The Drivetrain

Most engine systems have an alarm on the control panel that goes off to warn you of low oil pressure, overheating and similar potentially engine-croaking mishaps. It's the buzzing or ringing noise you hear every time you start the engine, before the oil pressure gets to the sensor sending unit. That pesky buzzing noise can be annoying, so some manufacturers offer a switch on the control panel that allows you to shut off the alarm's audio alert, like the one pictured at right. But that pesky alarm isn't as disruptive to your boating day as a engine room full of smoke.

In this case, either the customer's considerably worn belt broke and flew off, stopping the fresh water coolant pump and the flow of coolant to the heat exchanger, or the fresh water outlet hose came off, allowing the coolant to drain into the bilge. Whether it was the broken belt that caused the hose to blow off, or the lack of coolant that caused the pump to seize and the belt to break is moot... the result is the same, a massive overheat.

Since the "buzzer stop" switch was engaged, the audio alarm never sounded, so the uncooled exhaust and heat build up (about 1000°F) almost set the entire boat ablaze. The boaters abandoned the smoking boat for the Safe/Sea Newport as soon as I arrived.

The owner had engaged the Fire-Boy system, which displaced the oxygen in the engine room, preventing a full-on conflagration. The USCG had us wait for the Newport fire boat to give the all-clear for towing about an hour later, as the smoke had totally dissipated, although the engine was still almost glowing from the heat. You can see the cooked 6LY series Yanmar diesel below. It's the same kind of motor we use here at Safe/Sea, so it's particularly sad for us to see the demise of one!

There are four good lessons illustrated from this case.

1. Always check your engine belts for wear and tightness.
2. Make sure your hose clamps are tightened correctly.
3. Always make sure your engine alarm is audible when you start the boat.
4. Always keep your eye on your engine gauges when underway; don't depend on the audible alarm only.

Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0) | Permalink

Checking the bilge on a regular basis is a good idea. I found this hose guard chafed. I pulled it back with a wire tie and averted a breakdown.

These days you can get away with not looking under the hood of your car; you just get the oil changed when the milage is due. That kind of convenience can make for a lax attitude when it comes to boats.

Check the bilge before getting underway and maybe save yourself a call to Safe/Sea. I did.

Comments (1) | Trackbacks (0) | Permalink

It's not just our customers that have an occasional mishaps on the water. Remember the job Capt. Pete and Capt. Phil did last week, putting a 118' motorsailer to the dock in Newport? (If you don't you can read Capt. Pete's blog post about it here.) Anyway, during the job, Capt. Pete's starboard jet was mysteriously fouled by an unknown object or line. After some detective work, I've solved the mystery!

While transferring to a side tow of the 118' Knickerbocker around 2 am, Capt. pete's boat picked up a black line that, as it turns out, was hanging off a custom fender that had been deployed by Knickerbocker's crew. The line was invisible at night and had a stainless steel snap shackle that got sucked up in the jet and left its mark. Click on any of the photos at right to see the actors involved in the mystery.

Capt. Pete's boat was not disabled and he was able to help Capt. Phil complete the job successfully.  As you can see in the photo gallery at right, we did have a little work to do on Monday. I bent the grate back into shape and filed and grounded the impeller a bit. The boat runs at about 95% capacity with the damaged impeller. But we don't tow folks 95% of the way back to the dock, so we've ordered a new impeller and will have the old one reconditioned as a spare.

We love our jet drives. They have many advantages over conventional props for our type of business, but like anything mechanical in use around the ocean, they're not bulletproof. Stuff happens. I like to think of it as job security! ;-)

Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0) | Permalink

I love summer. In the summer, I get to drive awesome boats, tow people back home, scuba dive, and do some story-telling salvage work. But as the season winds down, I make a list and schedule my work so I can have the Safe/Sea boats back in bristol shape by spring.

Every year, I paint five boat bottoms, replace the raw water impellers, pull all the jets apart to inspect, lube, and install new zincs. That's a total of nine drivetrains that get an up-close, detailed inspection and repaint.

I pull out all our pumps, salvage equipment, dive gear, and inspect it all for corrosion, damage, missing parts, and so on. There is always something that needs a little attention. On a recreational boat, if something doesn't work quite right it's an inconvenience (and usually ends up with one of our guys showing up to help out). If something on a Safe/Sea boat fails, it could mean disaster.

Aside from the usual paint, spit and polish we also had a couple of noisy jets by seasons end so the driveshafts came out and they received a new set of bearings. In addition, I replaced four cutlass bearings as well that were delaminating from their bronze sheaths, which are shown in the pictures at right.

Comments (3) | Trackbacks (0) | Permalink