Everyone loves a quickie.  Running both a 68’ Hatteras and 43’ Viking express with out a full-time mate, I’ve grown to appreciate quick fixes.  Sometimes shaving twenty or thirty minutes off a cleaning or maintenance project gives the added time to tweak your tackle or rig baits, especially true at tournament time.  Here’s a list of my favorites.

•	Before washing your boat next time, apply liquid flitz metal polish to all of your stainless.  After washing and shamying the boat the stainless will be cleaned and polished in half the time.  
•	When waxing the boat, wax over your stainless as well, that will add the protective coating missing from the flitz. (After using Flitz, it is always recommended to use another high quality protective wax.  I use Collonite Fleet or Insulator waxes)
•	Use a hose clamp to compress your raw water pump impeller next time it’s due for a change.
•	After applying rain-x to your EZ2CY spray curtains, use a damp shamy to remove the haze instead of buffing with a dry cloth.
•	When stripping line off reels, run all of the lines through the top eye of one rod.  The larger diameter makes it easier to grab and all are finished in the time it takes to strip one.
•	If you have teak covering boards, once a month, after washing down the boat, give them a quick hand sanding with 100 grit wet/dry sandpaper.  This will keep off the fuzz that develops after cleaning teak and will prolong the time between more aggressive sanding.
•	If you routinely oil your teak, try mixing your regular oil half and half with Watco Teak oil.  Watco teak oil contains a mildewcide that will stave off the development of mildew in the oiled teak, keeping your teak bright and clean longer than a traditional oil application.
•	Next time you’re changing the skirts on your Marlin plugs and artificial lures with octopus skirts try this.  After trimming off the proper amount, turn them inside out and spray the inside of the hole with Pledge or any other furniture polish, then push the head through backwards.  Check for proper fit and then tie off with waxed thread.  Grab the tail of the skirt in one hand and the head in the other; pull the tail of the skirt toward the butt of the plug head.  For the outer skirt, begin as you did for the inner skirt with trimming, turning inside out and soaking with Pledge.  The difference is now you insert all of the inner skirt through the hole.  Grab the inner skirt with one hand and the outer skirt with the other and firmly pull in opposite directions.  Finish off by tying outer skirt with waxed floss and pulling the skirt back to its right-side-out position.
•	While we are discussing Marlin plugs, how are you securing the hookset to the rear of your lures?  By gluing a hook lock (a rubber piece similar to a door stopper or bumper) to the rear of your lures you can control the hooks ride angle with out cumbersome toothpicks.
•	I apply small petcocks to the bottom of my Racor fuel filter bowls.  This makes draining water from the filter housing much easier and cleaner than removing the bolt that comes with the units.  However, you must add checking these petcocks to your engine room check list, accidentally knocking one open can create a nasty mess!
