Richard Stone mends his deck saloon's windscreen wiper motor
Practical Projects
DIY automated fog horn for £30
Nick Tyler takes the guesswork out of broadcasting fog signals
Practical tip: how to use a scanner for an accurate drilling template
Like many boat owners, I often fit new bits to my boat. Some of them come with templates that make drilling holes more precise. The alternative is careful measurement of…
How I installed a mast spotlight to stay safe in nighttime anchorages
Have you considered adding a mast spotlight to your yacht? Perhaps we’re asking too much of the good old anchor light. Set against the lights of a busy town or…
How I built a DIY propeller puller to free a calcified prop and shaft
Removing a propeller from your sail- or motorboat doesn’t always translate to smooth sailing, even on a well-maintained yacht. Imagine doing it on an old wooden motor cruiser which was…
My tiller pilot went rogue: the surprising DIY repair that saved my Raymarine ST1000
After his boat executes an unexpected hard-over turn, Paul Newell diagnoses and repairs a problem with his tiller pilot
Air Tools: The Secret to a Perfect Finish: Practical Boat Owner
Restoring a boat is rarely a “pretty” process. As any boat owner knows, before you get to the gleaming finish of a fresh topcoat, you usually have to go through…
How to re-reeve a halyard: If your in-mast halyard has broken here’s how to fix it
Steve Langton threads a new line down through a mast
Contaminated fuel problems: keeping your marine diesel clean
Got contaminated fuel problems? Much has been written about the issue, particularly the advice from Marine 16’s Peter Weide piece in the PBO November 2023 issue and Nick Houlding’s piece…
Boat hatch repair: how to stop the leaks
Fed up with water dripping into his boat's galley, Jose Molina decides to get out his tool box and fix the problem
Make your own boat boarding step
A DIY project for the big day! For his wedding photos, Thomas Parker built a smart boarding step for getting safely on and off the pontoon.
How to make your own rigging vice
Zoran Glozinic builds a specialised wire rigging tool
Moving a diesel engine air filter
Stew Proud moves the vulnerable diesel engine air filter on his boat
Repairing an inflatable dinghy: fixing holes
Paul Diamond repairs a dinghy that was chewed by rodents
Making a lifting keel easier to raise
After struggling with a heavy lifting keel, Brian Johnson builds a simple tackle to make light of the problem
How I built a galley box for my boat
Ben Russell adds basic cooking facilities to his motorboat
How to clean tarnished brass
John Tylor brings some cast-off tarnished brass light fittings back to shiny life
How I made a specialist tool to repair my dinghy
Paul Diamond creates a specialised valve removal tool from a socket spanner in order to repair his inflatable tender
How to make a DIY bilge alarm switch
Zoran Gloznic builds a budget bilge alarm switch
How to replace a stern tube on a boat
Bruno Brown isn’t fazed by what seems a daunting task