"John Iott - hotflashrefinishing.com" writes: >Thanks for all your sharing of knowledge this is a great forum. One further suggestion, courtesy of the guys at Marine Sanitation in Seattle (no relation, just satisfied customers): When you install your tank, give a lot of thought to the vent lines. Typically, the vent is a single small (3/4") line running up from the tank. This is very bad for two reasons: first, very little ventilation can come down the line. This leads to lack of oxygen, and the anaerobic environment leads to big stinks. Second, the first time you over-full your tank (and you will) something, typically toilet paper, will get up the vent line and clog it. This will probably not affect the tank when you flush, but the next time you go to pump out the vacuum in the tank can cause it to implode. Not pretty. Th recommended solution is to put two large-diameter vent tubes in, one leading to the starboard side of the boat and one leading to port. If possible, you should place the tank fittings in opposite corners for maximum oxygen exchange areas. The differential pressure on the two sides of the boat will cause natural airflow, and the large-diameter tubes will not clog. I used two 1"-diameter vents on the new 40 gallon tank I installed and it's working like a charm. The forward tank, a 13 gallon tank which I did not install and which has a single 3/4" vent, stinks like hell and the vent has clogged twice. Just my 2 cents, Scott Welch FirstClass Product Manager www.firstclass.com "The person who makes no mistakes usually doesn't make anything"

"Larry N. Brown" writes: >A couple of questions. What did Scott use for vents on a one inch hose? I just used plain delrin through-hulls. I also used the good white sanitation hose for my vents. One small warning, you have to make sure that your vent lines have no low points, then they become P-traps, which is not what you want. :-( One other note, you can't use a single vent up to a tee. The whole point is to have the air flow *through* the tank, thereby oxygenating the surface of the contents. This encourages bacterial growth, which is what eats the stinky stuff. By the way there is also a fancy system which uses an air bubbler (similar to those in aquariums) to achieve the same effect. My dockmates have this system and seem to like it. Scott Welch FirstClass Product Manager www.firstclass.com "The person who makes no mistakes usually doesn't make anything"

Steven Dubnoff writes: >You lay out the panel with their free software and send off the file >over the internet. Your panel comes back accurately cut in a few >days. You can do very neat lettering as well. Their prices are >remarkably inexpensive. Note that these panels are really beautiful but are not suitable for mounting in exposed areas as there are some raw aluminum edges. But the panels are very beautiful, I used some on Island Eagle. Scott Welch www.islandeagle.net "The person who makes no mistakes usually doesn't make anything"

"ralph" writes: >Installed white sanitary hose on my head pump line. I have the hose clamps >as tight as I can and yet there are still leaks at the pump fittings. How >can I stop the leaks with this hose material? Let me pass on a helpful hint on this subject: I installed two new Vacuflush toilets on Island Eagle, as well as re-plumbing a manual head. Let me tell you, getting that white sanitary hose on some of the barbs was a b*tch! It took all of my strength and then some, and even so I couldn't get the hose all the way on to some of the barbs. Plus, the hose was so stiff that even if I really cranked on the hose clamp it was still not too tight on the barb. So you can imagine my chagrin when my pipefitter came on board to do some cleanup and happened to notice the bad connections. I told my tale of woe and he said "watch this". He whipped out a heat gun, gave the hoses about 30 seconds of heat, and shazam. They slipped right onto the barbs, the hose clamps compressed the hose beautifully, and two minutes later the whole mess had solidified into a near-weld. Now I know. Scott Welch FirstClass Product Manager www.firstclass.com "The person who makes no mistakes usually doesn't make anything"

"Dick \"Tator\" or Patti" writes: > The first one is an intermittenly working tach (more off than on). I have >a small alternator(Motorola w/internal regulators) on each engine that just >charge my one starting battery. The stbd tach sometimes comes on and then >dies after several minutes, although today it stayed on for an hour until I >powered up over 1600 rpms. I've checked wires for loose connections and >found nothing. I was wondering if perhaps a bad oil pressure switch could >cause the problem. I'm sure I can chase it down eventually but thought I'd >see if anyone else had any ideas. I too experienced a similar problem. I have two 24 volt 150A Ample Power alternators, one for the start bank and one for the house bank. My tach was driven from the house bank alternator and would cut out after a few hours of operation. I talked to the folks at Ample (great customer service, BTW). They said that the amplitude of the tach signal is based on the amount of changing current, and that the charging demands of the start bank were typically so low that the tach signal dropped to almost nothing. I switched the tach to the house alternator (which always has a higher load) and sure enough the problem disappeared. Scott Welch FirstClass Product Manager www.firstclass.com "The person who makes no mistakes usually doesn't make anything"

scottebulger@comcast.net writes: >There is a channel north of Nanaimo that I now understand is infamous for >claiming its fair share of boats. As a matter of fact I was just talking to >a delivery captain who had a client sink a 70 foot boat there last year. >Anyway we were proceeding in the channel and I made a decision to leave the >channel marker on my port side. There were confusing markers on the >opposite shore, but also a marina to the starboard which affirmed my >thinking there couldn't possibly be an obstacle between the marker and the >marina fairway. Scott, I keep my trawler at the "marina to starboard" you mention, about 200 feet from the rock, and we watch about a boat a day go aground on the rock -- as an FYI, it's Oregon Rock in Newcastle Channel. At very low tides the water is only about 6 inches deep. I draw almost 7 feet, so needless to say I treat that channel with caution. For what it's worth, the only way to get into the marina is the "long way around", through the marked channel. When we see boats heading for the rock, we do try and hail them, usually to no avail. In fact, on the day the 70 footer went aground last year (see some pics at http://www.islandeagle.net/summer2005/breanna) TWO additional boats went aground -- while the 70 footer was sinking! While your story raises some good points, especially regarding having the right charts, there is one point that you missed. Prior to the Breanna grounding, the channel marking consisted of a single green daymarker and a single green can. Since the channel runs between two bays (Nanaimo Harbour and Departure Bay), there is a reasonable chance of mistaking which side you should leave the marker on. However, after the Breanna grounding, Transport Canada added two new red cans, directly opposite the green markers (these are the "confusing markers" you refer to). Thus, the preferred channel is now clearly marked, with red and green buoys. The moral here is that if you see a red and a green buoy in close proximity, go between the red and the green. By the way, just so you know you are not the only one, I did essentially the same thing coming north of Sidney a week ago. There was a red buoy about 100 metres off of a point, and then about a 1 km wide fairway to the left of the buoy. I eased through the channel, left the red to starboard, set the autopilot, and headed up the fairway. When I looked at the depth sounder and saw 6 metres, I had a small heart attack and looked at the chart again. It turned out that my "fairway" was in fact a mass of shoals, and the channel was in fact a fairly narrow affair between the red marker and the point. So, the second moral here is that if you ever see an isolated red or an isolated green, STOP, get out the chart, and figure out what the preferred channel is. Scott Welch Island Eagle

Peter Bennett writes: >Is that the beacon that used to have the "Keep Right" (or Left, as >appropriate) signs and arrows pointing to the preferred channel? Have those >private additions to the beacon been removed? Yes and yes. Scott Welch Product Manager, FirstClass Group "If we continue to take an eye for an eye, then surely the whole world will go blind." - Gandhi

"Brent Hodges" writes: >We're building a desktop computer for my boat. Anyone know of an adapter >that allows you to use a wifi card that usually plugs right into a laptop in >the desktop? > >If I'm not using the right terminology to say this, forgive me. I'm not very >computer savvy. And, it won't do any good to try to talk me into getting a >laptop instead of the desk top. It's already bought. Brent, You could get an adapter that allows you to use a laptop-style card in your desktop, but instead I'd recommend a wireless card designed for a desktop machine. Here's an example, the D-Link WDA-1320, which is $37.99 at Best Buy: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=7650543&type=product&productCategoryId=pcmcat25300050002&id=1134699413703 The antennas on the desktop cards are quite a bit bigger and hence better than the ones in the laptop cards. Scott Welch Product Manager, FirstClass Group "If we continue to take an eye for an eye, then surely the whole world will go blind." - Gandhi

"ron barr" writes: >Like a clot I missed checking the camera date after changing the batteries >and in consequence have the wrong year etc for a bunch of the pictures. >Alternative suggestions appreciated. I suppose I could put a number in front >of them while naming them? But that seems like a tedious process! I would HIGHLY recommend that you get a copy of Adobe Photoshop Album Starter Edition. This will let you file, sort, manipulate, and print your digital photos, and best of all the price is right: free. I've used it for several years and it's been flawless for me. You can download it at http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshopalbum/starter.html No connection, just a satisfied user, etc. Scott Welch Product Manager, FirstClass Group "If we continue to take an eye for an eye, then surely the whole world will go blind." - Gandhi

ROBERT J MCDERMOTT writes: > my preference would be for a 12V DC unit but 115V AC might also > work. For Island Eagle I put in a small 110V Porter Cable like this one, mounted on top of a fuel tank: http://www.porter-cable.com/index.asp?e=547&p=5948 Very inexpensive at Home Despot, and came with a free brad gun. Works fine with my Trace SW4024 inverter. I use it for general compressed air (parts cleaning, etc.) as well as to power my air horns. Probably not enough CFM for a needle scaler. The only problem is that it's incredibly loud. And when you couple this with the gradual loss of air, the compressor runs about every 8 hours. So that means that if you forget to turn it off, about 2 in the morning there's a terrible racket from the engine room and you get an elbow in the ribs from the Admiral, followed by a naked trip to the ER to turn off the compressor :-( Scott Welch Product Manager, FirstClass Group "If we continue to take an eye for an eye, then surely the whole world will go blind." - Gandhi