Chichester’s Dell Quay boatyard had been Maximus’s home for two years – and felt like our second home too, since we’d acquired the Maxi 84 project boat. We’d spent long…
PBO Project Boat
Upgrading electronics on the PBO Project Boat
Upgrading electronics on Maximus seemed like a huge leap in the first weeks of ownership. We were still discovering new leaks and lockers, choosing antifouling and scraping the bottom. I…
What is an in-hull transducer?
On our PBO Project Boat Maximus we need sonar simply for measuring depth, but the advanced electronics of fish finders and forward-looking sonar can show shoals of fish and give…
What is NMEA 2000, SeaTalk 2, STng, Simnet and other systems?
NMEA 2000 uses the CAN (control area network) designed originally for the automotive market, but adapted for the marine industry. The older version, NMEA 0183, allowed a GPS or chartplotter…
Boat power management: How to keep your batteries topped up
Now we’d decided on batteries for Maximus the next conundrum was how to keep those batteries charged. Premier Marinas had kindly offered us a berth at Chichester Marina for the…
What battery capacity? Working out your boat’s power requirements
In order to work out your boat’s battery capacity you need to know how much power you’re going to draw, and this requires you to get your head around three…
Boat batteries 101: Which battery is the best choice for my boat?
We’d borrowed a lead acid battery from our marine electrician, Adam McMenemy, which would get the Maxi 84 afloat and through the lock to Chichester marina. However, now she was…
Best boat battery: The pros and cons of the 5 different types of marine batteries
Sometimes (though not on Maximus) there’s a third set of batteries for high power items such as a bow-thruster or electric windlass. Wet lead acid Batteries that have liquid electrolyte…
Boat polishing tips: How we got the PBO Project Boat’s topsides gleaming
After the 2020 sailing season was largely lost to lockdown, Maximus had been ashore at Dell Quay in Chichester for two years when my wife, Ali, and I took her…
Boat rewire tips: How we completely rewired the PBO Project Boat
Our marine surveyor Ben Sutcliffe-Davies switched on the instruments of our Maxi 84, Maximus, and I held my breath. Nothing. We hadn’t expected there to be any life in the…
Leaky boat repair: How we plugged the gaps in the PBO Project Boat
Leaky portholes and portlights are common on cruising boats, but there are several things we can try to solve the issue, as we discovered. In his survey, Ben Sutcliffe-Davies had…
How to antifoul a boat: What we learned from antifouling Maximus
As we’d scraped back the hull and were starting afresh, the idea of releasing biocides into the water, albeit very slowly, was something we wanted to avoid. Also, it seemed…
Prepping the rusty keel of the PBO Project boat
In our Maxi 84 boat survey, Ben Sutcliffe-Davies concluded that the antifouling needed to come off and whilst the keel joint was nice and tight there was a lot of…
Removing antifouling – the job I’ll never do again!
After a season on the water and two years in a boatyard, Maximus’s antifouling was old and flaky. We’d been given the 28ft Maxi 84 by PBO reader Daniel Kirtley,…
Do you know your rudders?
Do you know rudders? Boatyards are a great place to get to know different types of keels, rudders and other underwater fittings. When Ben Sutcliffe-Davies came down to Chichester to…
Cheap antifouling paint? Manufacturers explain how to coat your boat on a budget
What’s your most economical antifouling paint? The lower the level of fouling you’re up against, the cheaper the antifouling paint is likely to be. For low to medium fouling conditions,…
Fitting new seacocks and skin fittings on the PBO Project Boat
Maximus, our PBO Project Boat, had four seacock fittings that need changing – three ball valves in the forepeak (1 x 1½in and 2 x ¾in) and one gate valve…
What are the different types of seacock and when should I replace them?
Seacocks – the small valves on the boat’s hull which allow water to flow through – are one of the most important fittings on the whole boat. Seacocks are used…
Marine engine videos with Stu Davies – top tips on servicing your boat engine
When we acquired our 43-year-old cruiser Maximus, we asked PBO’s engine expert Stu Davies and wife Laura to show us how to service the Volvo MD2020 engine. They drove all…
How to use sealants for fixing leaks – PBO Project Boat restoration
A downpour of rain shows that making PBO Project Boat Maximus watertight is a priority, so Ali Wood gets some top tips about sealants from experts