The Boatswains'
Corner
This section is dedicated to the needs of the On-water Operational Facility Owners of 11-1. Maintaining our boats is necessary for consistent and dependable performance during patrols. This section will be presenting short "Tips and Techniques" of general boat maintenance.
Each facility owner should check in here often and please feel free to leave information and suggestions by emailing the Webmaster.
A Maintenance Schedule For Your Boat
Certain things should regularly be done to keep your boat in dependable operating condition. Has anyone ever had visitors arrive at their boat only to have to give them the bad news that the day's boating plans must be cancelled because of some problem with the boat? For the recreational boater, this is embarrassing. For the commercial boater, this is bad business. For the Auxilarist, it costs a mission, hours missed, training aborted, possibly lives or property lost.
This unfortunate scenario can usually be avoided by performing regular maintenance...not just waiting for things to break...and things will break and usually at a most inconvenient time! As a boat owner, you should know your boat and all about its systems. You should know where things are most likely to need attention. Here are a few suggestions, and these should be place on a log book of some type with places to check off the items as they are performed:
The Power System - this includes your batteries and the wiring associated with them.
You should always check the water in the batteries. Dry batteries will not function and won't last long. Fill with distilled water only!
Make sure all the connections to the batteries are tight.
Keep the tops of the batteries clean.
In multiple-bank systems, rotate the banks regularly.
The Engine System - this includes the fuel system as well.
Miscellaneous Systems:
The key to having a dependable boat is knowing all its systems and keeping them maintained. Make up a maintenance schedule for your boat. Don't put off maintenance and cause yourself to have a bad day on the water!
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It is recommended in Chapman's that all vessels have their steering compass deviation tables be updated on an annual basis. The reasons are obvious: any new equipment, especially electronic devices, installed on a boat will change the magnetic characteristics of the environment surrounding the compass. Also, some metals change their levels of magnetism with the passage of time and influence of temporary equipment, such as tools, on the boat.
If you haven't updated your boat's deviation table lately, you should do so. You may view and save the following Excel file to use as a "blank" form for your deviation table.
