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Tips from the Captain Anchor Locker LinerLine the bottom of your anchor locker with Dri-Tech or another brand of plastic decking in order to allow your rode to drain better. This will also make washing out your anchor locker much easier without removing the anchor and rode. Cleaning Canvas & Sails Supplies: poly tarp (large enough to accomodate the sail/canvas) deck brush with fairly soft bristles regular Joy dish liquid or other mild soaf garden hose bucket Get a poly tarp and spread it out on your lawn preferably on a slight slope. Mix soap in a bucket. Wet one surface of the fabric with the hose and gently scrub with the soapy mixture. Flip the fabric and wash the opposite side. Rinse this side and flip again to rinse the other side. You can hang the fabric to dry from a second story deck or it can be moved to a more steeply sloped area of your yard or of course you can hoist your sails. If you hang fabric, be cautious of the wind conditions. It may not take to flight wet, but one dry it could take off. For canvas you may want to treat it with a fabric protectanct such as 303 High Tech Fabric Guard. Fender Lines and Hole Through the Middle Fenders If you have ever had to retreive a knot that has slipped inside a hole through the middle fender, we have a simple inexpensive solution. Use stainless steel fender washers slightly larger than you line diameter between the knot and the fender and you'll never have to retreive another knot. Hanging Fenders There are all sorts of fender handers available today that hang on the stanchions and lifelines. We don't sell any of them. It's best not to add extra weight to lifelines and stanchions. The movement of the boat against the fender and dock can put considerable strain on your stanchions. We offer a very simple solution that removes easily, always keeps your fenders at the correct height, keeps the weight of the fender concentrated at the base of the stanchion and costs you nothing but a few minutes of your time. Take a piece of line longer than you think you will need to mount you fender and hang it from the base of the stanchion. Tie one end off on the fender if it has eyelets or run it through the center if it is a hole through the middle design (fender lines for hole through the middle fenders). With the free end make a loop and tie a knot in it. You should still have a tail coming off of the knotted loop. Tie a knot in this tail. The loop should go around you stanchion and the knot in the tail should go through the loop. You may have to experiment a little to get the loop the correct size and the knot in the tail in the correct place. The fit should be fairly snug, but should release fairly easily when the weight of the fender is removed from the line. Swim Ladder Line Attach 15 ft or more of floating line to the bottom rung of your swim ladder. Use a floating line like Blue Water Ropes 1/2" rescue rope rather than ski rope. The Blue Water line is much more comfortable in the hand and will hold up better over time. This will not only give you something to grab to pull up your swim ladder, but it will also give swimmers something to hang on to. |
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