{"id":59778,"date":"2023-03-01T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-03-01T19:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/?p=59778"},"modified":"2023-05-08T11:03:08","modified_gmt":"2023-05-08T15:03:08","slug":"tell-tales-no-swimming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/yachts\/tell-tales-no-swimming\/","title":{"rendered":"Sea-Cleaning Maintenance"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\"Steve <\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n
\n “I found clients\u2019 interest in waste management focused on how to get it off the boat as quickly as possible. Pump-out facilities were a novelty, and waste tanks were easily bypassed.”<\/span>\n Steve Haefele<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\t <\/figcaption>\n <\/section>\n\t\t\n\n\n\n\n

A yacht broker pal of mine called the other day in a panic. He\u2019d been tipped off by a fuel-dock source that one of his customers visiting the area had been blowing ballast (the holding tank) in the harbor. My pal was spelunking through the bilge of his customer\u2019s ride, searching for the misguided waste valve, as the dockmaster was steaming his way. The East Indian manatee came to mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our boat was interred in an old Florida Keys haunt for years. When the town bought the place in the 2000s, one of the first things it did was plumb each slip with a pump-out tap. While it could not have been easier to do the right thing, some boaters were irritated by the update and insisted they were less of a burden on water quality than the \u201cnon-native\u201d East Indian manatee. \u201cMake sea cows plug in,\u201d muttered a malcontent who wintered aboard a few slips away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The skipper\u2019s soggy second home was a stick-built 60-footer struggling to stay afloat. A keen eye would note that the seawater burping from its belly was not from central air conditioning. A decaying window shaker was poking out the salon\u2019s after bulkhead, hidden behind a potted plant. If this boat had a waste tank, it was likely the only thing aboard that was dry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When plug-in day arrived, the skipper pointed out the new waste hose he\u2019d stuffed through a porthole and assured the dockmaster he was compliant. But this dockmaster was not one to be trifled with. Suspecting subterfuge, he hatched a plan to confirm that goods were flowing through the hose and not into the harbor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read More from Jay Coyle:<\/strong> Tell Tales<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the skipper was keen on sundowners and rarely conscious much after sunset, the dockmaster set the trap in the evening twilight, stuffing a clean white sock into the hose at its connection to the slip-side suction valve. He recovered it a week later no worse for wear. Busted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I first stepped aboard in the 1960s, whether you pumped a lever or pushed a button, waste\u2019s final destination was no more than a few feet from the departure gate: over the side. Savvy boaters considered going overboard in a marina akin to a death sentence. When holding tanks were mandated in the 1970s, the industry and boaters shrugged. As a boat designer, I found clients\u2019 interest in waste management focused on how to get it off the boat as quickly as possible. Pump-out facilities were a novelty, and waste tanks were easily bypassed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Times have changed. Given modern onboard waste systems and easy access to pump-out facilities, there\u2019s no excuse for souring the seas. It turns out it was fellow boaters that ratted on my pal\u2019s customer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps there is hope, but as I write this, signs warning of high levels of enterococcus bacteria are being posted near two overstuffed marinas in town, and I still hear reality-challenged boaters blame the \u201cnon-native\u201d manatee. Fun fact: Florida is not the East Indian manatee\u2019s second home. It\u2019s native.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Keeping our oceans clean starts in the marina.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":59779,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"BS_author_type":"BS_author_is_guest","BS_guest_author_name":"Jay Coyle","BS_guest_author_url":"","hydra_display_date":"","hydra_display_updated":false,"_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":"163","_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":"Blown ballasts and other mechanical issues aboard yachts are dirtying the waters and harming ecosystems, making proactive maintenance a necessity.","_yoast_wpseo_title":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","arc_story_id":"","arc_website_url":"","custom_permalink":"","arc_subtype":"","arc_exclude_from_feeds":false,"sponsored":false,"sponsored_label":"Sponsored Content","sponsored_display_label":false,"sponsored_image":false,"post_right_rail":true,"post_right_rail_ad_1":true,"post_right_rail_ad_2":true,"post_right_rail_ad_3":false,"post_right_rail_ad_4":false,"post_right_rail_recirc":true,"fixed_anchor_ad":true,"post_top_ad":true,"post_off_ramp":true,"post_taboola":false,"labels":true,"apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":"\"\"","apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":"","sponsored_url":"","social_share":true,"ad_targeting":"","ad_settings_ads_on_this_page":true,"ad_settings_automatic_ad_injection_into_the_content":true},"categories":[163],"tags":[2066,569,164],"acf":[],"apple_news_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59778"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59778\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}