The Eventider's News
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Issue 16 Late summer 2011.
Page 4 Owners Tips.
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Summer? sails Electrics Everjoy Tale of Sea and Scouse Scran Bag! |
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Engine Maintenance, Yard v DIY |
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This Summer I have spent a bit of time
sailing with Doug, on board 'Dougaljo', starting with a a trip from Burnham
on Crouch in May with brother in law and one other as crew. it was a
cracking sail. We had a good F5 westerly so with all the repairs to
Dougaljo completed and boat re rigged, we tested her well. a scorching
run down the river, and a broad reach over the Raysands. At no time
did she give me a moments qualms. Entering the Blackwater with the wind easing slightly we had a hard bash to windward with the Lister Twin bashing away relentlessly. A good trip, only marred by the motor stalling as we berthed. With me on the helm I was very grateful for a gentle approach and many hands to fend off! |
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Doug had asked for some work to be done on
the motor, oil changes etc and the throttle linkage sorted, because for as
long as I had known the boat it had no real tickover and leapt ahead when in
gear. Simon, a local engineer know to both Doug and myself came to the
rescue and sorted the throttle. However it was not for that Doug
called him. When Doug went down the next day to sort the boat out the
motor refused to start. At first when he told me, I wondered if it
could have been something I did, but no.
The starter relay had gone. This was about the 4th! When we looked we could easily see why, it was being shaken to bits on a bracket attached to the head! Slightly longer wires and moving it to the vibration free bulkhead should cure that. |
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So it was a week or so later I joined Doug for a trip out to test all, it was a great day, gentle SE breeze so off we went under power till the beacon, and I only had time to get the transom of this MG as she slipped past us! Sorry should have had the camera ready! Up went the sails and we had a sparkling sail up past Osea. |
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Off Millbeach it was getting a little crowded
and as it was just about HW I suggested we drop sails and putter back
slowly. Motor started instantly, but I realised right away that we had
no water out of the exhaust. Motor off... Sails were swiftly set and we gently drifted to the southern side of the river and dropped the hook. I whipped the seacock open. Nothing blocking that. Then the water pump, that looked fine too, all the vanes on it. I turned my attention to the heat exchanger.... a different story here |
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I found the end cap housing at the front full
of salt and crud. The tubes were all blocked solid, no wonder there
was no water getting through! One would have expected the boatyard to have checked this, or at least I would have done if I was paying for the engineer to do a service, this is a normal annual job |
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Inside the heat exchanger all was clean, because it was filled with antifreeze of course, some of which was lost. The back end and the tubes were all blocked. |
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It took a bit of doing to clear out all the holes, of course we did not have any drill bits long enough, no wire coat hangers on board to poke in there, it took a bit of time with drill bits from both ends and thin wire doubled and doubled to make a poker. However eventually all was clear and the heat exchanger was refitted, being careful to seat the 'O' rings as best we could. (new ones on order!) |
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All re fitted and the key turned, no water! I was now aware that we had been there for a couple of hours and the ebb had set in so kept a wary eye on the echo sounder, 2 metres, OK for a bit. Off came the exhaust elbow. A poke of the wire proved that was clear. I looked at the part the elbow fitted on. A rectangular cast iron box enclosing the 2 exhaust outlets water filled for cooling. the water entered from the heat exchanger and exited into the injection bend. I could see it was dark in there so assumed.... Not dark, solid coke and mud! It took a further 20 minutes to poke a small hole from one end to the other. success, I hurriedly refitted all. Echo sounder reading 1.3 m now. Doug turned the key and I leant over the back...... nothing!!!! We could not believe it. Doug had dragged out the one part we had not replaced, the pump impellor. I whipped it out, 1.2 metres.... Refitted new one, vanes very, very slightly ridged.. so engineer had not replaced that either... OK last chance. Hit the button and there was an explosion of crud from the exhaust. a cannon ball shot out and that was followed by water. 1.1 metres. I hurriedly cleared up and hoisted the anchor, Doug putting tools away. I nipped back and tossed it into gear. A mud slurry shot out the back and we slid off the mud! We now knew his echo sounder reads from the waterline! We discussed the problem for a while and Doug admitted that for years he had assumed the yard at Burnham had serviced all when they did the motor, we know different.! Simon has been engaged to remove the manifold cooler and clear all the crud out of that, and double check all that I did, including fitting new 'O' rings and antifreeze. that will have all spot on for 2012!
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This is not really the end of the story, as
during the summer I have been helping a dear friend sort his WW with a view
to sell. One of the problems he had was the bolt holding the cap end of the
heat exchanger had broken off. It was lodged in the middle of the tube
stack. A job for Simon.
Simon attended a week later and removed the tube stack and end plates for cleaning up, they too were choked full. He managed to remove the remains of the bolt, and fit a new one, but when he looked at the 'O' ring seals found the aft one had not been seated correctly allowing the salt water to enter the block. On further inspection he found mud and salt in all the pipes, so has the job of clearing out the block now as well as the heat exchanger. A job that could have been avoided and sadly looks to be down to the engine builder, Beta, as the stack had never been of since new.... So a good read of the manual and if you are a DIY boat owner like me, step by step and go through the lot! I have nearly always done all my winter work, religiously changing gearbox oil and all filters etc... and all is well. (one winter, after it had been in use 14 years, Simon came along and gave it a good once over for me, found tappets, water pump bearings, alternator bearings needed attention and did all the filter, anode and other jobs at the same time. Better than being stuck out there on a falling tide! John
Post Script Feb 2012. Simon removed the manifold box and tried to clear out the mud and crud, it was solid. After a week or so in the acid you could see inside, and you could also now see the acid and water leaking through a large crack! Only the fact that it was solid with mud prevented it from pumping water into the cylinders! Doug has a new one on order plus all new gaskets and to finish the job off a new water injection manifold, as the old one is 1994 vintage and getting perilously thin. Will be good for another 15 years, or more now Doug knows and will have the heat exchanger properly cleaned out by Simon every year! John |
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Rubbish at Sea and how to deal with it! |
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Nothing as awful as waste in the water, especially when there is no wind.... After 9 hours drifting ( no wind en net in the prop) luckily we reached Guernsey.... But we and Spoondrift had a wonderful sailing trip. Greetings to all the Eventides- and Golden Hind-owners
Wim Fortuyn en Elske ter Veld |
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We left in
May, sunny weather and a nice but cold North-easterly. Sailed slowly south
: Dutch coast, Belgium coast and arrived Dunkerken on the day of the
celebration of the evacuation of 1940 (Operation Dynamo). Lots of small
English boats for the coast and in the innerharbour. This is where Wim had been to Dunkirk for the anniversary of the Little ships and the evacuation. On the pictures you'll see an old veteran and the innerharbour of Duinkerken with Prince Michael of Kent Sailing south from here he caught his prop on a net and lost the motor.... |
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When Wim got into Guernsey, under sail, this is what he found on the prop! |
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A Real mess, so carry a big knife on board, even prop
cutters would have had a problem with this much net! Thanks for sending in the pictures Wim. |
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Tips from the owner of GH Tusk |
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Books
I had a look at the books section of the web site and I think there are a few more books that should be featured. If owners know about them, they may be interested enough to try to obtain secondhand copies. These are as follows: 'Underwater Gorillas Are Hard To Find' by Jack Blocki, an account of a voyage from England to Cyprus in GH 31 Smoocher. 'Master Under God' an account of the last voyage of a GH 31 lost at sea, can't remember the details but we have the book on Tusk. Then there is the most famous Golden Hind book ever: '117 Days Adrift' by Maurice and Marilyn Bailey covering the sinking of GH 31 Auralyn by a whale in the pacific and the survival of the crew for 117 days in a life raft. I have all these books on board. Brian Cook. ***************************************************** |
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