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As my father would have said (with glee) when confronted with a situation like your malfunctioning head, "Aw shit!"

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Tim

There seem to be an awful lot of ropes on your boat. How do you make sure they are all in good shape?

Robin

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author

I think about this as well. You just have to keep an eye on them, and look for chafe or other wear. And you can often tell what sort of shape they are by how they feel in your hand. When the boat is in the yrd this September for some annual maintenance I have asked the rigger to look at all the ropes and see advise on which, if any, should be replaced.

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Tim, we had a similar nasty head experience while cruising for a few days last week! I’d replaced some waste hoses over the winter as a preventative measure, but had neglected to retighten the hose clamps once the summer heat had done its part to soften the PVC. The result was a slow trickle of effluent pooling in a hidden spot in the bilge that was adjacent to the aft cabin where my wife picked up the scent. A few turns on the clamps stopped the flow, but it took a couple hours of boisterous sailing to finally dislodge the remaining fluids from their hiding spot!

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