As part of your spring maintenance and upgrades there are some key areas of concern if you own a gasoline fueled boat and are replacing certain components that are either mounted directly on your engine or located in a space where an engine is or a fuel tank is located. The term to remember here is "ignition protected" and it applies to some common items that fall under the routine maintenance or upgrade category. This designation applies to gasoline fueled boats only (as far as engine and tanks torage is concerned) and LPG gas storage areas as well as battery storage areas and is  actually covered under USCG regulations as well as ABYC Standards. That said, way too many boaters ignore or simply don't understand what the regulations dictate. The bottom line here is that things like starter motors, alternators, ignition components like distributor caps, or any electrical device located in engine room spaces or fuel tank spaces must be rated for ignition protection. The problem is further complicated by the fact that this is a marine only requirement and the fact that the designation of a component as being ignition protected rated is sometimes obscure to the average boater.

Component labeling requirements allow some latitude in how a manufacturer can mark their equipment to let you know that the part meets the specifications. Any example is shown here on a gas engine ignition distributor cap:

In the center of the photo above you are looking at an engine distributor and you can see it has a label on the cap. The label reads "SAE J1171 Marine".

Now a lot of dockside gurus over the years have figured out that marine gas engines are actually marinized automotive engines and think that the marine labeling is merely an excuse for the parts people to charge more money for the part. I can say definatively that in this case you will be taking your life in your hands if you substitute an ignition protected component with a standard automotive component. In the above example J-1171 refers to an automotive standard that identifies ignition protected, which means that the device will not be a source of sparks in the event of a fuel leak that could blow your boat sky high! J-1171 is not the only standard that is referenced. UL-1500 is another possible reference, and on components made overseas, you may see a reference to ISO 8846. This designation applies to things like fuses, circuit breakers, alternators, starter motors, ignition distributors and / or caps and switches, bilge pumps, and blower fans that may be mounted in the above described areas of your boat. The bottom line here? Look for one of the above references on the new parts you install this spring as you get ready for launch, and don't let the dock guru tell you that you can save big money by going down to the local autoparts strore and buying the automotive equivalent. Simply put, it is not going to be equivalent! This is NOT an area where you want to try and save money.

I really like the idea of using the newer plastic sea strainers you see being used increasingly on new boats. They offer one less thing to get green with corrosion and nearly impossible to open up to clean out once they get that way. But I have observed something about them that needs to be shared with all of you that may have one of these installed on your boat. The strainer I'm talking about is shown in the photo below to the left of the engine as you look at it.

The caps on these units simply thread onto the reservoir. But, that's the catch. Having taken a few of these apart to clean out the strainer of debris I've observed that it is extremely easy to cross thread the cap when reinstalling it. Be Careful! I was amazed at how easily this can happen. If you get it cross threaded and then force screw the cap down either it won't seal or you may actually crack the cap. Either way you'll have a problem. Don't expect to be able to find a new cap at the next boatyard you pull into because you won't.

When servicing these strainers make certain that the strainer basket is in its proper resting place within the plastic housing and carefully rethread the cap back. It should screw on easily with no force needed. If you encounter any resistance in threading the cap on, STOP! Back the cap off and start over making sure the threads on the cap and housing are properly engaged. A close up look at one of these units made by Vetus is shown here:

With a little caution these strainers should last several lifetimes, just watch those threads!

I'm not talking about foul weather boots or your car being illegally parked, or your computer running here, I'm talking about some very important electrical terminals on your engine.

In the photo above we see a classic and potentially dangerous situation. The white, high output alternator positive terminal in the center of the photo has no protective rubber boot on it. Even worse, and a little harder to see is the starter motor positive terminal shown to the right of it (partially obscured by the black rubber hose) with no boot on it.

 Most boaters don't realize that the starter motor on their boat is the ONLY electrical circuit on their boat that is not required by the ABYC to have an over-current protection device (fuse or circuit breaker) installed in it. Most alternators won't have one anywhere near the device either. We've had cases where underway in rough seas a tool box has inadvertently opened up and allowed a wrench or screw driver to bounce around in the engine space on the boat. If one of these or any metal object comes in contact with one of these unbooted terminals and also comes in contact with any other part of the engine sparks are going to fly! I'm talking about what we call a dead short circuit here, one where a heavy current will flow that can easily start a fire on board. In the case of the alternator, a fuse will probably blow shutting the short circuit off. But, in the case of the starter motor circuit, you'll have to wait until the heavy cable supplying the starter motor burns up before you can count on the circuit shutting down. Odds are it'll burn long enough to ignite something else in the area of the cable. As part of your spring check-ups get these terminals booted! The boots are available at the electrical department of West Marine or any good ships store and are really cheap insurance.

Of all the engines I looked at while at the Miami Boat Show, Yamaha really stood out front this year. They've introduced not one, not two but thirteen new outboards for the 2010 model year and I must say they have really done some amazing things with this new product line. Yamaha has managed to hit all the hot buttons with this new line of engines. Better acceleration, dramatically better fuel economy and lighter weight are all engineered into these new engines.

By tweaking every aspect of these engines engineers have been able to increase fuel economy by anywhere from 12-17%. Weight savings have been achieved that bring these engines in at significantly lighter weights than even some of the 2-stroke competitors, we're talking numbers like 75-80 lbs. lighter. That's significant!

Besides these breakthroughs, they've increased charging system outputs, which historically has been a bit of a gripe with Yamaha outboards on their larger engine offerings and they've really done a lot to enhance corrosion protection levels on these same engines.  

So, this year my vote for "most improved" in the outboard engine area goes to Yamaha.

Mercury Marine's ECO Screen....... Ed Sherman

Live from the Miami Boat Show. Well I made my initial rounds the rounds today at the Miami Boat Show and will have much to report over the next few days as I continue to explore what's new and what's valuable to all of us as boaters. I could write all night about some of the things I learned and discovered today but we'll have to save that for later blog entries. One of the things that caught my attention brought me back in time a few years when I was busy plying the waters off the coast of New England for big fish. Fuel management was super important then just to make sure we had enough to get back. We were often 50-65 miles off the coast and would often spend most of the day trolling around, all the time burning fuel at a most uneconomical rate. Anyway, the folks at Mercury have now introduced the ECO screen shown below, and won West Marine's Green Product of The Year Award in the process.

So, in a nutshell, all of us have shifted gears, fuel management is now green vs. making sure you have enough fuel to get home. I'm a supporter of the new approach and hats off to Mercury both from a technological point of view as well as a green perspective. The system by the way can be retrofitted to older boats and is NMEA 2000 compatible, so you don't need a new boat to jump on this bad wagon. Stay tuned as I'll continue to report my findings and new gear insights over the next few days.