Guidance for boat owners -- some thoughts

[Gin]

In a Captain Starbucks post about his Webasto that wouldn't fire up, he makes raises an interesting point -- the difference for new purchasers, who get the factory orientation to the boat, and used purchasers who don't, who sometimes start out with their boat with limited or no information about how things really work. The factory manual is certainly a valuable guide, but not for the nitty gritty of daily operations or how the different systems (such as the Webasto heat, or the Wallas, etc) operate.

I've been a part of other forums that have a wiki section for technical issues. They vary in how they work, but often, a user can post an in-depth article about how to do a particular thing (like trouble shoot the heater, as an example), and other forum members can post comments that effectively add to, qualify, or give caveats to the advice. Seems to me that something like that could be very helpful as part of this forum. The other thing I've seen on other forums is an area for just technical articles -- where a forum member takes it on him or herself to perform a particular maintenance or repair, documents the steps with photos and text, and then posts the detailed "how to" in that area, so it is easily found by others for future reference. That, too, would seem very useful for us.

After we get our boat (which is soon! we are about 3 weeks away), I hope to make my own detailed "manual" that captures all I learn on the orientation we get, and then add to it as we learn from experience. I have been a bit inspired in that by the "Owner's Notes" on the website for a charter Ranger Tug (Tug Time). They can be accessed here: http://www.sanjuansailing.com/charters/tugtime/.

So, just thinking out loud here, but it does seem as though we could use this forum to collect more accessible and formalized information about how to do various things on our boats, everything from basic operations (like start up procedures, or any of the other items on the list in the link above -- see page 2), to maintenance (oil change, impeller change, gas filter change, batteries, etc), to troubleshooting.

In the other forums I've been on, it's nothing that gets done all at once. But over the course of just a year or two, with active members, it's amazing how much good technical information builds up in an easy to use and update format.

Again, just thinking out loud here.

Gini

 

[baz]

Good suggestions IMO. It's kind of like TugNutWikiPedia... collective wisdom and explanations etc.

 

[walldog]

While an evolving wiki type manual would be great, it would require a bit of time and maintenance. Some of us may have enough time on our hands to take on such a project. Especially someone with a few computer skills.

However in the meantime, this site has excellent search capabilities. I have used the search feature many times to find collective information about a problem or a project. Not as handy as an indexed book, but just as useful.

 

[baz]

T'is true... The "Advance search" link is useful as a more refined search can be conducted. I highly recommend this for any extensive searching of this forum.

 

[RProffer]

We have had many issues over the years where a newbie could not figure out how to do a search. Thankfully, many times a TugNut Salt will do the search and provide a link. Three issues that come up repeatedly are how to order parts, where to get the manuals, and how to use the library. Some things are just not that intuitive. Sometimes even an old computer hack like myself has a problem with something on this sight. Some things could be easier. I don't know how easy it is to program this software.

 

[Gin]

I have certainly found most of what I have looked for by searching. There are a few things I could not find (wish I could remember now what they were, but I don't). They were things I happened to stumble on when I wasn't looking for them, and then had a difficult time finding when I was. But usually, I have found what I have needed.

The same is true of the search engines on other forums I've used. The advantage I have seen to the wiki type approach has been two-fold. First, a lot of relevant information tends to be collected together in a particularly coherent way. Second, folks putting together a base "article" for those purposes are focused on it being used as a kind of instructional, and so they put the information together in a particularly thorough, step by step, comprehensive way. Sometimes, it has been a very good way to demonstrate two are three ways to do the same thing (example: Vespa rear tire change (technique 1) and Vespa rear tire change (technique 2)).

I wouldn't be one of the folks that Walldog mentions -- who have the time on our hands to take on the project -- although I hope to be in the next coming year or two. 😉 If the project were to be pursued, and others were to willing to put together initial drafts, folks like me with less time might be able to review in a sounding board role (that is, give the perspective someone mechanically inclined but new to our boat and its systems).

If the forum software has the capability for something like this, the project could start with a few basic maintenance or troubleshooting articles, and see how it goes. If the software doesn't have any capability like that, then that's a bit of a dead end.