Boating Lessons Learned – Smart Phones are Powerful Tools. I use it to take photos while I work and with it I can:
– document steps of disassembly to speed reassembly
– see things around corners and in tight places
– capture images of parts and name plates to send to suppliers
– save a photo copy of a receipt
– document equipment conditions for later comparison

A few years ago I began using the camera in my smart phone to document the stages of disassembly of even the most simple mechanism. That way if I found myself stuck not remembering which way that carburetor choke rod mounted or whether the red wire goes on the right or the left I could review the photos and be sure that I was resembling the thing correctly. I find that using my phone in this manner speeds up my work. I am less tentative when taking on a new project and instead of wasting time staring at the thing trying in vain to memorize how the parts go together I now move forward at a much faster pace. And these days I find little need for note pads and time consuming sketches that I am not likely to be able to decipher anyway.

Yesterday I was checking out my air compressor name plate to determine whether it had the capacity to drive a soda blaster, or should I say I was attempting to read it. The name plate was on the side of the compressor and I could not get my head back around and onto that tight space far enough to see it clearly. So I took out my phone, held it around the corner, and took a few snap shots of the plate. The first few shots were off center but it only took minute to sight in the lens and get a clear shot of the model and serial number. A quick Internet search reveals the data I needed. And Hey; I can do the search on my smart phone too.

Last week in used the camera to communicate window construction details to the replacement window manufacturer. I just held up a tape measure to the window and took pictures of the demensions they needed. The pictures were worth more than the thousand words it would have taken me to describe the situation to them.

We were cruising a month or so ago and as I always do I scan my engine gauges periodically to see if operating conditions are within specification. But it never fails, I look at the temperature gauge or oil pressure gauge and think to myself … Hum. It seems to have changed since my last check. I wonder if I have a problem? So,I check again a couple of minutes later and this time I am just not sure. It seems to be the same as an hour ago but I am still concerned that I may have a problem beginning to show itself. So what I do now is I just take a shot of the dash gauges once the systems get equalized and then if I begin to question my memory I whip out the smart phone and compare the current conditions to the steady state condition of a few hours ago.

I have found a number of other uses too such as capturing a shot of a page in an operations manual so I don’t have to carry the whole book down into the bilge to perform a trouble shooting procedure. Or like last week I took a picture of the receipt I got from the parts store so I did not have to keep up with it in case I had to return the part. So these days I find myself reaching into my tool bag for my smart phone as often as I reach for my trusty 1/2″ – 9/16″ combo wrench. Well maybe not that often but suffice it to say that this is another Boating Lessons Learned.

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The content herein has a single theme: Mistakes …. or as I call them “Boating Lessons Learned”. While there may be elements of this site that appear to be advice about how to do some task you can be assured that it is not a complete and accurate “how to”. I am partially describing how I did something and what I learned. Do not rely on this information because Mcmanusboatworks.com makes no representations as to accuracy, completeness, correctness, suitability, or validity of any information on this site and is not liable for any errors, omissions, or delays in this information or any losses, injuries, or damages arising from its display or use. All information is provided on an as-is basis.