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Does anything else (i.e. GPS, stereo, sounder) go out when you activate the tab? I had a dying battery once and trimming up engine caused my GPS to blink out and sound the low volt alarm.

During the E10 changeover a few years back, I read numerous places to never mix more than 25% non-ethanol fuel with E10. So when filling w/ E10 the first time, make sure your tank is 1/4 full or less. I thought I read that was due to the E10 gas separating the MTBE from the old gas. Maybe it...

Seasick- how are you differentiating "regular gas" and "old gas with MTBE"? I thought pre-E10, all regular gas had MTBE as an additive. MTBE was replaced with ethanol. So I thought "Old regular gas with MTBE" was the same thing. The issue is mixing MTBE with ethanol. At most, in your...

Those plastics work fine, no piss-poor design. The "piss-poor design" is what puts scuppers below the waterline. Not the scupper itself. Every plastic/vinyl thru-hull is destined to fail after 10 or so years.

Best $ I ever spent was on a home inspection that led me to walk away from the house. Second best was the survey on my Grady that alerted me to transom and deck issues that weren't obvious. I still bought the boat...

Your own visual inspection would never find the water intrusion and saturation of the transom and part of the side decks that an experienced marine surveyor with a moisture meter could. The sea trial is more to get hard #s on boat performance and to make sure of simple motor operation...

You probably don't have a loop in the line to prevent backflow. So like Jeff said, water is just running down the hose and out the bilge pump. Thiss is not really a big deal b/c you shouldn't be taking constant water into that thru-hull. But if you're concerned, replace the hose with one a...

not sure what a thur hull is, but for my Seafarer, I have an aft thru-hull for the aft bilge pump outflow as well as another one for my transom baitwell drain. The bilge pump thru-hull is like 2' above the water line while the baitwell drain is only an inch or so above the water line. If...

I replaced all mine about 6 years ago. If you go stainless or even brass for everything (even the high thru-hulls) you should never need to replce them. If you go plastic, you'll get 5-10 years (maybe 17 years like my boat's when I replaced them). Mine broke off when replacing too. Real...

I got a replacement at either West or Boater's World (when they were still open). Its not a special "Grady" part.

As was mentioned earlier, my switch panel has 2-position switched, upper position is Navigation lights and lower position is Anchor light. So a hot lead from each switch position goes to the mast light.

If you repower with 4-S at a cost of $40K, and I'll round up your fuel savings for an offshore trip to $183, then it will take you 218+ trips to recoup the $ you spent. If you go offshore 5 times/year, then it will take you 43.6 years to pay for the engines. If you go offshore 50 times, then...

What year is your OX66? If its an EFI (not carb), then you will be looking at approx 25-30% fuel savings by going to a 4-S. If it is a carbed engine, you're looking at 50-60% fuel savings. With the amount of fuel you're looking to burn by running offshore, its probably worth the cost. I...

If you're talking ablative paint, then I think the general rule is 1 coat per season, so theoretically if you apply 2 coats of ablative paint, you should be good for 2 seasons of boating. If one insists on only applying 1 coat, then you may end up doing a coat every year, though it depends on...

Sweet. Looks better than my Seafarer! You are good-to-go now! Congrats on the great job and best of luck w/ your new bottom & bracket!

John- That looks great! Bracket wasn't in too bad a shape after blasting. Looked much worse before. Why did you leave a 1" gap between hull and bracket for the Interlux 2000E? 2000E is a barrier coat product, is fine for all surfaces. The '1" gap' rule refers to space needed between your...

Well I used your technique last winter and in April my starting battery was dun. I think it probably depends on how good your battery is and how well its charged heading into winter lay-up.

I'm pretty sure my GPS installation instructions had me send a lead directly to the battery as well as to the switch (as well as to the common ground). It has been 4 years since I did it. :hmm

Yeah, I left out the details of grinding, drying, filling, and faring between "I got mine soda blasted" and "I applied a barrier coat" :-|

Stereo, GPS, and bilge pumps all should have leads directly to a battery (bypassing switch). Those are your standard "phantom power users". A few years ago I installed those "non-float switch, water sensing bilge pumps" that literally turned itself on every 10 minutes to check for water and...