View Single Post
Old 10-03-2009, 10:54 AM   #13
Marin
Scraping Paint
 
City: -
Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 13,745
Wanted to introduce myself and my new boat

Quote:
nomadwilly wrote:

"If it ain't broke don't fix it" is positively dangerous** .. not to mention dumb.
Eric, I would say that is one of the most unreaslistic statements I've seen you make to date.* Where do you draw the line?* Do you change a perfectly operating raw water pump just because "someday" it might fail?* Do you tear down the engine on a new-to-you boat and replace all the bearings, the camshaft, etc. because someday they might fail?* Hell, why not replace the entire engine as soon as you take possession of your "new" used boat, because, after all, it's wearing out and so someday will probably fail.* And you know all that wiring is going to corrode someday so you'd better rip all the wiring out of the boat and replace it before you dare to venture outside your slip.* And you know that perfectly operating toilet is going to wear out its seals someday, so you'd better replace that too, while you're at it.

If a boat you bought was truly a wreck, there might be some point in doing some of these things.* Otherwise you determine the condition of the boat's components as best you (or a surveyor or mechanic) can, replace things that are obviously nearing the end of their service lives or have already failed, and use the boat.* There's a difference between performing required and preventative (at a realistic level) maintenance along with keeping yourself aware of the components of the boat, and ignoring everything until something actually fails.* But if something that will potentially wear out or fail--- which describes pretty much every component on the boat--- is in good condition now, it's truly "dumb" to replace it just because someday it's gonna need replacing.

As I said earlier, there's armchair theory and there's reality.* The reality is that you buy a boat, fix anything that needs fixing, and start using it.* You perform the required maintenance on the things that have service intervals, like oil and filter changes and so on, and when things on the boat show signs of needing maintenance or replacement, you maintain or replace them. It'd be a good idea to carry spares for those easily-changed components like water pumps and such that, if they failed unexpectedly, you couldn't move the boat until they were replaced.* But if people followed some of the advice I see posted here, nobody would be using their boats at all because they'd all be too busy replacing every item on the boat that could possibly fail within their lifetimes.* Get real




-- Edited by Marin on Saturday 3rd of October 2009 12:05:54 PM
Marin is offline   Reply With Quote