Raritan Engineering Company

Keep Corrosion From Damaging Your Rig Raritan Engineering  would like to share with you this week some great information about preventing rig corrosion. Your thru hull fittings professionals discuss how when awakening your boat from its winter slumber a rig check should be high on the list of priorities. Even though the boat has been sitting still, the laws of physics still take their toll. Corrosion is the biggest enemy and the stainless steel components in your rig can effectively hide the insidious advance of this disease. One underlying moral of these stories is that stainless steel can fail without warning, a message that can leave a boat owner feeling helpless. Does this mean that our only resort is to replace anything that raises suspicion? The line between caution and paranoia becomes thin. Fortunately, stainless steel hardware has a long and mostly successful track record on boats, and the warning signs are often apparent. The trick is knowing where to look. In...

Your Thru Hull Fittings Professionals Share Why LED Mastlights Make Your Boating Experiences Better  Raritan Engineering  your thru hull fittings specialists would like to share with you this week some great information regarding the benefits of using an LED mastlight. Your thru hull fittings distributors talk about how if you have your mast down this season or are contemplating an annual inspection aloft, it is a good time to consider a switch to an LED tri-color mastlight, which can cut the mastlight's energy consumption by 90 percent.  In the past, the most popular means of meeting the U.S. Coast Guard’s navigation light requirements for boats under 65 feet (see “Nav Light Requirements,” below) was to use an Aqua Signal Series 40 tri-color lamp housing with its long-filament incandescent bulb. Its 25-watt energy appetite not only puts a significant load on the house battery bank, but it requires a heavier-gauge wire be run up the spar in order to avoid an ene...

Your Thru Hull Fittings Suppliers Share Tips to Consider Before Buying Your Next Batch of Anti-Freeze Raritan Engineering  your thru hull fittings professionals would like to share with you this week some great information regarding which anti-freeze could be best for you and your boat. There’s nothing like buying several $3 bottles of antifreeze to protect your $30,000 boat, then coming home to discover the unused bottles frozen solid in your garage. The onset of winter always brings queries about the effectiveness of certain anti-freeze concoctions. A couple years back we got a letter from Mark Baldwin, owner of a Seasprite 34,  Ella , in Blue Hill, Maine. It just so happened that when Mark’s query arrived, we were in the middle of testing various antifreeze formulas for their effectiveness.  Uni-Gard pink is listed as having 25- to 35-percent propylene glycol, which should provide the -50-degree burst protection claimed on the bottle.  If, however,...

Your Thru Hull Fittings Suppliers Discuss How to Prepare Your Marina Bound Boat for the Next Tropical Storm   Raritan Engineering  your thru hull fittings experts would like to share with you this week some great information regarding how to avoid the frustrations of damaging storms to your marine bound boat.  With Hurricane Irma poised to rake Florida and other states with storm surge and 100-plus knot winds, the storm poses a serious threat to boats all along the East Coast.  Practical Sailor  has covered storm preparation on several occasions. The two most extensive articles appeared in July 2008 “Gear for Battening Down Ahead of Storms,” and “Tropical Storms Dos and Don’ts,” from November 2011.  Our first choice in a storm is a haul out facility, preferable well-inland and out of the path of the storm. The facility shouldn’t be vulnerable to storm surge, and it should be equipped with fixed anchors to tie your boat down. Second choice wo...