Boating basics videos
Two-minute paper-diorama explainers for owners of used boats. Each one is fact-checked against the sources listed under the video. Always follow your own engine and equipment manuals.
Starting a marine diesel
The five-minute walk-through before you turn the key: bilge, oil, batteries, coolant, the raw-water strainer, glow plugs, and the flooding trap after failed starts.
2 min · English / Español
Shutting down the right way
Cooldown (longer for turbos), reading the gauges, logging hours, the vented loop, closing the seacock when you leave, and never switching batteries off with the engine running.
2 min · English / Español
Docking and dock lines
Plan the approach for wind and current, rig fenders and lines early, go only as fast as you're willing to hit the dock, and what each line — including the spring — does.
2 min · English / Español
Anchoring
Choosing a spot, scope, lowering instead of throwing, setting gently, checking the set, the anchor light, and keeping hands clear of the windlass.
2 min · English / Español
Fueling safely
Everything off, the right deck fill, nozzle contact against static, don't overfill, spills, and the gasoline blower-and-sniff check before starting.
2 min · English / Español
Winterizing the raw-water side
Oil change, fuel, testing the coolant, and pushing non-toxic antifreeze through the raw-water circuit until it comes out pink — generator and A/C too.
2 min · English / Español
When the temperature alarm sounds
The first checks, in order: throttle back, exhaust water, seacock, strainer, impeller, belt, coolant — and when to call for a tow.
2 min · English / Español
VHF radio and a Mayday call
Channel sixteen, the DSC distress button (needs an MMSI and GPS), how to make a Mayday call, Pan-Pan and Sécurité, and radio checks on the right channel.
2 min · English / Español
Marine heads and No-Discharge Zones
How a manual head works, what goes in it, holding tanks and pump-outs, the Y-valve, and the discharge rules — including No-Discharge Zones like Puget Sound.
2 min · English / Español
Battery switches and shore power
What the battery switch positions do, protecting the alternator, safe shore-power plug-in order, the reverse-polarity light, and electric-shock-drowning risk.
2 min · English / Español