Next message: Arild Jensen: "TWL: RE: Re: Viking voyages"
In the process of co-authoring a book with the captain and chef of a 120'
yacht based in the Pacific Northwest, I was taken over every inch of the
boat soon after accepting the project. The engineer had done something
very clever, and very simple, in the engine room. He had wrapped every
valve handle with highly reflective tape. That way, in case of a power
loss or short that killed the lights in the engine room, all the valve
handles will stand out like sore thumbs when hit with the beam from even a
small flashlight. This makes it very easy to put your hand right on the
handle of a seacock to shut of the water to a failed hose, or to find and
close a valve to isolate part of the boat's plumbing, even with a total
power failure.
There are battery powered emergency lights in the engine room, but they are
primarily to provide illumination to move about the compartment or to get
out of it. A number of valves are located in places where the emergency
lighting doesn't pull them out of the shadows. Even if you knew where a
specific valve was, time could be lost fumbling around to find the handle.
But the reflective handles make it easy even for someone not familiar with
the engine room to follow directions to find a particular valve and close
it.
Even on as simple a boat as our older GB36, I can see where this idea would
be helpful. The bronze seacocks on our boat have long since darkened down
to a dull brownish green. Some of them are located in pretty dark regions
of the engine room, lazarette, and bilge. Having reflective handles would
help me tell at an instant, and from a considerable distance, which
position the valves were in, or help me get my hand on a handle in the
event I had to go into the engine room without benefit of the engine room
lights.
_______________
C. Marin Faure
GB36-403 "La Perouse"
Bellingham, WA
_______________________________________________
http://lists.samurai.com/mailman/listinfo/trawler-world-list
To Unsubscribe send email to
Include the word "Unsubscribe" (and nothing else) in the subject or body of the message.
