Raritan Engineering Company

Stay Safe While Celebrating On Your Boat This Year Raritan Engineering Company your  marine hot water heaters  specialists would like to share with you these topics we thought would be of interest to you this month regarding key ways to make your 4th of July celebration on the water a safe one. Each year about three out of four recreational boat owners say they plan to enjoy the Fourth of July holiday aboard the family boat.  1. Before you head out,  give a short orientation  to guests, not only about essential items, such as how to move about a moving vessel (with one hand always connected to the boat) or how use the head, but also show them how easy it is to use the VHF radio and safety gear, especially life jackets. 2. For that unexpected young guest without a life jacket, the non-profit BoatUS Foundation’s free Kids Life Jacket Loaner program gives boaters a chance to  borrow child-size life jackets  for the day, afte...

Give Your Alternator a Nice and Long Life Raritan Engineering  your boat toilets suppliers would like to share with you this week some great information regarding easy ways to keep your alternator running strong. So I was thinking about Bitcoin today, the digital crypto-currency that seems no less cryptic than what’s in my wallet these days, and this got me thinking about giant stone money on the island of Yap, and because I spent most of my time on Yap rebuilding an alternator, this got me thinking about alternator belts. 1 - Check belt for excessive wear. Compare the belt width and depth with your spare belt (you have one of these, right?). When the engine area around the belt is coated with black dust, the belt is probably slipping or misaligned. Small-case, high-output alternators get very, very hot. 2 - Obviously, you must have the right size and type of V-belt. Look for A-series industrial belts, available from most auto parts stores. A quirk of these belts i...

Your Boat Toilets Suppliers Discuss Some Great Ways to Motorize Your Small Sailboat Raritan Engineering  your boat toilets distributors would like to share with you this week some great information regarding great portable electrical propulsion for tiny sailboats. In part one of our two-part test of five and six-horsepower engines in the upcoming January issue of Practical Sailor, we take a second look at portable electric motors. Practical Sailor’s interest in modern portable electric propulsion dates back to 2004, when then editor Doug Logan began to lose faith in the two-stroke outboard on his Boston Whaler.  Logan’s initial review of the Minn Kota focused on its potential as a dinghy motor but he also tested it on larger skiffs. We later heard from several  Practical Sailor  readers who use trolling motors to power their sailboats (some as large as 30-feet!), but most said they used them mainly for short distances and in mostly flat water. . ...

Your Boat Toilets Suppliers Share Great Ways to Remove Pesky Waterline Stains Raritan Engineering  your boat toilets manufacturers would like to share with you this week some great information regarding how to beat waterline staining. Summer is here, and our routine maintenance chores now require some serious elbow grease. Our first impulse is to go for the super-strength acids that will take care of the hard growth as well as the stains.  Over the years,  Practical Sailor  has reviewed several eco-friendly products that do a good job of descaling heat exchangers and removing barnacles. Barnacle Buster from Trac Ecological ( Practical Sailor  May 2007) and Rydlyme Marine from Apex Engineering ( Practical Sailor  March 2008) both dissolve calcium carbonate, the main ingredient in lime scale and shell. Other products like Star brite Zebra Mussel and Barnacle Remover or MaryKate On & Off deal with shell and scale well, but they contain stronger...

Your Boat Toilets Professionals Discuss How Beneficial Towed Water Generators Could Be Raritan Engineering  your boat toilets distributors would like to share with you this week some great information regarding the pros and cons of towed water generators. A few years ago, I noticed that 2 of the 10 cruising boats I saw docked in Bergen, Norway, had towed water generators, making me wonder whether the Scandinavians have had better luck with these devices than we have. In the October 2017 issue of Practical Sailor, offshore gurus John Neal and Amanda Swan Neal of Mahina Tiare Expeditions share their experience with these systems.  It has been a long time since  Practical Sailor  tested towed water generators, and the number of choices remains extremely limited. The last towed water generator we reviewed was the Hamilton-Ferris towed water generator. And the last long-term test was of the Aqua4Aeroben made by LVM in the United Kingdom....

  Your Boat Toilets Specialists Talk About Effective Cleaners For Getting Rid of Mildew Raritan Engineering  would like to share with you this week some amazing tips on how to prevent mildew. We tested the most effective cleaners for mildewed fabrics in 2009 and published a follow-up on long-term treatments in 2015. In the 2015 test, we were delighted to discover that some DIY formulas and common pool treatments like Clorox Algae Eliminator can do as well as pricey store bought miracle-cures.  Canvas dodgers and biminis are the hallmark of a cruising yacht, keeping the sun at bay and allowing the crew to “dodge” the worst of the weather. Canvas also protects sails, windows, and machinery.  Clorox Pool and Spa Algae Eliminator proved to be an inexpensive cleaner/protectant. For maximum water repellency, boat owners could use impervious waterproof fabric instead of canvas, but that typically isn’t a good idea. Waterproof sail covers hold moisture, milde...

  Your Boat Toilets Specialists Talk About Effective Cleaners For Getting Rid of Mildew Raritan Engineering  would like to share with you this week some amazing tips on how to prevent mildew. We tested the most effective cleaners for mildewed fabrics in 2009 and published a follow-up on long-term treatments in 2015. In the 2015 test, we were delighted to discover that some DIY formulas and common pool treatments like Clorox Algae Eliminator can do as well as pricey store bought miracle-cures.  Canvas dodgers and biminis are the hallmark of a cruising yacht, keeping the sun at bay and allowing the crew to “dodge” the worst of the weather. Canvas also protects sails, windows, and machinery.  Clorox Pool and Spa Algae Eliminator proved to be an inexpensive cleaner/protectant. For maximum water repellency, boat owners could use impervious waterproof fabric instead of canvas, but that typically isn’t a good idea. Waterproof sail covers hold moisture, mildew...

Your Boat Toilets Analysts Are Aware That Copper Could Be The Best Bet  Raritan Engineering  wants to share with you these amazing points to consider when choosing your next anti-fouling paint. As we point out in the October 2012 of  Practical Sailor , cuprous oxide (copper) still rules the roost when it comes to long-term anti fouling protection, with hard paints and ablative paints fairly evenly matched for durability.  With respect to bottom paints, marine biologists are most concerned about the effects of copper leaching, so it would seem a simple matter to discern which paints have the most copper in them. To see whether we could nail down a more definitive answer this question, we turned to Interlux’s Jim Seidel (who, as far as I can tell, talks about bottom paint in his sleep). When an anti fouling paint goes through the registration process, the maker has to prove to the EPA that it is effective. One of the ways paint makers pro...

Your Boat Toilets Professionals Know that Having the Right Ladder Could Make All the Difference   Raritan Engineering Company  your boat toilets experts would like to share with you this week these amazing tips on how to choose the best boarding ladder for you. Last year, we read a review of a Union 36, and the opening photo of the boat featured a unique folding ladder that I hadn’t seen before . The ladder, instead of hanging vertically, folded out at a comfortable angle in a way that seemed—at least in the photo—pretty practical for routine boarding. I was curious how it worked in bouncy weather, and the owner of the boat, PS contributor Frank Lanier, assured me that the ladder, which came with the boat, was as good as any other he’d tried. The boat I cruised on for many years, Tosca , was a double-ender with the same sort boarding of complications as the Union 36. A stern boarding ladder didn’t work. Shocked at the prices for a stainless-steel ladder and wan...