Ask Steve

July 2014 Steve: Good luck with your new venture. Always enjoyed your articles. I just returned from a trip on a 2 year old Viking 50 that...

Photo Essay: Avoiding Heat Shrink Butt Splice Woes Butt splices are ubiquitous, the average 50-foot vessel contains scores, perhaps even a hundred or more of...

Text and photos by Steve D’Antonio Copyright © 2017 Photo Essay: Battery Lugs Reliably connecting batteries to their associated cables sounds easy.  In practice, however, it can be fraught...

Copyright © 2016 Ask Steve: July 2016 Steve, I just bought an Ocean Alexander 42 Sedan with CAT 3208s in it.  They do not have air cleaner filters, just...

Text and photos © 2021 Steve D'Antonio Marine Consulting, Inc. Photo Essay: Steering Steering, it’s one of the primary systems you simply can’t do without, along...

Photo Essay: Through Deck Fittings Properly securing deck hardware can present a variety of challenges.  Cored composite decks represent perhaps the greatest challenge; the core...

Text and photos © 2020 Steve D'Antonio Marine Consulting, Inc. Photo Essay: Stuffing Box Hose Clamps Conventional stuffing boxes leak, they are supposed to, it’s how...

Photo Essay: Steering Components Steering falls into what I call one of the three critical systems, along with propulsion and raw water plumbing/watertight integrity.  On...

  Photo Essay: Steering Component Inspection Text and photos by Steve D’Antonio Copyright © 2017 Steering represents one of the most important systems aboard, at least equal to propulsion, electrical and...

Hi Steve, Greg Lee here. Having sold our N47 we are about to close on our purchase of N3522. The sanitation hose badly needs replacing...