I’ve been holding off on listening to these for a while and tonight I finally found some time to watch the online seminars from Zimmerman Marine. You’ll need the Macromedia Flash Player installed to watch the videos (most of you already do) and either a quiet space or some head phones. The seminars are in a slideshow format with example picture of proper and improper methods/technics/installations depending on the topic. Overall the pictures are excellent, the audio quality is excellent as it the information. If I had any complaints it would be the boys over at Zimmerman come across a little dry, reading the material, but that’s a pretty small complaint given the high quality of the production.
In the first of the series on Seacocks and Through-Hulls Steve D’Antonio, ZMI VP of Operations, covers the different types of valves, the parts of each kind, proper installation and some common mistakes. I especially liked the specific information on the specific ABYC and UL ratings you should look for on valves and backing materials. The examples of improper installations were also great, and are just the kinds of things I want to look for when I’m buying my own boat.
The second seminar, Deck and Cabin Structural Issues, Steve Zimmerman himself covers basics of cored hull manufacturing, common issues mostly involving water getting into the core and proper installation of hardware in a cored deck. I was familiar with most of this information already but it was a good refresher of the basics.
The third seminar titled, Engine Room Inspection covers raw water filters, wiring, fire extinguishers among other topics. I have never been on a boat with a fire extinguisher in the engine compartment and the information on manually fireable extinguishers. The key point is while an automatic system may sound great it requires the fire get hot enough to trigger the system and by then the engine and maybe your boat are likely toast. A system that also has a manual way to use the extinguisher from outside the engine room let’s you kill a fire before it get out of control. Lots of other great information in this one!
The fourth series, Hull Inspection, covered common hull laminate and joint issues and blistering. All good topics for someone soon to be looking at a lot of boats.
There are four more seminars scheduled on the ZMI Seminars site and I would assume this is just the beginning of many excellent and informational seminars!