After suffering several "unscheduled stoppages", as the Previous Owner termed them, early in our tenure aboard Eolian, Jane became paranoid (rightfully so, based on our experience) that the engine was going to fail. She frequently went down below and pulled up the floorboard over the Racor filters to check the vacuum gauge. The more critical the availability of the engine became, the more frequently she was down below pulling up the floorboard.
Rather than being a problem, this pointed out an important fact: One of our critical pieces of instrumentation was in an inaccessible location.
I procured another Racor vacuum gauge (one designed for panel mounting), and mounted it next to the engine hour meter on the panel adjacent to the companionway. I plumbed it direct to the inlet of the engine lift pump, by installing a tee. 
Here it is with the engine running under way, showing that there is no impending fuel filter blockage.Perhaps the most important thing that I have come to recognize as a result of this little project is that an annoyance is really an opportunity to improve, in disguise.
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2 comments:
Good thinking Bob. We don't have such a thing on our boat but I can still see how much better that solution is than the having to pull up the floorboards all the time.
Mike
Hi Mike -
For me, the "big deal" here was the realization that instead of being irritated that Jane was diving down below just as we were approaching the dock, that we were suffering from an instrumentation deficiency. I confess that it took me a while to get to this...
bob
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