> >Practical: If it's a nice day and your up top, why bother using one? What >circumstances have you up top needing one? > >-- Jim

I wonder what they are getting as top end cruising speeds. Unfortunately the gentleman who is selling the boat has had a stroke and cannot communicate adequately. Thank you in advance. Bob Austin

I can get the top off, but there is a circuit board of sorts on the top, blocking view of the plug. Anyone messed with this type of thing before?? I am not sure what wire is power, signal etc. anyone have an idea? Dan ===== __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo!

It has a magnet mount and is on the top of the car. They say for home use you just have to let it have a southerly unobstructed view. If you can get it on top, there is no orientation problem, it is omnidirectional. I'm sure you could leave the antenna inside and it would work as long as it didn't have metal to the south of it.

Our fuel tanks are fitted with a metal dip stick which screws in at the top of the tanks. (MT 44). When taking on fuel I remove the dip stick and this gives enough venting to prevent the problem discussed.

To the list I forgot to say that after it has run dry and the engine has shut down and you turn the T handle on the racor you can hear & feel that there is a vacuum being released as the top of the filter comes loose.

> I've had very good luck mounting them such that the top of the strainer is about 3" above the waterline when the boat is sitting on her lines in calm water. This gives you the ability to open the strainer, remove the basket and clean it without worrying about getting a lot of water in the bilge...

The lap top is a bit different than a desk top P C, in that there is some degree of filtering via the "brick" power supply--and even further buffering by the battery. Certainly there can be spikes in voltage--but there is perhaps as much or more danger from the DC 12 volt power supply on your boat when the alternator is running. Bob Austin

I suspect not as they were found on heaters where the cold water inlet was at the top of the tank. All marine heaters seem to have the cold supply at the bottom so I expect no tube is needed. If yours does happen to have the cold inlet at the top, this could be the problem.

John >I had a stanchion on my top deck that was a bit loose and one of the >bolts was just spinning. Thinking that I was going to find some rot >underneath, I pulled the bolts and base up. I found the the area >underneath (it's mounted on a "wall", about 3" high along the edge of >the top deck) was just a hollow cavity in the fiberglass.