Calder N. - Boatowners Mechanical and Electrical Manual: How to Maintain, Repair, and Improve Your Boats Essential Systems

Boatowners Mechanical and Electrical Manual

Third Edition

How to Maintain, Repair, and Improve Your Boats Essential Systems

Third Edition

Nigel Calder

Copyright 1996, 2005 by Nigel Calder All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

ISBN: 978-0-07-178406-1
MHID: 0-07-178406-3

The material in this eBook also appears in the print version of this title: ISBN: 978-0-07-143238-2, MHID: 0-07-143238-8.

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NOTICE: Repairing, modifying, and maintaining your boat can expose you to potentially dangerous situations and substances. Reference to brand names does not indicate endorsement of or guarantee the safety of using these products. In using this book, the reader releases the author, publisher, and distributor from liability for any loss or injury, including death, allegedly caused, in whole or in part, by relying on information contained in this book.

TERMS OF USE

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DEDICATION

To Pippin and Paul:
May this book hasten the day when you
take over the maintenance of the boat.

Over time, the audience for this book has evolved. The first edition was written for hard-core cruising sailors. It paid scant attention to such things as the voluntary boatbuilding standards promulgated by the American Boat and Yacht Council (ABYC) in the United States, and none whatsoever to the legally enforceable standards then being developed by the International Standards Organization (ISO) in Europe. But then I found that in addition to cruisers, the book was being used by a significant number of marine professionalssurveyors, designers, and boatbuilders. So, for the second edition I not only added a considerable amount of new material, but I also cleaned up the book from a standards-compliance perspective.

Ten years later I find the book is now widely used by marine professionals all over the world. At the same time, the ISO has substantially expanded the scope of its standards. Meanwhile, much of my original audience of cruising sailors has become far better educated and sophisticated with respect to technical matters, and is capable of acting upon considerably more-complex information. At the other end of the spectrum, a new generation of sailors, many with minimal experience and limited technical knowledge, has taken up cruising. Powerboaters of all stripes have begun to use the book. As a backdrop to these developments, the systems found on almost all boats have become increasingly sophisticated.

These changes have created a major challenge in terms of defining the audience for this third edition and in determining the level of detail and complexity that should be included. One thing, however, has not changedthe primary objective of meeting the needs of cruising sailors, both those with considerable experience as well as neophytes. Within this general framework, I have also sought to meet the needs of industry professionals.

In order to satisfy these somewhat divergent objectives, I have retained most of the structure of the original book, because it has seemed to work so well over the years and is already familiar to hundreds of thousands of readers. However, I have added considerably more detail than in previous editions, and slotted in numerous new sections (e.g., a whole new chapter on boats with more-complex electrical systems requirements, and new sections on lighting technologies, air-conditioning, watermakers, and bow thrusters). Overall, the book has expanded by about 40%.