From my attendance at the Points North Seminar I found myself motivated to do a few things that Capt. Mac discussed.
So I've been busy bee on my boat over last day or two...
1)
I worked on a solution for securing the anchor in case the Windlass decided to 'let go' (Capt. Mac's advice). I used a small diameter nylon line secured at one end to the bow cleat and the other end to the round eye of a SS Carabiner. The line was doubled up and wound around the chain link a few times before being secured to the eye hole on the Carabiner. The Carabiner was large enough to clip onto the Windless ratchet locking handle. The Carabiner spring clip then allows me to easily disconnect the safety line when needing to anchor, especially in the darkness.
2)
This task wasn't really as a result of hearing this issue at the Points North seminar, but something that has bothered me a bit since reading here about one member's problem of odors in the cabin -- presumably a problem due to a leak in the toilet's plumbing.
I examine the 2" white line from my toilet all the way back to the waste tank and wanted to convince myself that at least there was 'gravity' at work to allow the waste to drain completely into the waste tank after a flush. What I found was that the last 2 feet that has to bend through almost 180º prior to the pipe emptying into the top of the waste tank sagged some -- about a full 3" below the point it connects to the waste tank. I manually raised this sagging pipe and could hear waste emptying into the tank. This told me as I suspected that waste could be lingering in that last 2 feet of the pipe. Fortunately for me Ranger had installed a plastic strap above this line for holding some electrical conduit and I thought I could use that to secure the 2" pipe to and raise it the necessary 3". In addition, I also noted that the 2" white pipe in its sagging state was resting on the auto pilots shiny rudder control arm/rod... not a serious problem but could maybe over time wear a hole in the 2" white pipe. So using a nylon strap I carefully raised the 2" pipe off the auto pilot's rudder control rod and secured it to the plastic strap I mentioned earlier to allow gravity to encourage any lingering waste to travel completely into the waste tank. This one simple fix solved two issues for me.
So I've been busy bee on my boat over last day or two...
1)
I worked on a solution for securing the anchor in case the Windlass decided to 'let go' (Capt. Mac's advice). I used a small diameter nylon line secured at one end to the bow cleat and the other end to the round eye of a SS Carabiner. The line was doubled up and wound around the chain link a few times before being secured to the eye hole on the Carabiner. The Carabiner was large enough to clip onto the Windless ratchet locking handle. The Carabiner spring clip then allows me to easily disconnect the safety line when needing to anchor, especially in the darkness.
2)
This task wasn't really as a result of hearing this issue at the Points North seminar, but something that has bothered me a bit since reading here about one member's problem of odors in the cabin -- presumably a problem due to a leak in the toilet's plumbing.
I examine the 2" white line from my toilet all the way back to the waste tank and wanted to convince myself that at least there was 'gravity' at work to allow the waste to drain completely into the waste tank after a flush. What I found was that the last 2 feet that has to bend through almost 180º prior to the pipe emptying into the top of the waste tank sagged some -- about a full 3" below the point it connects to the waste tank. I manually raised this sagging pipe and could hear waste emptying into the tank. This told me as I suspected that waste could be lingering in that last 2 feet of the pipe. Fortunately for me Ranger had installed a plastic strap above this line for holding some electrical conduit and I thought I could use that to secure the 2" pipe to and raise it the necessary 3". In addition, I also noted that the 2" white pipe in its sagging state was resting on the auto pilots shiny rudder control arm/rod... not a serious problem but could maybe over time wear a hole in the 2" white pipe. So using a nylon strap I carefully raised the 2" pipe off the auto pilot's rudder control rod and secured it to the plastic strap I mentioned earlier to allow gravity to encourage any lingering waste to travel completely into the waste tank. This one simple fix solved two issues for me.