Nobody Wants a Clogged Head!

But ... Why does it happen? I think I know.

Or, A Tale of Two Toilet (Hoses)

I'm no plumber, and at least partly because of that, for the 3 1/2 years I have lived on my boat, I have lived in terror of the thought of a clogged head. The male sailors in my club, who will say just about anything in front of a woman, get vague ... and disgusted ... when they describe what they've been through.

But here's the thing: no one who has told one of these smelly, dirty stories lived on his boat.

Except for one person: he lives on his boat and gets his boat pumped out regularly. Due to mechanical problems, he had not sailed his boat any distance in some time, but he finally had everything fixed up and ship-shape, and he went on a short cruise. Far enough from shore to be legal, he decided to pump overboard and discovered that his sanitary system was clogged. Oh no!

If it was clogged, though, how come he had been able to use the toilet and be pumped out until he went off shore?

The hose that was clogged was the one that went overboard. It hadn't been used in a very long time, and apparently something got left behind. He had to dig a hardened chunk of toilet paper and other things best left unmentioned.

Well, here's what I think, and as I prepare to move off the boat, I'm going to keep it in mind. As I lived on my boat, all the hoses except the overboard one got used regularly. Nothing ever had a chance to get stuck and dried, because something else was already coming up the "freeway." Sometimes it was a little harder than others to pump, but everything always went through.

I think when I move off the boat I will be very careful about flushing completely. I think hoses get clogged because the hoses aren't flushed completely, and then the bot sits in the slip for a month while things get dry and hard.

So that's what I'm suggesting you do. If you take your boat out, say, once a month, if the head has been used, flush it thoroughly. Then use a hose, fill the tank completely and pump it out. In fact, I would flush the tank a couple of times if the boat won't be used for a while. I think this might solve some odor problems as well. If you go out to sea and flush overboard, use plenty of water.

I can't prove any of this, and frankly, I'm not interested in trying to. But I throw it out as a possible solution to a very unsavory problem.

Are You Really Gaining Experience ....

or are you just getting experienced at being lucky?

Most people who live along the Gulf of Mexico will remember an incident from several years ago. Four football players went out fishing on the Gulf of Mexico with tragic results. While the four men were missing but not yet found, one of the wives said, "I'm hopeful, because they're experienced boaters."

As it turned out, they weren't experienced in boating safely. They were experienced at being lucky, and on that day, their luck ran out.

At my sailing club, we were all surprised to hear they were 50 miles or so off shore -- at their favorite fishing spot -- because we had all known for days that a major front was coming through. It was March of 2009, and it's just a fact of life in Florida that fronts can come through and get the Gulf all riled up. Sailors and boaters should never ignore the weather, but especially January through March, when the fronts from the north can really make a mess out of the mostly shallow Gulf of Mexico.

But apparently these fellows were not aware of the fairly severe weather forecast. We noted at the club that not one person there had taken their boat out. In addition, the four fishermen were on a center console fishing boat. These boats are not designed for offshore use. They had been lucky in the past regarding the weather, and that luck had extended to using a boat inappropriate for the fishing they wanted to do.

Their luck ran out in March of 2009. They added to their problem by trying to retrieve an anchor that had set itself so hard that they couldn't get it back up. That can happen in rough water: the bow rises and falls, and with each rise and fall, the anchor sets itself more strongly. This can be a very good thing. You don't want your anchor dragging if you have to use it in a storm.

They compounded their problems by being determined to retrieve that anchor. When they couldn't get it up from the bow, they tied the end of the anchor rode to the stern of the boat, and then drove the boat forward. This can work ... when you're pulling a bush out of the ground with your car. (This is one more example of how driving a boat is completely different than driving a car). It can be a really bad idea in a boat. Boat vs. anchor, and the anchor won. It pulled the stern under (probably the waves helped), and the boat completely capsized.

If a sailboat capsizes, it is likely to right itself. The rigging may be destroyed, and you may have sailors injured and/or in the water, but they typically right themselves. This is not true of power boats.

So now they had four people in the water clinging to an upside down boat. One of the men dived under the boat and retrieved PFD's and water (they should have had their PFD's on already in rough water). Very sadly, three out of the four men drowned.

You may be doing something over and over that is a really bad idea, even though it has not made problems for you -- yet. One example might be running your engine harder than it should be run. My engine manufacturer tells me to never, ever run the engine above 3600 rpm. So I watch the RPM gauge, right?

Not exactly. I allow for a margin of error, because I'm not guaranteed that that RPM gauge is completely accurate. A friend just had his engine worked on, and one of the things the mechanic did was use a separate, digital tool to test how accurate his RPM gauge was. They discovered that his gauge was off by 400 RPM: when it read 3200, the engine was really running at 3600 -- redline for his engine also.

You might not be in the habit of routinely securing loose things below. Then a storm pops up unexpectedly, and you have damaged belongings in your cabin. Or, very commonly, you don't visit your boat often enough. I know of one person whose boat almost sank over a split hose, and another person who did have her boat sink over a split hose. These people aren't checking and working their seacocks, either, because they're not at their boats to do it. They're also not periodically starting their engines. Diesels love to run -- under load, not just idling -- and not doing this is not a good thing. I looked at a boat that was sailed often but not maintained well enough. The oil, when the engine was cold, was literally as thick as peanut butter. No way was I going to buy such a boat. The owners had gotten lucky and not had any serious engine issues because of their neglect of the oil. However, I wonder how the person who bought that boat fared. I know someone else who had a lot of water in her cabin. She didn't have time to sail, so she wasn't checking her boat. Her stuffing box was leaking, and the float valve on her bilge pump was sticking. Her boat also could have sunk. Her problem was spotted because she did the responsible thing and hired someone to do some basic maintenance.

You may be doing things as you sail that are not only inefficient but dangerous as well. Your best protection if you're a newer sailor is to actively network with other sailors. Don't be embarrassed to tell about the things that have gone wrong. Walk away from someone who sees this as a chance to look down their nose at you (they're out there), but cultivate the people who can show you what to learn from your experience. There is no more valuable friend a newer sailor can have.


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Your Boat Could Sink -- Really!

 

April 20, 2013

     Or, What hoses? What hose clamps?

     “Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong.”

Murphy’s Law

     “Murphy was an optimist.”

Murphy’s cat

About a month ago I heard about something that happened to a friend’s boat. Tied up in the marina, someone noticed that his boat seemed to be sitting low in the water, and stepped aboard to check. That person found that the man’s boat was filling up with salt water. He went back up to the club, got a pump, started pumping the man’s boat out, and gave him a call.

Most sailboats have “thru-holes” that go through the hull for all sorts of reasons. They let in water to help cool the engine. They let the galley sink drain. Three miles out, you can pump your head’s holding tank overboard, and that requires a thru-hole. There can be others as well.

These holes have hoses held on by clamps. On this unlucky man’s boat, one of the hoses had cracked, causing the leak.

Well, I didn’t want gallons and gallons of salt water in my cabin. No, sir! So, being a newer sailor, I had someone go through my boat with me to check all of this and show me what to look for.

Happily, all my hoses are in good shape. The one bringing water into the engine, is, in fact, very new. That’s the good news.
   

The bad news is that the engine hose was installed improperly. The wrong hose clamps were used –- probably automotive, not marine -- and in 18 months they had rusted so badly that they broke into pieces when taken off. While the fellow who installed my engine was very good, he must have slipped up. Those were not marine-grade hose clamps.

Automotive product used for a marine application,

almost always, a bad idea.

LESSON LEARNED:  As you can see from the next picture, the actual hose is new and in very good shape. However, it really doesn’t matter if the hose itself is in great shape if the clamps break and it falls off. Your boat is going to fill up with saltwater, and if not stopped, sink right in its slip. Or at anchor. Or wherever she happens to be when Murphy strikes. The clamps are as important as the section of hose and the state of the thru-hole valve.

Thing is, if you check these things, this is one time you can force Murphy to tip-toe away from you and go bother someone less vigilant than you were. Good job!

The picture below shows one end of the hose with new, marine-grade stainless clamps on it. As you can see, two were used. One goes around the hose clockwise and the other counter-clockwise. Of course, this was done on both ends of the hose. This is a place to not go cheap on your boat: get your hose clamps at a real marine supply store.

ANOTHER LESSON LEARNED: Think you don’t need to know about these things? You’ve got someone really good to work on your boat? The fellow who put in my engine is probably the best marine diesel engine installer for 100 miles in any direction, but I’m pretty sure he made a mistake and put the wrong hose clamps on a very important section of hose.

And while you’re at it, check all your thru-holes. Make sure all the shut-off valves work smoothly. Check all the hoses connected to them and make sure they’re not brittle and cracked or about to crack.

Anyone can make a mistake, and everyone is human. You may not know how to fix all the problems you find, but do yourself a favor and learn as much as you can about how things ought to be. When your boat doesn’t sink, you’ll be glad you did!