Marine Water Heater Staff Blog: Ways to Maintain Great Boat Ergonomics
Your Marine Water Heater Manufacturers Discuss the Importance of Good Boat Ergonomics
Raritan Engineering your marine water heaters suppliers would like to share with you this week some great information about ways to maintain great boat ergonomics.
With more than four decades in the business of designing and building boats, Catalina Yachts chief engineer and designer Gerry Douglas has had a front row seat to the ongoing evolution of yacht design. He also has a strong view on how and why some designs meant for the cruising sailor can go awry. As Douglas points out, many new and used boats being touted as ideal cruisers are strongly influenced by the various measurement systems for offshore racing.
There are many obvious, common sense reasons why it’s not a good idea to use a successful racing yacht as a template for a boat that will be used strictly for cruising. Winning ocean racing boats are usually fully crewed, actively helmed, and seldom serve as long-term homes for their owners or crew.
A cross-over racer-cruiser could certainly indulge in some of the go-fast features we addressed in our August 2015 article on high-performance cruisers.
We Talk About Addressing Mobility Limits for Older Ones When Boating
Your marine water heaters distributors discuss how in the February 2016 report on boat ergonomics, PS tester Drew Frye examined how many of the new boats appearing at the U.S. sailboat shows seem to have put very little thought into addressing the mobility limits of people over age 55, who represent a larger share of their customer base.
As PS Technical Editor Ralph Naranjo, author of "The Art of Seamanship," pointed out in his report on sailboat cockpit design, one look at the average navigation station or helm seat on a cruising boat and you can see how the most basic ergonomic principles on lines of sight, sitting posture, standing posture are, so it seems, utterly ignored.
Building a boat to fit the human body does not need to be any more expensive than building one that does not. But it needs to begin early, in the design phase. Traffic flow, work stations, sitting stations all need to be taken into account before hull and liner plugs are built.
If you have some modifications you’ve made to your own boat to make it more comfortable to work and live on, we’d like to hear about them.
So don't forget these great pointers when trying to maintain good boating ergonomics. 1) Safety can never be overrated; 2) building a boat to fit the human body does not have to be expensive; and 3) don't procrastinate.
Something is different at First Landing State Park and the change should help keep the river clean
Soon the area around the 64th Street Boat Ramp at First Landing State Park in Virginia Beach won’t be working against the health of the Lynnhaven River, but with it.
Until now rainwater runoff from the big paved lot where cars, boats and trailers park, has drained right into the river, carrying oil and gas from automobiles along with other debris.
As of Friday, visitors will be surprised to see the scrubby, bare area between the parking lot and the water has been covered in cardboard and mulched to prepare it for a buffer garden installation of native plants in spring, said Trista Imrich, restoration coordinator for Lynnhaven River Now.
Native grasses and native wildflowers with strong thirsty roots that grow well at the water’s edge will help absorb rainwater run-off, Imrich said.
Volunteers with Lynnhaven River Now spent a rainy, snowy, windy Friday morning laying the cardboard to kill the weeds growing there and then spreading mulch to prepare for the new plants.
In April, children from the group’s Growing Wetlands in the Classroom program will plant native grasses, like salt meadow cordgrass, near the water’s edge and native wildflowers, like New England asters and seaside goldenrod, back from the water.
Working with First Landing State Park, Lynnhaven Rive Now also has plans to build a gazebo in spring where visitors will be able to find educational materials on the value of buffers to keep the river clean, Imrich noted.
A new parking lot is also in the works for the future. It will be built of pavers, which will allow rainwater to filter through rather than run off.
Check us out at http://www.raritaneng.com and see how Raritan Engineering always takes care of your marine sanitation supply needs.
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