If you are adept at DIY projects, you may want to do your own marine servicing for your boat. Of course you must take into account what needs to be done: it’s fine to do regular maintenance yourself, but if your boat has a bigger problem, you should look for an expert to service it for you.
When you do your regular marine servicing, you should move in a step by step fashion. Refer to the manual that came with the boat that tells you specifically how you should service it. For each round of maintenance, you will do marine plumbing services, marine engineering services, marine valeting services and marine antifouling services. If you find that you are not able to do any of these very well, ask a professional to come in and do it for you. Of course it’s a good time for you to learn by watching and asking so that you can do it yourself the next time round.
The most important thing is to be able to identify when there is a problem that needs a professional’s attention. Boats stay in a humid environment all the time and the salt in the water will cause different metals to react. If your boat is in a beach that is hot as well, affected parts may dry out one day and then be moist the next. You may notice that some electronic parts are not working today for example, but work just fine tomorrow. This means that your boat needs looking at.
How to organize your marine servicing DIY
Before you get started, make sure that you have everything you need and that your tools are clean and in good working order. Clean them so that they are not slippery. You’ll need all kinds of spanners for the different nuts and bolts so get yourself a good collection in advance. Remove hatch covers so that you can get all the light you need to see clearly, and get a flashlight for the darker areas that natural light cannot reach.
Whether you are doing marine plumbing services, marine engineering services, marine valeting services or marine antifouling services, the best way to go about any job is to organize. You are dealing with all kinds of parts, big and small. If you take them aside without a kind of order, you’re setting yourself up for trouble.
Take apart one section at a time and then make sure that you arrange the parts in the order in which you take them out. Before you take apart a section, take your time to look at it so that you can have a mental image of what it looks like when it is assembled. You can also take a picture just to be sure.
Because of humidity and salty water, it’s normal for nuts or bolts to break during marine servicing. Don’t worry; simply replace it (get a few of them for your tool kit).
There are parts that need to be greased to keep them safe from water and salt damage; give them a good coating before replacing them. A lot of the electronic parts are held in plastic casing. It’s very important that once you take apart and clean everything, you return the casing and screw it on tight to make sure that no water can get in.
You may come across parts that you don’t have the tools for, and looking at the manual will tell you what these tools are. There is really no need to spend a lot of money buying them when the professionals have them, so leave these parts and call in a marine servicing company. Also, over the years, as your boat’s engine grows older and older, you may need to call in professionals more often because parts are becoming more and more delicate.
If there is wiring to be replaced, unless you are good at electronics, it’s recommended that you call a marine servicing company to do it. Because a single piece of cable may be connected to so many electronic devices, you may end up doing more damage by trying to replace it yourself.
A few times each year, depending on how much you use your boat, you need to do a full engine reconditioning, another job for professionals. They will restore your engine to an almost new state. It’s important that you stick with one company for marine services so that you can have your boat’s history all in one place.
