Nows the time of year when you should be inspecting your engine's water pump impeller and ordering up a new one if necessary for next year's boating season. This report came in over the wires today and it makes a compelling case for the JMP brand of impellars. It seems the US Navy has seen really good service from the JMP brand.

JMP IMPELLERS PROVEN LONGER-LASTING BY US NAVY

        When the US Navy needed durable, long-lasting impellers, it decided to test a few different manufacturers' products.  JMP's impellers far outlasted the competition and helped reduce downtime for corrective maintenance of the Navy's vessels.

        In a written assessment, the Navy noted how pleased it was with the impeller's performance.  At the time of the report, JMP's impeller was still going strong at 541 hours with no visible wear.  The other impellers lasted no longer than 300 hours.

        Through visual inspection, the report noted, the impeller appeared almost new.  Its color was not faded and the rubber was soft and flexible with no visible damage.  Little to no corrosion was present on the metal sleeve.

        JMP's impellers feature a special surface-coating, which decreases wear and tear for longer use.  Its mixture of rubbers takes its flexible impellers to an even greater height of quality. Need more info?

Contact JMPUSA, 2000 NW 84th Ave. Suite 244, Miami, FL  33122.

Tel.  305-909-0009; Fax:  305-599-0009.  Email:  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ; Website:  www.jmpusa.com

Every year as part of the annual maintenance for my outboard engines, I change the oil in their crankcases. The drainplug for the crankcase on most outboard four-strokes is usually located on the side of the engine's mid section. Historically when I've performed this task I've made sure the engine is in it's vertical orientation to ensure that all of the oil drained down and out of the engine.

 The problem is that it has always made a bit of a mess as the oil sort of drools down the side of the engine, over the anti-ventilation plate and ultimately into my drain pan. Once all the oil is drained out I've had to wipe down the oily engine and lower unit with rags or paper towels to clean up the mess.

So I had a dream one night about how to dodge this slimy bullet. This all came about after studying the really cool engine cut-aways you see at boat shows, paying particular attention to the oil sumps and the way they are shaped, and most importantly, where the drain plug is located in relation to everything.  My thinking was that by tilting the engine all the way up, the drain plug would still be located at the lowest point in the sump as long as I also turned the engine all the way over to the side that corresponds with keeping that drain plug on the low side of things.

Well today I tried this technique on one of my engines and I'm delighted to say that the oil drained out, hit the drain pan and didn't get a drop of oil on anything else. A joy to deal with and no slimy mess to clean up either.

The photo of this technique, and my dream come true, (well one of them anyhow) was taken by my friend Gretchen Thor who was on the scene capturing this big moment in my outboard engine life, as well as documenting the complete winterizing process for an up coming article on the topic in Cruising World magazine. I highly recommend this as the cleanest method of draining the oil out of your four-stroke outboard engine!

Well I just got back into town from the IBEX show in Louisville and I have to say I had a great time and loved the city. It's the first time I've spent more than a few hours there and in all it was a great venue for the boatbuilders' group. As promised, the next few days I'm going to be sharing some of the things that impressed me the most during my visit and today I'll begin with my #1 most impressive find, the new Torqueedo Travel 1003 outboard engine.

This new electric outboard is beyond cool! A photo of it is shown below:

The entire top section of the motor is actually the case for the self-contained 13 Ah lithium-manganese battery so no extra wiring or onboard battery is needed to power the motor up. A remote control unit is available if you are going to be powering a larger boat. The maker claims that either their 503 or 1003 models can propel boats up to 3000 lbs. To put this in a more easily comparable perspective, the 503 model is equivalent to about a 1.5 hp engine and the 1003 is roughly equivalent to a 3 hp outboard engine. So, as a tender motor, or auxiliary on small sailing race boats this is a go as far as I'm concerned. Also, for the racing set, keep in mind that these units weigh in at a mere 28 lbs.

To add to the cool factor, the motor is equipped with an integrated GPS sensor that has a display screen mounted on the motor's tiller handle. The display provides vital info to the operator such as battery state of charge, speed over ground, power consumption and remaining range based on current speed. Torqueedo claims that the motor will provide a range of up to 10 nautical miles at slow speed on one battery charge, and 2 nautical miles at full speed. Since the battery technology is lithium based the recharge acceptance rate is pretty high, so it really won't take much time to get it back up to full charge.

these motors are available in either a long or short shaft version and the prices range from $1600- $1900.

Finally, to answer a question from a reader from several weeks back, these motors are completely water-proof to an IP-67 standard, which translated into plain English means you can submerge the entire system up to 1 meter below the surface for up to 1 hour without any damage to the motor or the battery pack. This bodes well for my questioner who wanted to install one of these units on a day sailor, but wondered what would happen to the motor if they flipped the boat and it got wet... Well if you can right the boat in an hour or less, the answer is no harm!

I'm loving this motor package and can hardly wait to try one out myself.

Back on July 22 I posted an article and link, which you can still access here: http://www.followthescience.org/.

The title was More Ethanol Horrors. In that entry I provided the link above that I really wish more people would check out because this whole ethanol thing is really starting to annoy me and a whole lot of other folks representing many industry sectors including environmental, food, motor vehicle, power equipment and our own NMMA (National Marine Manufacturers Association) to name a few. Why do I bring this up again? Our good friends at the EPA (let me spell that out: Environmental Protection Agency) are scheduled to protect us by the end of September, a mere 4.5 weeks from now. They're going to protect us by making a decision on whether or not to propose an increase of from 10% to 15% for ethanol in our gasoline.

I have a better suggestion. If the EPA really wants to protect us, they should ban the use of ethanol fuels as they are currently produced. I haven't heard of, seen or read anything in the last several years that tells me this movement is  in any way actually protecting the environment. The only thing as near as I can tell, that's being protected with this movement are a few big time corn farmers that produce the raw material for making the ethanol. Science can do way better than this and use other plants to produce ethanol if they must. Why not use the corn to feed some of the starving millions around the globe? That'll keep farmer John busy.

Please people, we're running out of time here. Read the link above and then call or write your congress person and tell them you really want this whole idea squashed. Its not helping us, and the EPA to date has shown no real grasp of the science and economics involved in this matter. I'm afraid they'll just sign off on the 15% requirement. There's a whole lot more than how well your boat engine runs at stake here.

A week or so ago I posted some mid-season tips you should consider, like touching up any brightwork on your boat and getting the bottom cleaned to improve both speed and fuel economy. Well, there's another thing you need to get a look at and deal with, especially if you're running an outboard engine or IO drive on your boat. The drive anodes. If they are more than 50% consumed, get some new ones installed right away. Remember, once they're gone the next piece of metal in the corrosion food chain is your engine............Do I need to say more?

Just in case you don't know an anode from a fish hook, the diagram above illustrates where you might find them on your engine. Get a look at yours and replace as needed. Just a reminder, many folks call these "zincs". The best anodes today are actually made of an aluminum alloy. Much better performance and easy to find these days.