Salty Podcast #52 | ⛵️ Need a Sailboat Maintenance Check-List? 🔧 Get it here from an expert! - Salty Podcast: Sailing

Episode Transcript
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Capn Tinsley (00:02):
So you bought a sailboat.
Now what?
Let's face it, buying the boatis the easy part.
The real challenge ismaintenance.
I have to now take care of thisinvestment I've just made.
What do I need to do daily,weekly, monthly and annually to
keep my boat sailing smoothly?
That's the question I've beengetting a lot lately.
So good news tonight we'remaking it simple.

(00:24):
Been getting a lot lately.
So good news tonight we'remaking it simple.
My guest is a true expert in thefield.
Colin Mack of Mack YachtServices in Stewart Florida
Comes from a family that's beenin the boating business in
Florida for over 50 years, withdecades of hands-on experience
in sailing, maintaining andrefitting sailboats.
Colin is here to break it alldown and give us a no-nonsense

(00:44):
approach to keeping your boatsea-ready and safe.
Before we get into this, I wantto please, please ask you to
engage with the video.
You know what to do Like, share, subscribe, comment and drop
your questions in the live chatso Colin can respond in real
time, and that would on YouTubeor or Facebook.
So grab a cold drink, get readyto take notes.

(01:07):
I'm Captain Tinsley of SailingVessels, salty Abandoned, and
this is the Salty Podcast,episode 52.
Please help me.
Welcome Colin Mack, boom, justlike that.
Hey how's it going, Colin?
How are you tonight?

Colin Mack (01:28):
I'm doing great Tinsley.
How are you?

I'm doing good.
I'm glad to see you here.
You are all the rage in theIsland Packet world.
You're all over the IslandPacket Facebook page.
I love how you see posts onthere and you help where you can
and I think that's awesome.
And I would like to see ifthere's any more qualifiers you
think I should add into thattitle.
I didn't read your whole resumeor anything, but I just want to

(01:53):
give us just a real quick briefintroduction of who you are.
Your family's been doing thisfor over 50 years, right?

Colin Mack (02:02):
Correct.
My father actually started inMiami at 68 as a sailmaker and
we moved out of Miami in 1988,due to all the crime and drugs
that was going on.
We moved up to Stewart.
Stewart was just a fishingvillage and we were the.
You know.
Back then you had regionallofts.
You didn't have major you knowname brands all over the country

(02:23):
.
North was in his part of theworld and Robbie Doyle was just
getting out of the Olympics andstarted Doyle Loft and you know
you had local sailmakers.
So it was a different world.
And when we moved to Stewart in86, we opened in 88 and it was
still fairly regional, althoughNorth had gotten very big, but a
lot of the lofts were just momand pop lofts and so we reopened

(02:45):
in 88 and I came board, helpeddad lay the floorboards in the
sail loft and we went from there.
So I've been doing it since.
I've been doing it since I wasin diapers, but officially since
88 when we opened the loft, andso we've been at it quite a few
years.
So there isn't much we haven'trun into.
I'm always surprised when we dofind something unique or

(03:05):
different.
But it has been an interesting38 years.

Yeah, so your brother now, I guess, broke off
and took the sailing part of itand you're doing the yacht
services part of it.

Colin Mack (03:17):
Is that right?
We do so.
When we opened in 88, we did alittle rigging.
In the early 90s we starteddoing electronics and a lot more
things like that and then aboutseven years ago I sold my
interest in the sail loft in therigging shop to my brother, um
thinking, thinking that you know, sail making, you know, had a

(03:38):
limit everyone was going tochina.
Fortunately, as a lot of thosemom and pop shops closed, max
Sales actually picked up a lotof those customers who
appreciated a little morecustomer service and made in the
USA things like that.
And of course, our first year wepretty much worked on anybody,
but we always loved the IslandPacket fleet.
We love working on boats.

(03:59):
It's all I know how to do and,of course, the Island Packet
brand and the fleet just kind ofmeshed together.
So it was really lovely to havea great boat that we love to
work on.
That we know really well.
The clients are 99.9% of themare fabulous and love working
and we bought and built the boatyard around basically Island

(04:22):
Packet yachts and it's been agreat success.
And we just finished our last150 feet of seawall and we're
going to be getting onto a newbuilding this this summer, so
it's exciting stuff.

Okay, well, great, yes, and I've been to your,
your yard, and you said welcometo what did you say Welcome to
Welcome?

Colin Mack (04:44):
to hell.

And, like you said , you started off doing
everything to pay the bills,servicing all kinds of boats,
but you went to Island Packagebecause it's such a well-made
boat and you like the type ofbuyers that you're servicing or
this type of owners.

Colin Mack (05:00):
Yeah, the type of owners and, frankly, there's
four or five boats that we wouldprobably work on, but you know,
to find a boat that you caninvest money in and not lose
your shirt, and you know it's awell-built boat, it's common
sense.
It was put together nicely,it's just a pleasure to work on
almost all the models.
There's a few ones that youknow they packed in a little too

(05:22):
much here and there, buteverybody's guilty of that and
fortunately, I think we justfinished our 276 chain plate
restoration.
Um, 277 is in the barn.
So you know we've done hundredsof chain plate jobs, among
other things.
And, um, I think currently wehave 15 island packets in under
our care, so we're, uh, betweenthat and the

(05:44):
islandpacketpartscom website forall the legacy packets.
We have a whole website justfor parts that are hard to find
or parts that we recommend,because there's three or four
different options of things youcan buy.
And, um, one of them isactually a strainer.
We had three island packetssink, or come close to sinking,
because of a particular brand ofstraineriner that was 30 years

(06:05):
old, and it was just a.
I wouldn't call it a designflaw, because 30 years is plenty
of time for something to wearout.
But you know we try and makerecommendations on things that
give me less headaches andtherefore my customers less
headaches, which is good for allof us.
Right, okay, and I'm glad youmentioned that the the website

(06:25):
for the island packet parts, andthat is island packet parts,
right on packpartscom, yep, andthen uh okay, and then
macyotservicescom, and then ofcourse I've started doing last
few years some brokerage withterry ivins at sale, so we kind
of have the whole thing coveredin under our group.
We've got, you know, greatemployees and you know my wife,

(06:47):
carrie, runs the books and takescare of all the stuff that I
leave around.
So it is still a familybusiness, a hundred percent
family business.

Okay, all right.
So Mike Wack says I'm leavingin 10 days for a six week 1200
mile sale.
Ask Colin about a maintenancechecklist, which is exactly what
we're going to talk about.
I've changed oil, oil filters,new wet exhaust and elbow, new
batteries.
Yeah, I did that recently too,so why don't we just jump into
it?
So basically, I did a chat GPT,like I told you, island Packet,

(07:20):
Sailboat Maintenance Schedule,boom and it came up with a
pretty good list and I sent itto you.

Colin Mack (07:25):
It's a pretty darn good list.
Absolutely.
I've got it right here on theright.
So if I'm looking off screen tothe left it's because I've got
my thing up here.

Okay, Well, we're going to just kind of go through
it and you're going to oh,that's even easier, thank you.
Yeah, is what chat GPT came upwith this prompt and it's not
too bad as as uh, as Colin says.
So why don't we just start offand tell what you think of that
daily list?

Colin Mack (07:52):
Sure, sure.
Well, I'm going to preface thatwith um.
You have to understand, we alllove the dream, we all love the
boat.
Our time on the boat, hey,david, should be enjoyable.
But I think what a lot of peopledon't realize is that
everything that is worth doing,everything that is enjoyable, it

(08:13):
takes effort.
You have to make money to payfor a trip, you have to make
money to buy your boat.
Well, you want to protect thoseinvestments, but you really
want to protect your crew andunfortunately, a couple summers
ago I came very close to notbeing crew and going overboard.
And that's just one more thingthat leads me to kind of the
maintenance that we worry about.

(08:34):
So take it seriously.
Value your investment, valueyour crew.
Life is short and it should befun, and a little bit of effort
up front makes for such more ofan enjoyable trip, and it's.
It's hard because boating ingeneral is not an inexpensive
sport, but if you keep up withit, I assure you it is less

(08:56):
expensive to maintain it than itis to let it go awry and end up
like let the oil run out, andthen you have to buy a new
engine, exactly exactly that'snever happened to me.
Unfortunately, misguidedenthusiasm too.
There's a lot of informationout there.
There's a lot of people thathave a lot of history that may
or may not know what they'retalking about.
It's good to get a coupledifferent opinions.

(09:19):
I tell people all the time look, this is my experience over the
last 40 years.
If you don't like it, listen toit.
If you don't like it, throw itout.
It's like politics and religionthere's something for everybody
.
But sift through the mishmashand where you find three or four
answers that are the same,you'll generally find that
that's probably the correctanswer and the one or two

(09:40):
outliers well, it's justsomebody's opinion and they're
entitled to it, but it may notmake it right for you.

Sure yeah, Everybody's got an opinion, Even
the warriors that are thatnever leave the dock right.

Colin Mack (09:58):
They don't want to chime in.
We got some experts on in thewatching though we got.

we got so they might be checking what you say,
so be careful.
So they might be checking whatyou say, so be careful, they're
experts.

Colin Mack (10:08):
I got my cup Aiden.

So I'm always glad when they're on here.
Okay, so let's start with thelist and see what you think is
good and what you'd do better.

Colin Mack (10:18):
Absolutely.
So generally, don't be in ahurry.
You know, I think checking yourengine and oil coolant levels
is always important.
I thoroughly believe in a cleanbilge and a fresh.
You know we call them diapersor the oil pads, because and I
spent a lot of time around sportfish boats and mega yachts and

(10:42):
the engine rooms are alwayswhite and clean and they spend
all this time with the crewcleaning.
Now we're the crew on our boats.
But I asked a guy once when Iwas much younger, like why is it
ego, what is it?
And I said no, if somethingleaks or, you know, starts
spewing, you're going to find it10 times quicker because
everything is clean.
So you know something shows upon the diaper pad, you have a

(11:03):
problem.
If there's oil on theinsulation panels on the side,
you've got a problem.
If everything is clean, it's somuch easier to identify.
So you know, anytime I hop onmy boat, I check the oil, I
check the transmission fluid, Icheck the diaper.
Um, you know, I make sure thatthe strainer is clean.
Um, I check the bilge pumpconstantly.
Um, one thing that wasn't onthe list is to inspect check the

(11:24):
bilge pump constantly.
One thing that wasn't on thelist is to inspect the bilge
pump operation, but check themanual and also check the float
switch, which means reachingdown there.
I have a yardstick in my boatwith a nail on the end of it.
It's highly technical, but thatway I can lift up the float
switch and make sure it'sworking and there isn't
something stuck under it like apiece of debris or a piece of

(11:45):
oil rag or you know somethingthat one of the kids dropped in
the bilge?
Um.

So I always like to test both functions, um, you
know actually the second one onthe list inspect, inspect bilge
and bilge pump operations.

Colin Mack (11:59):
So many people just flip the manual switch and they
don't check the automatic switch, um, and and we see that a lot
like we had a boat a coupleweeks ago that had water up to
almost the bottom of thestrainer on an island packet um,
and it fortunately was freshwater.
There was a leak in the freshwater system, um, but his

(12:19):
automatic bilge pump didn't gooff, and yeah you know, it was
just dumb luck that the boat wasin the yard and we were taking
care of it.
So, um, always check the floatswitch and make sure all your
connections are are tight andheat shrinked.
Um, you know, navigation lightsis huge, um, for me, um, I like

(12:40):
to go around and do the waltzwhen I check my rigging, because
that was a one, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three,
and every turnbuckle on yourboat has three cotter pins.
You've got one at the clevispin and you've got two at the
turnbuckle, at the bottle screw.
And so I literally go aroundthe boat every time I'm on a
boat that's leaving or I'mtaking out, and I check one, two

(13:01):
, three pins every singlebuckleand just make sure that they're
bent back, they're in place.
Back in the day we used to usebronze cotter pins.
We joke about Chinese-ium,chinese stainless.
We've seen cotter pins thatlook like stainless and they

(13:21):
were mild steel because they'vebeen electropolished or
something.
So we lose about a rig a yeardue to a bad cotter pin.
Um, I was on a, on a four, 20 inthe yard and there was some new
owners, very friendly people,um, and they were kind of
overwhelmed by all the work thatwe'd done and and kind of
making sure that our work wasright and they didn't have a lot

(13:42):
of basis for the opinions.
So there was a lot of questionsthat were a little frustrating,
um, but I said, look, you know,this is your life like.
Her life is in your hands.
Your life is in his hands.
You guys need to be responsible, just like if you're climbing,
rock climbing, you check yourrope and all your cams, you
check your harness, you checkeverything every time you go on
diving.

If you're going diving, you're checking
everything Exactly.

Colin Mack (14:04):
So you know cotter pins from your lifelines, this
boat in particular.
The pin was halfway out of thetoggle fork at the turnbuckle
and it was jammed in and thecotter pin was missing.
And I was telling them a storyabout how a lady fell over the
Bahamas in the middle of thebank because a lifeline gate

(14:26):
came unscrewed.
So you have to lay eyes onevery little connection and it
doesn't have to be aninvestigation, but you walk by
and you check your pins and youmake sure that everything's
tight.
You just have to go around.

I'm sure if you're about to make a big passage,
you'd be really zoning in onthis stuff, absolutely so.

Colin Mack (14:45):
I actually fell out of a bosun's chair when I was 14
because I relied on one ofthose little cotter rings or
whiz wheels at the end of theblock and the rope grabbed it
and stripped it out and I fellabout 15 feet, hit the deck and
started rolling overboard.
And if I'd been much higherthan 15 feet I might not be here
today.
So those are, you know, and itmight sound like fear mongering

(15:09):
or I'm being overly dramatic,but it happens all the time.
Um, we lose about three peoplea year in the sport.
Some are professional, some arenot, but, um, you know paying
attention to um.
You know we got caught in 70knots for 11 hours two summers
ago and we just changed therigging, the chain plates were
good, we knew the engine wasgetting tired, but it was the

(15:31):
bahamas for a few weeks how badcould it be?
And we had a beautiful sailback from west end, 11 and a
half hours under a sail only,and the last 11 hours was 70
knots, confused, confused seastate.
And we broke topping lifts, webroke outhauls, we broke
mainsheet travelers, we brokeall kinds of shackles that we

(15:53):
took for granted because they'dbeen there and we hadn't had a
problem before and I almost wentoverboard going out to wrestle
the mainsail and ended upinjuring my neck.
For about a year and a half Ihad a horrible you know cervical
injury that is finally healed.
But so, yeah, take a look atshackles and pins and
turnbuckles and everything thathas a connection Hose clamps.

(16:18):
You know you just need to kindof go around your boat when
you're not in a hurry and andgrab a rum or beer or whatever
it is you like and start lookingaround and just checking all
the things.
Like the next one on your listis to check your pins and
shackles and, um, I was on aboat yesterday and the furling
line block was the shackle wasvery loose and the guy always

(16:38):
stood up to pull back against it.
Well, if that shackle cameloose he'd be in the drink.
Yeah, and people don't thinkabout that stuff, but it is.
It is good to do and a lot ofthe shackles self-lock, a lot of
them don't.

Um, I don't particularly like when I I um, I
will get an inspection done acouple times a year, but
especially if I'm right to goI'm about to go on a long, you
know trip and crossing the gulfor something.
I'll just because I wanteverything up the mast also
inspected, if I'm right to go.
I'm about to go on a long tripand crossing the Gulf or
something, I'll just because Iwant everything up the mast also
inspected.
I'm doing something like that,yeah.

Colin Mack (17:11):
Yeah Well, most riggers are going to charge you
probably 250 to 400 bucks to doa rigging inspection and check
everything aloft and they canreplace things if they see it
right then, and I just I justthink it's a good idea.

And they can replace things if they see it
right then, and I just thinkit's a good idea.
And you know, some people dothis themselves.
But as long as you're doing itright, yeah, and you know what
you're looking for.

Colin Mack (17:32):
Well, it's really good to know your boat, right,
and the biggest thing is to lookfor stuff that's different,
that was different than it waslast time you looked at it,
right, you know to that's,that's the difference.

you know, why does that look slightly different?
Why is that shackle cocked orthat rope chafed, or you know
things like that.
So, um, I think that and it'sgood to do that with the engine
too, like before I go out, goahead, get the, uncover the
engine, you know, take that andthen start it, and if I'm
looking at it every time, I'mgoing to notice something
spewing or something steaming,or if something looks
differently, like you're saying,yeah absolutely Something
blowing up.

Colin Mack (18:14):
Absolutely.
Yeah, we see an awful lot of.

Do I always do that no?

Colin Mack (18:19):
None of us do yeah, but we can do better.

That's what we're supposed to do, yeah, okay, so
weekly.
So this chat gbt came up, washdeck and top size, check battery
voltage and charging system, uminspect anchor windlass and
ground tackle test.
Build pump manually, flush headwith fresh water, okay.
So what do you think of thosethings on a weekly basis?

Colin Mack (18:41):
well, I like to wash my boat every couple of weeks
Maintenance.
It's funny because growing upin the Bahamas, you know fresh
water was 50 cents a gallon inthe seventies.
Well, fresh water is still 50cents a gallon, you know, 40
years later.
And someone asked me once.
They said why do you, why doall those sport fishermen put

(19:01):
all that water over all thosealuminum towers and whole boat?
They spend hours and hourswashing the boat.
Well, they're protecting theirinvestment.
When you pay $150,000 for atuna tower, you're going to
spend a couple hundred bucksworth of water making sure that
that doesn't pit and corrodeyour island packet or whatever
boat you have.
It isn't any different.
The more salt you can keep off,the longer your stainless will

(19:24):
last.
The you know, the more wax youkeep on it, the better the gel
coat will stay.
Fortunately, island Packetspent a ton of money on their
gel coat compared to mostvendors, so we end up wet
sanding and three stepping themand they look brand new.
Hayden can probably attest aslong with a bunch of other
people.
What a great job actuallygetting that oxidation off and

(19:46):
putting proper wax on and justsaving that investment.
You know, the salt is likediamond powder.
People don't realize howaggressive salt really is, so I
like to wash it every couple ofweeks and I also interesting,
fun fact spend the extra moneyto get a boat wash because the

(20:07):
your detergents like Dawn andTide and Joy, they actually eat
stainless steel for lunch.

What I didn't know , that and it strips the wax.

Colin Mack (20:20):
When I was a kid my first boat was a Morgan 22 and
and I had been cleaning the boatand we always had joy Like we
bathed with it.
As kids in the Bahamas, I mean,you use joy for everything.
And I left the bottle in thesink after washing the boat and
I went to Canada for four orfive weeks with my brother to go
racing and enjoy summer andwhen I came back the bottle of

(20:41):
joy was in the bilge under thesink and that was in, I think,
1992.
And I asked my dad he's likeyeah, no, it's pretty corrosive.
And so that was kind of thebeginning of my my entry into
metallurgy.
Um, I don't have a degree, butI've studied it my whole life
and basically those detergentseat stainless steel just like

(21:04):
they eat grease, and so thosedetergents are really bad for
your stainless steel.
So spend a little extra moneyand get the boat wash with maybe
a little Teflon or something.

OK, tell me what the name of it is.
Is it called boat wash?

Colin Mack (21:17):
You can get the stuff at West Marine.
You can buy all wash which isby all grip, which is probably a
better product.
Buy all wash which is by allgrip, which is probably a better
product, um, but you know,basically trying to stay away
from the, the heavy detergentsthat you would use for, like
your laundry or your, you know,your house, because it's
convenient, um, and it juststrips the surfaces and the
finishes and it eats thepassivation off the stainless.

(21:39):
It just in general I've seenboat guys.

you know that work on boats.
Oh, okay, you use Saltway.

Colin Mack (21:47):
Saltway is great.

They use Dawn to clean up the engine.
Yeah, no.

Colin Mack (21:53):
Well.

What if you make sure it's all rinsed and
everything which I'm?

Colin Mack (21:56):
sure, well, it's okay on an engine, but it will
strip away all the finish, likethe whole point.
Squeak clean.
You know you talk about squeakclean dishes.
Well, you've stripped away thewax, um, and so like.
So my, my, my go-to is franklythe west marine, like you know,
with uh teflon in it and it's uhit just it keeps my auger

(22:18):
finish looking good on one of myboats and um so salt away, so
it melts the salt.
But you know, when you get thatthat dirty, greasy, exhaust
stuff like that, you know, yeah,that's a good salt away is but
um and star bright for the.
For the bright, I mean for the,uh, stainless yeah, there's also

(22:40):
a great product that we talkabout a lot, um, and everybody
should go buy one, and I don'tget anything for it.
But there's a product calledSpotless Stainless on Amazon and
it is a.
It kind of is like navel jellythat we all grew up with, but
you paint it on with apaintbrush late in the day on
threads or screws or anythingstainless steel and as soon as

(23:03):
that goes on, in about 15 or 20minutes you need to rinse it off
thoroughly because you don'twant it to dry.
But that spotless stainlesswill give your stainless about a
year's worth of protection andpassivation and polish and it
gets into the places that youcan't really get without a
toothbrush, like the threads onyour lifeline turnbuckles.
You know, no one's going to getall that out.

Um yeah, hey, I was going to say I think you
recommended that to me one time.
I'm sure I did.

Colin Mack (23:30):
I recommended to everybody so um spotless and uh
and just you know, all washer,probably two of my favorite
products.
Um, just keeping the boatlooking good and protecting that
investment.

We've got some activity here in the comments,
so that's good.
Keep them coming.
Okay, so this weekly list.

Colin Mack (23:49):
Yeah, let's put that back up and we'll take a peek
and see what they got.

Doing that test of the bilge pump again.

Colin Mack (23:56):
Yeah, bilge pump.
I check my bilge pump everytime I'm on the boat.

Okay, I'll make a commitment to doing that.

Colin Mack (24:05):
Battery voltage is something funny.
We had one today actually thata broker called me about Terry
Ivins, yeah, and the alternatorwas running really hot and they
were having some other issuesrunning some electric winches,
some other issues run in someelectric winches, and basically

(24:26):
determine that even though yourmeter said you had, you know,
12.9 volts, um, it was reallyjust kind of a float across the
top of the batteries in terms ofpower.
Um, the old saying they don'tmake it like they used to is
completely true.
Um, and the new or batteries,you know, you go to West Marine,
you buy a local West Marinebattery for 200 bucks or you buy
an Odyssey Extreme for 500.

(24:47):
Well, there's a reason that onecosts 500 and you can feel it
in the weight of the battery aswell.
As a lot of the batteries areusing recycled lead versus
virgin lead, and so the recycledlead doesn't hold as big of a
charge necessarily as, say, avirgin lead that might have, you
know, less contaminants in it.
Thicker plates, thicker wires,what?

about?
What about the ones of us, themany, growing number of us, that
has the lithium batteries?

Colin Mack (25:16):
I'm still skeptical.
I've been on the.

Lithionics.
I got that Rolls Royce gun.
It is there's, there's a lot.

Colin Mack (25:22):
There's actually a lot of good ones.
Yeah, I think in the nextcouple of years that I will be a
convert, but honestly, thereason I'm hesitant to sign off
on it or to promote it is that alot of people believe that you
can just swap out the batteriesand a couple other things and go
lithium and we've seen boatscatch fire all the time, seen

(25:44):
people have problems with them.
Most lithium batteries I knowEpoch makes a cranking battery
in lithium.
Most of the lithium batteriesthat we see are multipurpose.
But you know you really need tobe invested in with newer,
updated chargers, newer wiring,newer alternators with the right

(26:07):
controllers, making sure thatall your bonding system is done
Like.
It's so much more than justswitching to lithium batteries.

Yeah, my stuff's all Victron.
Is that right Victron?

Colin Mack (26:17):
Yeah, and they make great products.

So that was all installed at the same time,
where you know it was allprofessionally.
Yeah, not my job, I didn't doit.

Colin Mack (26:29):
No, and it's great if it's done right.
You know I've seen quite a few380s that have done a phenomenal
job, but they've spent $20,000on their battery bank, you know,
on their chargers and theirwiring and their controllers and
getting everything networked.

And that's not for everybody.
All that is not for everybody,yeah.

Colin Mack (26:50):
No, I've seen people do it for 10, but that's still
a lot of money.
So definitely get someone who'sdone a lot of them and is good
at it and make sure that you'reup for the investment, because
it's not just going out andbuying some new batteries.

So definitely load .
Take care of them and not bringthem all the way down every
time you know bring them to zeroor anything so.

Colin Mack (27:10):
Okay, well, Well, an average of about five years on
a regular battery.
Um, and after about five yearsthey start to lose their depth
or their you know, their, theirdeep cycle or their cranking
amps.
They'll lose that ability toget that deep, deep, deep charge
.
And so, while stuff will run,it will burn up your compressors

(27:31):
because they're going to run onthe wrong voltage or amperage
coming in.
When the volts are low, theamps go up, the heat goes up, it
burns up chips, it burns upbrushes, it burns up motors.
So how?

do you know when your batteries are getting to
that point?

Colin Mack (27:47):
Well, typically about five years, If the biggest
talent talent I saw, davidHickey on here.
Hi, david, if you're runningyour thruster and it only lasts
for about 20 or 30 seconds andthen turns off, that is
representative of potentiallylong term and also short term
issues related to heat.

(28:08):
So if the battery.

Shouldn't be using it that long anyway.

Colin Mack (28:12):
Oh, I can stand on them for 30, 40 seconds, maybe a
minute.

I don't have one.

Colin Mack (28:16):
I love mine.
I just put one in.
It's totally cheating but Ilove it.
But if your bow thruster crapsout or your windlass craps out
and has to cool off-.

Okay, yeah, the windlass.

Colin Mack (28:32):
Your batteries are on their way out and you may
have done some damage to thebrushes or the motors or the
solenoids on your windlass oryour bow thruster.

Those are the two biggest telltale signs that we
see weekly that's terrible, okay, so you've got to be really
paying attention because youdon't want to burn anything up.

Colin Mack (28:47):
Nope, okay, nope, all right.

All right, so monthly.

Colin Mack (28:53):
So the list has check and clean raw water
strainer, that last one, toflush the head with fresh water.
Old school, the mega yachtslove white vinegar.
It's cheap, you get it atPublix or Hannaford or whatever
your grocery store is.
Most of the mega yachts don'tuse industrial cleaners, they

(29:18):
use mostly vinegar.
It doesn't leave streaks, itdoesn't strip too much.
And in my head and I'm suredifferent opinions and not for
everybody but I always throw ina quarter cup of white vinegar
into the head because it killsthe bacteria that's going to
create that brown slime ring andit keeps it from growing
bacteria and it keeps the sulfurdown and it may eat at some of
the seals over time but they'regoing to go anyway and it just

(29:40):
keeps everything.

It's a natural disinfectant.

Colin Mack (29:42):
It's great.
So we use white vinegareverywhere.
We throw it down the drains, wethrow it down the scuppers, we
throw it in the toilets, wethrow it down the drains, we
throw it down the scuppers, wethrow it in the toilets.

Now, what if you have a waste filtration system
the PureSan?
I've got that.
Will that react with the bleach?
Tablets I use fresh wateranyway.

Colin Mack (30:04):
I just use it from the shower.
Yeah, use the fresh water,you're fine.

Yeah, mostly yeah.

Colin Mack (30:08):
I wouldn't think the vinegar, I mean ammoniagar and
bleach, don't care, ammonia andbleach obviously are deadly, but
I wouldn't be too worried aboutvinegar here and there.

Okay, all right.
I wasn't sure.
Okay, All right, so we've got.

Colin Mack (30:24):
I'm not sure that myself.

Okay, all right, Checking okay.
So for this is also going to beon the audio side of the
podcast, so I want to read this.
Check and clean raw waterstrainer.
Inspect fuel lines and fittingsfor leaks.
Lubricate winches and movingdeck hardware.
Test and cycle seacocks.
Inspect belts and hoses forwear.
Verify steering systemoperation.

(30:48):
Clean and inspect solar panels.

Colin Mack (30:51):
Oh, that's a good one.
That's a pretty good list.
Raw water strainers I thinkshould be more than monthly,
especially if you're runningyour air conditioning, and this
will probably be a topic fordebate and I'm okay with that.
But I use bromine tablets fromthe pool store in my strainers.

Say it again you kind of, you kind of went out a
little bit Bromine.

Colin Mack (31:15):
Bromine, bromine.
So bromine is a tablet that youthrow in your sauna or your
pool and what it does is itkeeps your strainer clean, keeps
your air conditioners clean,keeps all your pipes clean.
Um, so really helpful for that.
I also have a separate strainerfor my air conditioner than my
main engine, which I think isvaluable, and most island

(31:37):
packets unfortunately don't.
Um, but the bromine good.
Um, the bromine is really goodfor keeping everything clean and
the.
Some of the experts may saywell, you know, it's going to
eat the copper in the coils ofthe air conditioner.
But if you have your airconditioner service to keep it
running efficiently and keep theoxidation off of the inside of

(31:59):
the pipes, they're using acidfor that as well.
So I haven't really determineda difference, a noticeable
difference, between having yourair conditioner acid washed
every couple of years and justkeeping bromine tablets in there
.
Once a month you throw inanother size tablet.

What about Barnacle Buster?

Colin Mack (32:17):
That's the acid that they use to clean the air
conditioners.
So if you just drop a brominetablet in your strainer, when it
goes away, throw another one in.
It's going to keep all yourpipes clean.
It's going to keep yourstrainer clean from growth Like
nothing grows in it.
It just absolutely kills allthe, all the algae, all the

(32:38):
barnacles, all the seaweed,everything that would grow in
your strainer, especially inSouth Florida.
Um, my strainer looks like Ijust put it in yesterday because
I keep those.

Are you talking about the engine and the air
conditioner, or just the airconditioner and air conditioner?
Well, you can do both, okay.
And then so the main strainer.
And please forgive me, becauseI know how to sail, but the
maintenance is not my firstanyway.
So you got the one that's inthe engine, the little one yeah.

(33:07):
I got the 3g 30 F, then you gotthe bigger one down by the bilge
pumps I'm in a 320, by the way,yeah, and then I have the one
for you, have one for the toiletalso and then one for the air
conditioner.

Colin Mack (33:22):
Right.
Well, most Island packets thatwe've been on might have one or
two Okay, a lot of the Islandpackets had the main strainer
right down at the bottom of thelanding.
It was a Perco with four bigbolts that came up to a top with
a wing nut on it and usuallyyou would see three or four or

(33:42):
five connections teed off ofthat main strainer.
So a lot of people were pullingair conditioning or toilets off
of that main engine strainer,which isn't a big deal because
you're not running the airconditioner at the same time as
the engine.
Probably you might flush atoilet, but the water demand
isn't that great.
But I personally think youought to have one for the engine

(34:03):
dedicated and one foreverything else.
If you've got two airconditioners, you might want two
strainers because you've gottwo pumps, but I still like the
bromine tablets in there to keepeverything clean.
You know, if you got two airconditioners, you might want two
strainers because you got twopumps, but I still like the
bromine tablets in there to keepeverything clean and that's a
good tip that's a good tip andit's cheap.
Home Depot has it, pool storeshave it.
I love it.
It cuts down on my maintenanceand my aggravation okay, so I do

(34:27):
have this one question.

okay, this is Mike , he's from Orange Beach, he has
an Island Packet 29.
Batteries Plus sells adual-purpose AGM battery, all
virgin lead, 1080 CCA.
That costs about $500, but justrepowered with them, very good.
Replace Lifeline batteries thatlasted six years.

Colin Mack (34:47):
Yep, yep.
And Lifeline is.
You know Lifeline is a greatone.
Odyssey Extreme is probably myfavorite.
You know there's there's threeor four really good batteries,
but that's definitely.
You know.
Anytime you can get a batterythat's proven.
And the warranty too.
A lot of these have like aprorated warranty.
One of the reasons I likeOdyssey is they have a

(35:10):
three-year.
Last time I checked it was athree-year non prorated warranty
.
One of the reasons I likeOdyssey is they have a
three-year.
Last time I checked it was athree-year non-prorated full
replacement warranty.
So at the end of three years ifsomething went bad, they gave
you a brand new battery, whichto me was phenomenal.
And so you know, if you havesomething that you like and it
works for you and it fits yourbudget, that's great.
Just know what you're getting.

Okay, so, um, we just read the monthly list,
didn't we?
Yeah?

Colin Mack (35:38):
So um, I'm amazed.
Even on my own boat, um, I keepa ton of hose clamps.
We really like the Scanvic umclamps cause they don't have the
little holes in them or theserrations in them.
It's a solid clamp.
It's a thicker gauge ofstainless, it lasts longer,
they're just like them ingeneral and they're more

(36:00):
expensive.
But for us it's about keepingyou having fun, not keeping you
coming back.
You're going to be back anyway.
We just want to get you to havesome fun, so you want to come
back.
You're going to be back anyway.
We just want to get you to havesome fun, so you want to come
back.
So I think I replaced somethinglike 22 hose clamps on my boat
last summer.
Wow, they were the obscure hoseclamps that you know.
They weren't under a lot ofpressure.

(36:21):
You didn't think a big dealabout them.
They're in kind of corners ofthe boat and I thought you know
what I haven't done hose clampsin a while.
I should just really just gobring a whole box back from the
boat yard.
All the different sizes and itwas amazing how many of them you
know.
On the holding tank.
Um, you know there was twoclamps.

(36:42):
Well, one of them I put thewrench on and it snapped right
off in my hand because it was anold, serrated one and people
just they look at it, okay, it'sthere, it hasn't broken.
But until you actually tightenup on that screw, that's when
they break.
You know, if you've got a clogin the head or something, that
pressure is going to build inthe hose, it's going to break a
hose clamp and then you got ashitty mess in your bilge, which
you don't want um.

So as a rule of thumb, like, how often do you
recommend?
Every couple years, just goahead and change them all out?

Colin Mack (37:12):
I would say every 10 years you should change all
your clamps, no matter what.
Yeah, but I think you shouldinspect them every big trip,
like I feel like most peoplewill sail maybe once.
I mean, well, the northeast isin the Midwest is a little
different because they have sucha short season, but down here
in Florida, chesapeake,caribbean, you know we sail

(37:35):
maybe once a month, maybe twicea month, and then we try and go
out for a long cruise somewherefor two or three or four weeks
if we're lucky enough to get thetime to go off.
And so before every big tripyou know I try and do that, you
know, just big annual checks andchecking hose clamps, and then
you know if it's got rust on it.
Well, rust is kind of like, um,your precursor to a failure.

(38:00):
Uh, I tell people all the timethat rust is cancer it is rust,
is the iron leaking out of thestainless, and the iron is the
lifeblood of your stainlesssteel.
So if you see rust, it's comingout of the stainless.
Um the um, this is a new.

Yes, yeah, this is a new ip owner in key west.
They sold everything in ohioand moved to qs on a boat on a
beautiful one night.
2021 380 is Is that right?
I'm sorry, mike, I forgot.
Yeah, how much of your businessrelated to he's new to the
whole Island Packet thing.

Colin Mack (38:37):
So Nope, all good.
So we have two full-timeemployees that don't do anything
but chain plates.
They're doing chain plates allday.
You know weeks a year, that'sall they do.
We have another guy who doeschain plates kind of part-time
or helps fill in with stuff, andthose guys just do chain plates

(39:00):
.
Like we have a cleaning crewand a prep crew so that those
guys can do 99 of just the workthat they do.
The electricians come in andhelp out with things like
removing hot water heaters orelectronics that might be in the
way of the chain plates.
So we really I would say chainplates probably makes up 20% of
our business that we do in theyard.

We always have two .
So let's throw some numbers outthere, just kind of general
numbers.
Sure, On an Island, Packet 320,.
What would it cost to replaceMine's 1998, so after 1998, they
were better Still, at somepoint I'm going to have to do it
right, yes, I'll start with.

Colin Mack (39:45):
unfortunately, it's about 140 to 160 hours worth of
work, depending on the boat.
The unfortunate part is it'sharder to do an island pack at
27 than it is an island pack at40.
The 27, it's harder.

I used to have one of those, yeah, okay.

Colin Mack (40:05):
Access.
We just finished a 27 recentlythat had external chain plates
and the guy realized it wasn't agreat way to go.
Some of the bolts weren't eventhrough, like they were into
nothing, um, so the guy wassailing around completely
unaware that his boat was unsafe.
It was really not done well atall.
Some of the external plateshave been done okay, but not my

(40:25):
favorite.
Um but um the um, I forgotwhere we're going.
I'm sorry on that one is itlike 20 grand?
it is.
It starts out it's a 19.5 forthe smaller boats, um, like the
27, the 31, the 32, the 35.
Um, the bigger boats, you'reinto the 24 to 25 range for,

(40:47):
like the 420 and the 440.
Uh, the 485, I think, is up to26,000.
Um, and then the three digitboats, um, they're a little bit
more expensive because of theheadstay fitting is
significantly more complicated.
Um, but the crazy thing is, youknow, you'd mentioned, you know
, three, 20 versus like a 32,.

(41:09):
Um, in 1998, 99, they startedswitching over to 316L.
It still suffers the samefailure and death that 304
suffers.
The biggest difference is thatthere's more nickel and tin and
chromium in 316 than there is,where the 304 is heavily

(41:29):
invested in carbon for strength.
So the newer plates are thickerby design to make up for the
lack of strength.
Less carbon, less strength,also less rust.
The nickel and tin and chromiumreally are just there to
encapsulate the iron, to keep itshiny.
Basically in very basic laymanterms.
But 316 chain plates still fail.

(41:52):
We always tell people okay, youknow, pre-99 vote you're
looking at, you know 20 to 25years of usable life expectancy.
Beyond that 25, you're drivingaround with bald tires waiting
for it to rain, and we've seenlots of 25, listen driving
around with bald tires waitingfor it to rain, and we've seen

(42:13):
lots of 25.

Listen, mine is what is mine?
98?
I need to think about it, don'tI?

Colin Mack (42:19):
And we actually had two boats come in last summer
that lost chain plates comingdown from the Chesapeake and
they were being proactive, downfrom the Chesapeake, you know,
and they were being proactive,and the one lady said that every
day the chain plate came out ofthe boat a little further and a
little further every day, andyou know.
So they ducked in and came downthe ditch for the rest of the

(42:41):
run.
And then the 316 we figureabout 28 to 30 years as a limit,
I think by 25, you reallyshould be heavily invested in in
budgeting and getting on a listto have them done.

Actually about 20 grand, 20 grand.

Colin Mack (43:02):
And we just did a four 20 yesterday and we did
another one.
Do you have a?

payment plan one.
You have a payment plan masscarterby's, uh, but we've done
interest.
Yeah, we've done three.
Probably do a lot of businessdoing that.

Colin Mack (43:18):
But, um, but amazingly, a lot of the 420s and
the 380s, um, and it's reallyeasy to check.
I wish I had a graphic.
But on the headstay fittingwhere the three bolts come in
through the front of the boatinto the anchor locker, we've
seen three or four in the lastcouple months that had huge
cracks on the headstay fittingat the first bolt.
So really easy for a customerto inspect if they're at the

(43:40):
dock and they're looking at theboat, look underneath.
I'll post some pictures on ourfacebook page and I'll send you
a couple.
Um, but you know, and that's 316, stainless, like that should be
great, but these were all 2001,2002.
So these boats are 2223 yearsold and that by rights should be
the strongest chain plate onthe boat because it's thicker

(44:03):
and it's exposed.
But the best we can tell is allthat salt spray coming up and
it's under the bow sprit so it'snot getting rained on, it may
not be getting washed very often.
It's probably not gettingpolished because it's tucked up
under the bow sprit.
And so I'm amazed how many 420swe've done or 380s, even terry

(44:24):
ivan's 380.
We did the chain plates for theprevious owner and terry bought
the boat we weren't doing thehead stay fitting because we
knew it was outside and it wasbigger and Terry hauled out for
some work and we're walkingthrough the boat yard and you
can see the crack from 30 feetaway.

Oh, wow.

Colin Mack (44:38):
Big scab of rust and I tell people all the time I've
got a scab on my arm because Ihurt myself every day.
If you have a scab of rust,that is your stainless dying
it's wound it's leaking iron.
So if you see a scab of rust,polish it with 220 grit

(44:58):
sandpaper and you'll seeunderneath that.
If there's a little jaggedhairline crack that looks like a
lightning bolt, that's a crack.
If it goes away, it wasn't acrack, it was something on the
surface.
So stainless, not stain proof,and um, again in the 20 to
$26,000 range, um, and it takesabout four to six weeks.

Okay, so, um, so I could probably bring the 320
down there, and there's there'snot a a boat yard fee or
anything, it's just 20 grand.

Colin Mack (45:35):
It's just 20 grand.
So we do, having looked at whatother yards we're trying to do,
um, and knowing you know whatmakes, if it's easy for you,
then it's good for us.
Um, so you come into the yard,your dockage is included, your
electricity is included.
We have a bottom guy that comesby and scrubs every boat in the
yard once a month.
I like it.

We have trailers.

Colin Mack (45:52):
So every boat gets its own trailer to unload
everything.
We give them 15 totes to helpthem pack the boat.

That's right, I remember seeing that.

Colin Mack (46:01):
Put it over on the storage side of the yard.
And then you know, we checkboats daily for bilge pumps and
batteries to make sure thateverything's topped off and the
boat isn't sinking in the yard.
And then the cleaning you know,the prep crew comes in, they
lay cardboard, we put plasticbags over all the fans.

Yeah, so if people don't know, with the island
packet it's embedded into thefiberglass so you have to take
things out, like sometimes thetake things out, like sometimes
the, the cabinets and stuffright.

Colin Mack (46:31):
Every time, yeah, Every time we.
We spend about two guys threedays breaking down the interior
of the boat.

Right, and that's why you have to get your stuff
off.

Colin Mack (46:41):
Yep, Yep and I.
The funniest thing is, peopleask us all the time Well, can we
leave anything?
And I tell them all the timeimagine I took a 10 pound bag of
flour and an M80 and I set itoff in your boat, because it is
going to look like that in themiddle of the work and we clean
up every day, but it is.

I just posted a video a couple of days ago, the
dust is insidious.
Basically, you got to breakinto the fiberglass, take out
the old chain plates, put in thenew and then glass it over and
then put everything backtogether and get all the dust
out.

Colin Mack (47:16):
Make it look like we weren't there.

Hence the $20,000.

Colin Mack (47:20):
Yeah, 160 hours goes really quickly.

That's a lot of hours.

Colin Mack (47:24):
Yeah, absolutely Okay.

So Hayden says this is the way to do it.
Fantastic job.
Yeah, I know he's not a fan ofthe external, which I had done
on my first one, but I knowthat's not cool.
It's not cool in the islandpacket world.

Colin Mack (47:40):
It devalues, in my opinion and again, you know what
they say about opinions but itdevalues the brand.
So if you don't care about thevalue of the boat as much, or
maybe the boat isn't, you know,worth the extra investment, I
can see going external from thatstandpoint or DIY, like,

(48:02):
obviously our time is expensive.
You know, we have people tofeed, insurance, overhead taxes,
we have tons and tons ofexpenses and nothing's free.
But if it's your time, it'seasy to do.
I'm going to have to check outthe yeah Is there someone
standing there or something.
Yeah Well, we had one where theguy was flicking off the Google

(48:22):
truck.

I think they took that one down, but yeah.
I guess you can complain andhave.
I can't yeah, no good grief,lost my train of thought again
all right, so let's go back tothat list, okay, so, um, so we
did we cover all this inspectbills and and belts and hoses

(48:46):
for wear, verify.

Colin Mack (48:46):
So we went through all that I completely disagree
with item three lubricatewinches and deck hardware
monthly yeah, monthly that seemsa lot well, the other problem
people don't realize, and thoseof you out there who know me
know what's coming next oh yeah,what is it?
Huh I can't say enough hotwater hot water hot water on

(49:10):
your boat, get a kettle going.
Once kettle's hot boil, anotherpot of water, get them going
back to back.
Yeah, salt sticks to everything.
Salt loves grease.
Salt loves wd-40, it loves allthe different greases and
lubricants that we've beentrained as kids to put something
on something that squeaks or toget it moving sooner.

(49:32):
But what you don't realize isthat lubricant is attracting
salt and dirt and seagull crap Imean all the crap on your boat
and that gets into the blocksand the bearings.
And then you throw some greaseon it.
You just have this nasty, messypaste that is eventually going
to put the brakes on everythingon your boat.

So you know the you're saying go ahead and pour
hot water over your winches.
What about the teak and allthat?
It's not going to hurt it.

Colin Mack (49:58):
Nope, okay.

Nope, okay.

Colin Mack (49:59):
Pour it on your deck blocks, pour it on you know you
don't necessarily need to pourit on your winches, but your
rope clutches is probably thebiggest one.
Open up the handles, take outthe ropes, pour it in on the
cams and exercise those camsback and forth.
You'd be amazed at how muchstuff bleeds out of those rope
clutches and your deck blocksand your harken furlers.

(50:20):
90 of the boats in the islandpacket world have harken furlers
with open torlon balls.
They do not want grease andthey sure as heck don't want
super lube or something elselike that for the longterm,
because they'll attract salt anddirt and you'll actually wear
those bearings down even thoughthey're Torlon.
I saw one yesterday and theball bearing had been kind of

(50:41):
scraped on one edge Um, and it'sbecause the previous owner had
been using um super lube insteadof one drop from harken um and
it wrecked the torlon ball.
Fortunately we're going toreplace them anyway because the
car came apart.
Wasn't a big deal, but it was agreat history lesson of why you
should just pour your fur.

What about the?
What about the autopilot?
The one that come with thewheel, like um?
I've had it before where it gotreal squeaky, and I know I
don't know if I'd put boilingwater on soft plastic okay, all
right but fresh water from thehose fresh water.
Okay, all right that's it.
Take care of it um and now isthis just water?

(51:23):
How do you safely clean solarpanels?
What cleaner seems like justwater and maybe a sponge or
something.

Colin Mack (51:30):
Just water and a deck brush, a soft brussel dick
brush, yeah, okay just get saltup there and right just well.
So we just spent, if you canimagine, we spent four thousand
dollars detailing the decks andhouse of a 420.
The boat looks brand new, halfthe repairs that were there that
were kind of half baked, youknow, we got through to the

(51:52):
original gel coat and everythinglooked good.
But it was amazing because mydetailer constantly he's like,
please, for the love of God,like, wash your boat earlier,
late in the day, when the sunisn't hard, you know, and put
the water on there.
You see all these things onFacebook about these guys with
these big foam dispensing thingsfor your car.

(52:14):
They spray the foam all overthe car.
Have you seen those?
No, I haven't seen that Well, itsounds intriguing though, and
basically they're foaming, kindof like flocking your Christmas
tree without white spray.
They're spraying their truckswith this foam and they let it
sit for a couple of minutes, andthe reason they do that is it
allows the detergent, orfrequently just water.

Is that good for the paint?

Colin Mack (52:39):
Well, it's not bad for the paint because they're
specially made.
But what it does is it givesthe opportunity for the dust and
the dirt and the salt, thepollen.
It gives it a chance to getloosened up and get off the
surface.
So when you run that deck brushover the deck, you're not
actually sanding or scouringyour teak and your deck because
everything's gotten loose.

(53:00):
So I always rinse my boat acouple minutes before I grab the
deck brush.
You know, get it.
Yeah, go get my materials, comeback.
Everything's loose, everythingcleans easier.
It didn't really make a lot ofsense to me but having paid my
detailer to keep care of my boatfor years and years, you
definitely notice a differencein longevity of all grip and gel

(53:20):
coat.
If you take a few steps likejust pre-rinsing your dishes and
you pre-rinse your boat,everything comes out a lot
cleaner and easier.

Pollen.
I don't know, salt pollen andpoop is what he said for sure, I
don't know about um sap, that's, that's a different story.

Colin Mack (53:40):
Uh, yeah, but uh, but definitely okay, so let's go
to.

Let's go to the what's the next one?
Quarterly every three months.

Colin Mack (53:52):
Sure, I don't know about the three months on the
engine.
I change my fuel filters andwater separators and everything.
I do it at least annuallybecause the filters do come
apart.
You know you like to change theO-ring in the water separator,
which nobody generally does.
But you should change out thelittle red o-ring, sometimes the

(54:15):
the stainless bb and the raycore, definitely the filters.
The air filters generally don'tneed too much but it's good to
check and make sure they're notcoming apart.
But you know, at least everyhundred hours on your fuel
filters and your oil changes andyour oil filters, I would say
every two.
Least every hundred hours onyour fuel filters and your oil
changes and your oil filters, Iwould say every two to three
hundred hours on yourtransmission fluid is a good way

(54:36):
to go.
And when we get to thelubricating turnbuckles and
furling systems, I completelydisagree because that lubricant
is going to attract dirt.
So hot water, fresh water, coldwater, just flood them.

Let's just take that word out of there.
Yeah rinse, yeah rinse, that'sgood, yeah, rinse.

Colin Mack (55:02):
Yeah, which is particularly easy if you're in
the US.
But I tell people all the time,like my dad used to make canvas
buckets with a ring in the topand our job was to slush the
boat every day with a bucketwith salt water so that we could
get the salt spray off thestainless, we get the salt off
the decks, we get the salt offthe furlers.
Even though we were puttingsalt water on, we were getting

(55:23):
all that salt spray off.
So, as long as you're workingin the right direction, you know
that's, you know you're makinggood strides.

So Augustus, that's Augie.
No, what Gus?
Do you have a nickname?
Tell me what it is.
What does a repower cost?
I'm not sure what that means,but Well, we just did a 350
actually.
And Is he asking aboutbatteries?

Colin Mack (55:55):
what does he say?
Well, I don't know if he'stalking about a repower of a
main engine or if he's talkingabout a um, about batteries, um,
but I'm gonna look up realquick what we did for the 350,
because we just finished one acouple weeks ago and we used a
beta engine, which I like overthe Yanmar because it's it's a
simple.

That's his nickname, Goose.

Colin Mack (56:16):
Goose.
I don't think I know him yet,but maybe we'll get to meet each
other.

You know, talk to me Goose.

Colin Mack (56:22):
you know from the movie Absolutely OK, perfect,
I'm just pulling it up.
Spare with me folks, I'm sorry.
Okay, perfect, I'm just pullingit up.
Bear with me folks, I'm sorry.
So we did this gentleman, wedid a Beta 35 and that was right

(56:43):
under 20 grand delivered.
We spent about 10,000 inmaterials and labor.

What did you say?
The cost was.

Colin Mack (56:51):
The cost on that engine was right at 20,000 by
the time it landed.
It was actually 19,975 for thebeta 35 with a transmission.
I always get a new transmissionbecause it's not worth adapting
, it's not worth looking overyour shoulder.
And then we always do, you know, we do shifter cables, we do.
You know water shifter cables,we do uh, you know water hoses,
we do the exhaust hose.

(57:12):
We frequently do a new muffler.
We do um, you know we have toadjust the engine beds and the
heights.
We always check the prop shaftand the cutlass bearing and the
stern tube.
Like, if you're going to haveyour boat repowered, do not do
it in the water because youcan't check the shaft or half of
the other part that's reallyimportant to your boat if you're
doing it in the water.
And so you know that was abouta $30,000 to $35,000 project by

(57:38):
the time we were done.
The Yanmar is going to be acouple thousand dollars cheaper.
But the reason that we like theBeta is it's a tractor motor.
You find them in all theBobcats.
It's a Kubota block.
It's heavier.
It's heavier, it's efficient.
It doesn't have a lot ofelectronics on it to go bad when

(57:59):
you start getting into thebigger Yanmar engines like the
75s and hundreds.
Everything's electronicallycontrolled.

Oh, this is going to be a big job here.
Okay, engine and chain plates.
We want to pay attention togoose here.

Colin Mack (58:11):
yes, you're looking about 50 grand goose um, but you
know there's so much that goesinto it, um, and we always, you
know if we're going to put ourname on it we want to be right.
So you know, we, we pull theprop shaft and nine times out of
ten we replace the prop shaftbecause it's original to the
boat.
We replace the cutlass bearing,we replace the packing gland on

(58:32):
this last 350 we upgraded theshifter to something a little
more appropriate for a nice boatthan the black kind of rubber
thing that comes from islandpacket.
So there's a lot that goes intoa repower um, and you can save
a few grand.
Like my dad bought a, anoff-brand motor because the beta
was two grand more back in theday.

(58:52):
Money's hard to come by, I getit.
He raised three kids, um, youknow, and he kicked himself
because he's like you know, forthe two grand and the amount of
effort I went to make the enginethe way I wanted it, I just
should have bought the beta andit's funny because I know hayden
likes beta yeah, and four orfive years ago not many people
knew about beta.
One guy asked he goes why thehell is Colin always selling

(59:13):
beta Like what's his deal?
And I like it.
I just put one in my boatbecause I don't have to worry
about it.
So the 30 grand when it's timeto replace the engine.

Yeah, when it's time to replace the engine, then
you've got a decision to make.

Colin Mack (59:30):
Well, we've replaced in 35s, 350s, 38s, 40s, 440s,
420s.
We've done betas in everysingle one of those models.
Okay, so inspect sail stitching,reefinging points and furling

(59:51):
mechanisms yeah, you should lookat those when you're going out
for sale.
But those should go into thesale loft every year in the
downtime and, uh, an averageresaw of a genoa cover might run
you a couple hundred bucks.
But if it comes off because thestitching went bad, you go go
from like $200 to $800 to $1,200to replace the cover.

(01:00:11):
So much easier to get it doneahead of time.
And most good lofts are goingto use Gore-Tex thread, which
cares less about UV than yourtypical polyester thread.
So you know, make sure they'reusing solar thread or Gore-Tex
thread or one of those kind ofaramid fibers solar thread or
Gore-Tex thread or one of thosekind of aramid fibers.
And right now, gus, our firstopening for chain plates, I

(01:00:34):
think, is May 1st, and I thinkthat also applies for chain
plates, chain plates and motorsis May 1st, and we do have
projects scheduled out intoSeptember of this year.

Capn Tinsley (01:00:48):
But there's a lot of slots open between that
Basically, we have about nine tofour minutes of time, so give
us a ring.
Let me put up the info here.
Boom so at Mack Yacht Serviceson all the social media and then
, the websiteMackYachtServicescom.

Colin Mack (01:01:05):
Yeah, and you can always remember that you can
always email us info at MackYacht Services.

And this is the man right here, this is Colin
Mack.
So he's the man we try, okay,so we got test and clean bilge
pumps again.
We got flush and inspect watermaker if applicable, and clean
propeller and shaft.

Yep.
So zinc is an interesting oneon there.
A lot of people think morezincs is better.
You really only need one zincon the prop shaft.
If you've got a max prop you'regoing to want a zinc on the
back of the prop.
The zinc on the weed shoedoesn't really seem to have any
marginal noticeable effect thatwe can see.

(01:01:48):
Obviously, your bow thruster ifyou have one, you know is huge.
But if you put too many zincson the electrolysis will
actually attack something elseon the boat.
So don't over zinc.
Don't put two zincs on the propshaft, just put one.

Okay, I didn't even know that was a thing, yeah
.

We've seen it yeah.

Yeah, really Okay.
So can you share about the four39, four 39 refit.
Is that, is that right, or isit four 30?

Uh, no, we, we did a four 39.
Uh, the um the gentleman hadsome issues with the boat and um
, we had to replace the watertank because it wasn't um
properly cured.
Um, we'll just leave it at that.

(01:02:36):
So we actually took the entirefloor out, we removed the old uh
fiberglass tanks that werebuilt and um replaced them with
two FDA-approved poly tanks thatare made down in Florida by
DuraWeld and then had to put allthe stringers and the floor and
the bracing and a whole newfloor back, and then we also did

(01:02:58):
a repower on that.
The guy had some water on thehead of the engine and didn't
want to go around the world withan engine that had.
Potentially, when you do getsalt water on the head, you can
lose things like valve springsand seats and the corrosion sets
in and it kind of etches thecylinder walls and so you know
if you had an older engine thatwas of a high quality, that was

(01:03:21):
good metal.
You know you would hot batch thefuel and put like a couple
quarts of two-stroke motor oiland five gallons of diesel.
And you would hot batch thefuel and put like a couple of
quarts of two stroke motor oiland five gallons of diesel and
you would run it through theengine and kind of treat it and
you would change the oil four orfive times until you got the
salt levels in the oil down to amanageable number.
But if you've got a brand newmotor where it isn't quite as
nicely built as those olderYanmars that were heavy duty and

(01:03:42):
you just spent all this moneyon the boat million dollars on
the boat by the time heoutfitted it, you know the guy
decided that he just wanted toreplace the motor so he didn't
have to worry about it.
And now life has changed and sowe actually have that boat for
sale for, I think, in the highnines, at advantage at triat

(01:04:02):
sales, and you know it's goingto be in the market.

There you go.
We just got a new engine.

Yeah, new water tanks.
Okay, it's a beautiful boat.

Okay.
So Kelly Regal says SBPeregrina 43914 regarding
detailing.
A detailer was pushing ceramiccoating.
Is it worth the cost?

Well, I guess that depends on the cost.
But the ceramic coating I thinkis I've seen people do it it
definitely makes a difference ifeverything is in excellent
condition.
If you've got an older boat,you know there's a lot of
gimmick and a lot of flash aboutceramic coating.
You know there's a lot ofgimmick and a lot of flash about
ceramic coating.
Most of the ceramic coatingsaren't worth the cost that you

(01:04:49):
buy in the.
You know AutoZone things likethat.
So if you've got brand new gelcoat or if you have just had the
boat professionally detailedand you're happy with all the
gel coat and you don't havedings or things in it, then
ceramic coating might be worththe.
You know two to four thousanddollars that they're going to
charge you to do that.
Honestly, I would much rathersee people spend the effort of

(01:05:11):
wet sanding with up to twelvehundred grit sandpaper, get all
that oxidation off and then do3M's three step process.
It's three bottles one, two,three.
It finishes with like a finessepolish and that will give you
the shine and the protection youneed, as long as you stay away
from those harsh cleaners.

It's all about the cleaners, um.
And so yeah, no dawn.
So, um, why do you think thisthis detailer was pushing it?
Is it easier for the detailer,or what is?
Or just trying to make somemoney?

it's generally pretty expensive.
Um, from what we've seen, goodceramic coating and we have done
a couple of really nice boatsdown in jupiter island um,
really nicely done.
It is very tedious work, it'shigh dollar work.
Um, you have to have speciallights and special products um,
and so there is a lot of moneyin it and not everybody's doing

(01:06:03):
it.
Um, you generally go to a goodclass where they could teach you
how to do it.
So, um, on a 439, that's new,probably worth it.
Um, depending on what they'regetting and what products
they're using um, you know.
But again, if you just wash andwax your boat regularly and use
a high quality polish, notnecessarily wax, because you get
that wax build up, so, um, Idon't know that I would

(01:06:25):
necessarily, uh, necessarily, dothe ceramic coating myself.
I think there's a little moregimmick in it than there is just
kind of common sense, but I'msure there's a lot of different
opinions on that.
I don't think I'd spend mymoney on that.
I think I would be putting itinto things that were a little
more fun and just wash my boat alittle more regularly.

Okay, all right.
And then I'm not sure what thisperson's pretty sure I have
blow by on my three J, h, threeE.
And what is that?
A beta, or is that?

a Yanmar Um.
And so the best way to tellthat a couple of things is if
you um open the oil cap, you'regoing to get some back pressure
in the top of the engine andit's hard to tell if you haven't
checked it before, if you don'tdo it regularly.
But you'll always get a littlepuff, puff, puff, puff, puff

(01:07:14):
coming out of the oil cap, fromall the valves and springs and
everything going on there,crankcase pressure.
But if you open it up and itkind of spews at you or you're
getting a lot of oil back intothrough the breather tube that
comes back in, then you haveblow by.
You can also see it in yourexhaust, like if you have a
particularly filthy transom.

(01:07:34):
That is a good indicator of anengine that's just wearing out.
So you definitely would want toprobably pull the injectors and
do a compression test and aleak down test and that would
tell you kind of the conditionof the cylinder walls and the
rings and the pistons and kindof what you have there to worry
about.
Um, and pretty much every oldengine's got some blow by um.

(01:07:57):
It's just you know things wearout Um.
So it wouldn't be too muchworried about blow by unless it
starts getting a really filthytransom, and then that might be
indicative of other thingswearing out.
But it is amazing what some ofthese older things that we grew
up with, like seafoam, additivefor your diesel, nap and pour

(01:08:21):
can in the in the fuel.
I do that every time I fuel up.
I a thing of sea foam or evenmarvel mystery oil in your
diesel.
It really just keeps everythingnice and clean and happy.
Because all of our new dieselshave so low sulfur and so many
chemicals in them that we needto get back to putting some of
that old school common sensestuff back in.
Um the one that always amusedme, though, I did have a couple

(01:08:43):
customers that poured their oldmotor oil into the tank instead
of recycling it, and then, ofcourse, you're putting all that
dirt and soot and crap that's inthe oil into your fuel system.
So that never made any sense tome at all why would they do
that?

I think they were just thrifty wow, didn't want to
pour it out.
Why change it then?
What's the point?

I don't honestly know, but a little can of oil or
seafoam in your diesel isalways great.

Okay.

Mike, two-year-old PSS.
Don't do anything to it otherthan keep an eye on it.
The black bellows that most ofus have with a PSS is rated to
six or seven years.
Um, mine was almost 20 yearsold before I finally changed it.
Do not follow my advice, I wasbeing lazy.
Um, I also own a boat yard so Ican afford to fix stuff.

(01:09:37):
Um, but six to seven on theblack bellows.
And they've now come out with apro model, which is a black
siliconized hose, like the bluehose you see at the stores is
the silicone hose and those Ithink they're saying is like
eight to 10 year service life onthe PSS.
But just make sure, just makesure that you know everything is

(01:09:58):
nice and tight.
And, david, no, no externalteak on on the 439s that I've
seen.
I bet you could order it, butit's all composite, composite
rails.

Oh, that's a good question.
Any thoughts on best wax fornon-skid?

Best wax for non-skid.
I'm going to go back to theboat wash with the Teflon or the
, you know, the PTFE or any ofthose kinds of chemicals,
because the wax iscounterproductive to the
non-skid or anti-slip orwhatever you want to call it.
But on the island packets, inparticular for some of you guys,

(01:10:37):
if you have those spots thatare like dark brown and somewhat
in the gel coat, that'sactually the acid rain and the
chemicals that you've beenwashing your boat with.
It sits in the little divots ofthose triangles or those
pyramids and it actually iseating the gel coat away and so
that brown, reddish look thatyou're seeing is actually the,
the natural polyester resin ofthe deck.

So I left some uh d-stain and I didn't rinse it.

Yeah.

It left a couple of uh, I don't know what, if
it's just it, faded it or what,but there's a couple of spots on
my boat that I and I don't knowif I can get it fixed.
How do?
You fix something like that, ifit.

Gel coat.
If you are going to use a waxon non-skid, richard, I probably
my favorite wax is isolator wax.
Um the um, it's clear.
You, you know, wipe it on, wipeit off with a microfiber rag,
just know that it's going to beslippery for a couple days.
So that's generally why I don'twax the non-skids we.

(01:11:40):
We generally just go over themwith a cleaner with some of that
teflon built in.

Leak from breather tube to valve cover.

Yep, that's the one Yep.
So you've got a lot of pressurethere.
Any mechanic can come do a leakdown and a compression test for
you for a few hundred bucks.
It's well worth it to get anidea of what the engine looks
like.

Chain plates.
What would be the mostimportant thing for a new boat
owner without much experience?
But he's in a 2021 boat, so hedidn't have to worry about chain
plates right now.
I've seen, I've been on thatboat.
It's like perfect.

In the words of my father practice, practice,
practice, practice, practice.
I don't care if it's the racecourse or the golf course or
cruising, you really have to.
And actually a great story.
I had an old Irwin years agoand I had a Perkins 4108 in it
and I asked my dad because hehad a 4108 in his boat.
And I asked my dad because hehad a 4108 in his boat.

(01:12:44):
I said you know, what should Ilook for?
What do I need to know?
What do I?
And he's like you know what I'mnot going to tell you.
He goes because you're going tolisten to me and it's going to
go out the air.
He goes.
You need to snuggle up to thatengine and you need to whisper

(01:13:08):
to it.
Just got to get to know it.
And, and the biggest thing, isdocking like.
I see so many people where wehave to bring the boat in.
I don't fault them for that.
They're not familiar with theirboat or they're not comfortable
.
Their boat enough, um.
But practice isn't when youneed to do something.
Practice is when you havenothing better to do and go out
and use your boat like, like.
What a great excuse to use.

Have you left doc yet?
That's what I want to know.
He hadn't the last time Italked to him.
Yeah.
Just this beautiful boat andit's like well get a couple of
friends and some fenders andjust go have fun with the boat
and back up the people downthere to do it.
He's got, he's got hisgirlfriend on the boat and he's
got Vanessa Linsley right across.

(01:13:47):
She's down there.
She's the one that sold it tohim.

Yeah.

So, yeah, he needs to just get off the dock.

Well, and I tell people all the time, back up in
the middle of the ocean, back upin the middle of the river,
when no one's around, back up inthe middle of the fairway of
your marina, when no one'slooking, god don't do it at 5
o'clock, because everybody'slooking.
Do maneuvers when you don'tneed to, because then you can
see how your boat backs up ordoes it back to port, does it
back to starboard, does it backup at all?

Learn how to turn when you put it in reverse and
then turn the wheel.
What's that called?
You can make the boat, I canmake the boat pivot, so that
takes practice yeah and I kindof discovered it by accident.

It's like, oh wow well, these boats really need a
lot of quick bursts of power tojockey them around.
And and a couple people havecommented like oh, colin's too
confident with a full keel boatlike you need a lot of power to
get that boat to pivot, you needa lot of power to stop it.

(01:14:52):
You need a lot of power to turnit.

You can't slow down to where you lose the bow.

Yeah, you got to have enough power.

Sometimes you got to come in like you mean it, and
people are like what are youdoing?
Well, this is the way it's doneabsolutely okay, what do you
wax?

yep, I love what he waxed.
That's an old one too.

Thank you, hayden yeah, and then mike says how do
you calibrate the fluxcapacitors?
I?

don't know about that, dr.
Dr Marty will know that.
One thing on that list of theannual that I'm going to jump to
fuel polishing is highlyunderrated.
Bad fuel will ruin your day,it'll ruin your cruise, it'll
wreck your engine.
The best thing, the easiestthing that we can do is we can

(01:15:48):
keep our fuel tanks full becausethe change in temperature and
the condensation creates themoisture, the moisture algae.
But worse than algae, it eatsyour, your fuel tank.
So when we replace fuel tankson island pack, it's nine times
out of ten the welds have let gobecause the water is sitting in
the bottom corner or theforward corner of the tank at

(01:16:09):
the weld and the.
The nature of that water andthe, the stainless steel and the
weldment, it eats the welds.
It just rusts the welds out andthey start to drip.
So keep those tanks full.
Buy good fuel.
Don't buy road diesel.
Buy marine diesel because it'sgot additives in it.
If you see at the marinasthey've got a black sticker with

(01:16:31):
a yellow prop on it.
That's a great fuel additive.
That means you'll pay anothernickel a gallon more, but it's
got fuel additives to keep yourengine running better and longer
.
So it's totally worth it.
And then if you polish yourfuel every year, every two years
, every three years, you'regetting that moisture out of the
bottom of the tank, you'rekeeping everything clean, you're
everything's just going to lastlonger, um, and give you less

(01:16:54):
headache.
You know, there's nothing worsethan shutting down in the
middle of the uh gulf streambecause you've got bad fuel and
I've got a great quick one I'llthrow in here.
Mine's got a garlington 49 umbeautiful sport fishing machine.
Um, he was taught to put thefuel tip through one of those

(01:17:15):
white diapers, almost like itwas a collar or a neck, you know
.
So it went through it.
Um, he's wrapping it around it.
He would push it through.
It made a great seal laid outon the deck.
It Well, his Ray core shut downbecause a little bit of that
white fiber from that diaperended up in the Ray core BB and
shut down.
A twin engine, 50 foot sportfish in the middle of the Gulf

(01:17:36):
stream in like three to five.
So he's broadside two in theGulf stream at three to five
dishes.

To get himself out of anything, everywhere.

Everything's everywhere.

What happened?

He had to change the rate course.

Right there in the five to six.
Oh my gosh yeah three to five.

You know, broadside too, I like the rags, but please
don't stick your fuel fillthrough them, just wrap it
around it.

Hayden says learn your fuel system, take it apart,
clean it and get it runningagain.
Fuel, fuel, fuel.

Always.
I need lessons in that.

Mike did take the boat out and they're still
learning Doc.
Everything's pretty intuitive,except that.
It will be If you leave on thatboat and go up the coast and
stop at every marina.
By the end of that trip you'llhave.
You can manage anything.

Yep.

Absolutely All right, all right.

You can fix almost everything.
Just don't stick your leg outbetween the dock and the boat.
That's what your your rub railsare for.
And um, the other one I findinteresting too.

You got to listen.
Sometimes I don't want to know,but I got to make myself listen
.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely Just sawa trawler and inlet loose both
motors because of fouled filter.
What a nightmare.
That's horrible.

Well, and one thing I will say about those common
rail motors too.
I think Blaine Parks was on aboat coming into Charleston and
the battery bank started to takea dive.
And Blaine and I agree on a lotof things.
This is one of them.
I never go in an inlet withoutsails up.
The boat is in the water deeper, so it's going to be more

(01:19:25):
comfortable.
The wind is in the boat downinto the water deeper, so it's
going to be more comfortable.

The wind is pushing the boat down into the
water.

That's great advice.
That's great advice and Godforbid you have a fuel issue.

You've got sails.
You heard it here on the Saltypodcast these newer engines.

if you lose power, your diesel stops running.

Yeah.

If you get hit by lightning, your diesel stops
running.
Yeah, if you get hit bylightning, your diesel stops
running.
If you get a power surge, yourdiesel stops running.
I'm of the generation wherediesels could run underwater.
If they had fuel and they had aclean air supply, they could
run underwater.
They didn't care.
I mean, you see all thesetrucks with the snorkels on them
because they go underwater.
You know they're off-roadmutters, but that's what they're
doing.
So to me, to have these newerengines with all these controls

(01:20:09):
and things on them, you reallyhave to be a little more careful
with them.
So never go out inlet withoutsails up.
That's my thought.
Bow thrusters I love bowthrusters because it has really
allowed a lot of people to getinto boating and be more safe.
I still think you shouldpractice, maybe without a bow
thruster.

Don't lean on them , though, I mean in the marina.
I'm just like, ah, it's like,come on now.

Well, I've seen people with four thrusters and
they still couldn't dock theirboat.

I know, I don't know.
I mean I have a 320, so I canmanage that.
Okay, so Mike says great adviceand podcast for the Island
Packet community.
So just for the folks that arelistening, I want to make sure I
cover everything because thereis a biannual here.
Biannually, every six months,change engine oil and filter

(01:21:01):
service winches.
I mean, I thought some of thiswas covered already.

Yeah, it was a little redundant in places.

Oh, replace impeller on raw water.
Now, you should do that justwhen you change the oil and the
Well, I do my impeller annually.

Yeah, I don't really do it more than annually, but I
also don't put five or 600hours a year on my engine.
Okay, so it totally depends onyou know stuff like that, the
you know the stuffing box andstuff.
You should always check thehose clamps.
That's the big one.
If you over tighten yourpacking nut you will wear it

(01:21:46):
down.
We we had one we took outyesterday out of a 320 and it
was turned down about 50thousandths from the packing nut
being too tight.
The wax had literally worn awaythe stainless steel to the
point where it was a noticeablysmaller shaft at the packing nut
.
So tightening that nut to stopa drip is not always the best

(01:22:07):
thing you really should.

So somebody was a little obsessed.

But we see it all the time.
You know it drips so theytighten it up, not thinking that
it's just compressing.
Because it's supposed to drip alittle bit right About once
every 11 seconds when you'rerunning and maybe once a minute
when you're at the dock.
But a lot of people like acompletely dry bilge and I find
that somewhat unrealistic.
But they get away with it andI'm glad that they do Until they

(01:22:34):
don't.
Until they don't, but I like adrip in the bilge.

Okay, thank you both, and I'll come hang out
while I'm at Chapman's Very cool.
Is that down there?

That's right across the town, yep.

Okay, so annually.
Haul out for bottom inspectionanti-fouling paint if needed and
this I guess it depends onwhere if you're about to head
out to the Caribbean orsomething, all this stuff would
be even more important.
Replace zinc modes on propshaft and haul.
Inspect and lubricate steeringcables.
Test and service fireextinguishers.
Inspect and replace standingrigging Every 10 years or as

(01:23:12):
needed.

That might just every 10 years so the insurance
companies have really stepped up, yeah, and rightly so.
I don't blame them.
I think 10 years is maybe alittle premature.
We always said 10 to 12, with alimit of 15.
In a salty environment.
You know, up north, in theGreat Lakes or brackish water,

(01:23:34):
where the season is limited,they generally do better because
they're missing the saltcomponent of age.

That's completely different, isn't it?
Yeah?

So age, stress, environment, material, you take
the salt away.
You end up with, you know, alittle more lifespan and boats
in the in the freshwater.
You know they do about 20 to 30percent better.
But the insurance companies arestarting to push that 10 year
range.
Because it's inside of Boston,yeah, but we've.

(01:24:03):
We've seen boats lose riggingat seven years old.
The man 40 was notorious forlosing rigging at seven because
it was under rigged.
The Island packets are prettywell rigged, so it's it's less
of an issue.
But you know you get hit bylightning.
Definitely send your rigger upbecause the lightning and the
heat can actually change themakeup of the stainless and it

(01:24:24):
will start breaking down at amuch accelerated rate okay,
reseal deck hardware to preventleaks.

Check rudder bearings and keel bolts.
Replace or service lifelinesand safety gear.
Flush engine cooling system,heat exchanger if needed.
Inspect and clean fuel tanksyou had talked about that so
here's an important one Flushingengine coolant systems.

One of the manufacturers of the strainers
makes a replacement fitting thatyou can put a garden hose onto.

Yeah.

And if you're doing that on the main engine strainer
, you can put water on the headof the engine in no time and
then you'll bend a rod, you'llbreak a a rod and you can break
all kinds of things in your boat.
We have repowered boats becauseof this and so if you're using
that adapter with the gardenhose on it, make sure that that

(01:25:19):
is not attached to the engine inany way, shape or form, because
the water is going to take thepath the least resistance and
it's going to go in everydirection and it's going to go
right onto the head of theengine.
Um, and it cost this guy aboutforty thousand dollars, um to
fix the fact that he was tryingto do some maintenance on his
boat and they sold it at westmarine and he didn't know what

(01:25:41):
he didn't know.
Um, and it was a very expensive.
You know education there.
So you know, definitely emptyyour coolant every year or two
and swap that out, change youroil regularly.
But when it comes to, you know,pushing water through things,
you need to be really careful.
And the other one we see allthe time.
You know, if you're bleedingyour engine because you've

(01:26:02):
changed your filters, pleaseclose the seacock to the main
engine.
I'm sure a lot of people knowit, but just in case, every time
that engine is turning over theimpeller is mechanical so it's
pumping water into the engineand therefore the exhaust as
it's cranking over.
As you're trying to bleed theengine or if you're just having

(01:26:23):
trouble starting the engine youdon't know what it is close the
seacock.
It's much cheaper to replace animpeller than to have water on
the head and then, once you getit running, quick open the
seacock so you can get water tothe engine.
But as soon as you fill up thatmuffler that water is going to
come back on the head.
If the engine hasn't started,it doesn't have enough pressure
to blow all that water out ofthe muffler.

(01:26:44):
So much rather see you replacean impeller than put water on
the head of the engine becauseyou've been cranking and
cranking and cranking.
You can also potentially burnup your starter or some of the
battery cables.
But if you have to bleed yourengine, close your through-haul
before you get it running andthen have someone quick open it

(01:27:05):
while it's running.

Okay, now let let me uh say one thing about
tonight's sponsor, which is me.
Um, my name is Tinsley Myrick.
I'm looking for that picture toput up here.
Um, I'm Tinsley Myrick withRemax of orange beach and I sell
Gulffront condos and Gulffronthomes and even some

(01:27:28):
non-waterfront and Gulf Shoresand Orange Beach, also licensed
in Florida for Perdido Key.
You guys need anything butdoing it 22 years.
So I know what I'm doing andI'm good at it.
So give me a call.
There we go.
Thank you for allowing me to dothat, absolutely, and so we
want to put up your informationagain.
So you're on Facebook, you'reon Instagram and you've got the

(01:27:52):
website and they've got a reallycool place down there.
I went and toured it and theseguys know what they're doing at
Mack Yacht Services and if youwant sales, it's Mack Sales.

Mack Sales, my brother MackSalescom Yep sales,
uh, all kinds of good stuff well, thank you for coming on.

We've been on here an hour and a half, so it's
really cool.
Um, appreciate it and uh,here's how people can find you
and if somebody wants that list,we'll have to perfect it a
little bit, we'll have to redoit a little bit to make it where
you like.
Then email me at salty abandonat Gmail, and I'll try to get

(01:28:34):
that to the fixed one as soon asI can.

As soon as Colin gets it to me, we'll get that
out tomorrow sometime and andkeep everybody safe and and
we're happy to you know, wedon't do any print ads anymore.
We Word of mouth Solely on wordof mouth and social media.
And yeah, we have a few peoplethat don't like us, but you know
I joke all the time.

(01:28:57):
If you haven't pissed somebodyoff, you haven't done enough
work.
But I will tell you, we aretenacious, so when we have a bad
day, we will do everything wecan to make it right.
If you, let us do it.
If you don't, that's, you know,unfortunate.
But, um, you know, we love thefleet.
I actually have two Islandpackets.
I just bought a 27 to take toMaine and I've got my 40 down

(01:29:18):
here.
That's in a major refit and so,um, we just, we love the boats,
we love the group.
Um, as a whole, it's wonderfuland we certainly appreciate the

(01:29:44):
continued support of the fleet.
It means a lot, all right.
Well, thanks for everybody withyour comments and suggestions
and questions, and with that I'mgoing to say Salty, abandon out
, thank you.

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Salty Podcast #52 | ⛵️ Need a Sailboat Maintenance Check-List? 🔧 Get it here from an expert!

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Salty Podcast #52 | ⛵️ Need a Sailboat Maintenance Check-List? 🔧 Get it here from an expert!