TECHNICAL SPOTLIGHT

Walk down almost any marina in Australia, and you’ll see it. Boats with black rub marks along the hull where dirty fenders have been sitting for months. Usually around the rear quarter or near the bow flare, where the boat moves against the pontoon every day. Most owners don’t notice it straight away. Then one day they wash the boat properly and realise the gelcoat has gone dull where the fenders constantly rub. That’s why good Fender Covers are worth fitting before the damage …

You can usually tell which outboards get flushed properly and which ones don’t. The engines that are looked after tend to have cleaner cooling systems, fewer corrosion problems, and less salt buildup around the thermostat housings and water jackets. The neglected ones are normally the opposite. Seized fittings. White salt stains. Broken flush caps. Cooling issues that start showing up at the worst time possible. The Flush M Quick Flushing Plug Solution fixes one of the most annoying parts …

You can usually tell when an anchoring setup has a poor swivel. The chain comes up twisted. The anchor hits the bow roller sideways. The winch labours harder than it should. Sometimes the chain piles badly in the anchor well because the anchor never straightens properly during retrieval. Most of the time, the anchor gets blamed first. In reality, the swivel is often the weak point. The new Rocna Anchor Swivel is designed to fix those problems before they start. It gives the anchor and chain room …