Just boght a 1984 Marine Trader Labelle 43'

7tiger- check your private mail inbox here on the site- sent you direct sales info. I can post here if you want but thought I'd let you make that call.

Thanks will check my PM mailbox.
Cheers
Phillip

I wanted to chime in here on the Para vane stabilizers.

I would never give them up.

*You don't have to be a commercial fisherman to get caught out in the nasties.

Remember the boat can always take more than you can.

If you notice most of the commercial fishermen have them. These are guys and gal's who make there living on the water. They have to know something.

I use mine when ever the weather gets uncomfortable.
But hey if you don't mind bouncing around from side to side yank'em off.

SD

Hiya,
** 7t7...Congrat's.**If you have bought your boat, are happy with her, have NOT mortgaged yourself to the hilt, and plan on enjoying and are looking forward to the experience of boating and all that it encompasses you have not payed too much.* Why are you worried you might have payed too much.* Hopefully you did your homework and made a RATIONAL decision about the purchase.* That's in the past...enjoy.
** As to the stabilisation set up.* I agree with some of the posters.* Leave things as they are for the time being.* For that matter leave MOST things as they are for a period of time until you decide what to do.* Marriage has to be eased into.**You'll learn to live with her including all the warts and wrinkles (not that I could see any from the pictures).*

I agree totally with RT.* If you paid what you feel is fair, then go enjoy her!* I probably could have gotten our boat or a similar boat for less than what I paid, but what I ended up paying was within the target range I had set before I began to search.* So I got a great boat at the price I was willing to pay...*

One of the boats I was really interested in and nearly made an offer on had paravane stabilizers and flopper stoppers.* Also a fuel polishing system.* At the time I thought both of those features were real positives.* Now that I have had our Monk for a while and have been on a few trips I have realized that for our ICW cruising we would not have needed stabilizers, and since the PO replaced the fuel tanks and they are reletively new, the polishing system on our boat anyway, isn't needed either.* I guess it depends on where you plan to go...

Now, as far as fuel polishing goes, I'm going to have to go with the Marin method.* Of course he hasn't had any problems!* Since he is always running from a day*tank and rotating the other tanks he'll never ever have a problem as long as he keeps using the boat on a regular basis.* That way he is solving the problem at the root, which is dirty tanks instead of the symptom which is dirty fuel.

Sheesh, I can't believe I'm agreeing with Marin in writing...

Rob should be on here but in his absence I'll post light comment. Have you read Alaska Blues ? It's a wonderful story about a fisherman and his girlfriend through one season in SE Alaska.The first thing they did whenever it got rough was to deploy the stabilizers "fish" as they're called in Alaska. But before you use them in anything but easy going I'd do some homework and find out how they should be set up and deployed. For example if they aren't deep enough in very rough going*the fish*can come out of the water and come right through the side of your cabin like a missile. Some run w chain and some w cable. The poles should be aft of a-midships where the boat moves up and down the least. Used properly they are a great safety and comfort feature.

7tiger7 wrote:

What is Marin's fuel polishing method?

Click to expand...

Our fuel polishing method is we don't polish the fuel.* What Woody is referring to is our tank setup which was installed by the previous owner of our boat.* There is a pair of 85 gallon saddle tanks on each side of the engine room.* Each tank gravity-transfers via manual valves from the lowest point in the tank into a 60 gallon day tank in the bilge. The day tank feeds the engines and generator from the lowest point in the tank.* Total capacity is 400 gallons.

We cycle the tank usage, so one opposing pair of saddle tanks is always empty unless we are going to take a longer cruise in which case we fill everything.* We use up the fuel in one pair of tanks (by transferring it as needed into the day tank) and when that pair is almost empty we fill the other pair.* After completely draining the first pair we leave them empty and draw from the second pair until they're almost empty, then fill the first pair, and so on.

We use the boat year round, winds permitting.* This fuel management process minimizes the time fuel sits in the tanks, and the fact that all the tanks drain or feed from their lowest points means that any water or crud in the tanks should go out with the fuel and thus be filtered out.* When a tank is empty, it's empty.

The fuel system is such so the engines can be valved to pull directly from the saddle tanks on their side of the boat but we have never run it this way.* The return fuel from the engines is valved so it can be sent back either to the day tank (our "default" setting) or to one of the saddle tanks.

So we "polish" our fuel by not having all that much of it on the boat at any given time, and virtually no fuel is left in the bottom of a tank when it's empty.

Ah I see.
Makes sense. I need to get back up to the boat in when the weather gets warmer (we've had snow here every other day), she is 3.5 hours away in Maine. Once I get up there for a weekend I'll investigate the fuel set up further.
I've had several smaller boats in the past, the largest a Catalina 30 sailboat - so there is quite a bit for me to learn in regards to system on this boat (multiple fuel tanks, generator, A/C - heat, multiple heads, etc).

Any good books on the subject...?

7tiger7 wrote:

Any good books on the subject...?

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There are probably a ton of them.* The only "how to" boating books I've* read are Earl Hinz's "The Complete Book of* Anchoring and Mooring,"* "The Radar Book" and "Local Knowledge: A Skipper's Reference, Tacoma to Ketchikan" both by Kevin Monahan, and parts of Nigel Calder's "Marine Diesel Engines" and "How to Read a Nautical Chart."* We've also got a couple of Northwest weather books on board.

Other than that everything we've learned about this kind of boat and boating is from doing it, working on it, talking to shipwrights, diesel mechanics, and electronics and electrical vendors in our marina, and experienced local boaters like Carey of this forum.

*

Congrats...I have a 40 Labelle and love it. Remove the insulation covering those fuel tanks and check the fuel tanks tops for rust. Make sure your windows do not leak; Marine Trading was bad about leaving caulking out....

Where in Boston?

I am a member of Boston Harbor Yacht Club, in South Boston. The boat is in Rockland, Maine, though.
Are you in Boston?

I sailed with my buddy on his Cape Dory 25 out of Quincy.* We had a great time sailing with the tall ships in Boston Harbor when they came to visit for the bicentennial.* Sailed a lot down by Cohasset also.* I raced on a friends Etchells 22 out of Casco Bay in Maine.* Good stuff.**** KJ

-- Edited by KJ on Thursday 20th of January 2011 07:26:52 PM

7tiger7 wrote:

What is Marin's fuel polishing method?

Click to expand...

Please pardon me, I mis-spoke.* Marin's method isn't really polishing as I'm guessing he has explained by now.* His method is to not let the fuel get dirty in the first place.

His method is like getting a flu vaccination instead of getting the flu and then taking plenty of fluids and rest.* It seems to me to be dang fool proof.* So wash your hands often and you won't need to deal with all the symptoms!

Woody

*

Egregious wrote:

*
7tiger7 wrote:

What is Marin's fuel polishing method?

Click to expand...

Please pardon me, I mis-spoke.* Marin's method isn't really polishing as I'm guessing he has explained by now.* His method is to not let the fuel get dirty in the first place.

His method is like getting a flu vaccination instead of getting the flu and then taking plenty of fluids and rest.* It seems to me to be dang fool proof.* So wash your hands often and you won't need to deal with all the symptoms!

WoodyWoodyYou are correct, but I will add one more element, and that is to be sure you are purchasing fuel from a source that turns over their inventory on a regular basis. Fill your tanks only at the busiest marinas. This has worked for me for fifteen years of diesel boating.

*

What we do would not have been possible with the boat's original fuel tanks. They were much bigger and there were fewer of them. Plus I'm not sure if they drew off the bottom or via pickup tubes. So what we're able to do is credit to the previous owner. Having a lot of smaller tanks gives you more options than a few large tanks.

PS-- Just read Carey's post and he's correct.* We're lucky in that there is only one fuel dock in our marina so just about everyone, including the USCG, buys their fuel there.* They go through it pretty fast.* So the fuel we buy is not very old at all.* Plus they replaced their storage*tanks within the past ten or eleven years.


-- Edited by Marin on Thursday 20th of January 2011 09:09:48 PM

You are correct, but I will add one more element, and that is to be sure you are purchasing fuel from a source that turns over their inventory on a regular basis. Fill your tanks only at the busiest marinas. This has worked for me for fifteen years of diesel boating.

*

Click to expand...

Hoorahh-- yes I do try to put my fuel through a filter funnel when it is in a low volume marina.*

So, if we all agree that if we can keep*all H20 and crud out of our fuel
And load them correctly
and change oil as prescribed

they would last forever....* right?*

*

We do the same Marin. We never get fuel on the island. We wait until we go to Ketchikan and get it at the higher priced Texaco fuel dock (float). The only downside is that since they service mostly larger vessels we are stuck w a hose and nozzle that is very difficult to discharge fuel at a lower rate. We have a new engine and new tanks (2) so I feel no need to "polish" or otherwise treat our fuel. Biobor and other additives are used and I put a copper sump tube (1/8") down into the lowest corner of the tank and pump out a quart or so of fuel to remove*ANY water from within the tanks. I do this every 3 months or so and most of the time I only find a few drops of water. I've never gotten any bad fuel so right now our fuel system is pristine and I intend to keep it that way.