]
How to Fix a Gebo Portlight Window Knob
Over the past couple years we’ve experienced two main issues concerning our Gebo portlight window knobs. One issue is frustrating and the other is potentially a serious problem. This article and accompanying video explains the issues and demonstrates how to effectively fix them. Watch the video immediately below and for further explanation, read below for[Read More]
How to use Spartite to reseat your mast
If you told me a couple years ago I’d be writing an article on how to reseat a sailboat mast, or how to use Spartite, I would have said, ‘What’s reseating,’ ‘What’s Spartite,’ and ‘who’s mast are you talking about?!’ But let me back up. A couple weeks ago we left the Greek Ionian Islands[Read More]
How to fix a topside hatch from leaking
As we have quickly discovered, boats leak from all sorts of areas – and often, the water enters a spot nowhere near the apparent leak. While preparing for a 850+ mile journey from Gibraltar to Malta we discovered a minor water flow coming out of one of our cupboards. At first we thought the water was making it’s[Read More]
