May 2009
After a delightful sail on a very hot week-end at the end of May, I was sitting on Triton talking to my neighbour. The boat just been moored up, engine off, and tied up.
To my surprise, the engine started up. I had been sitting on the coach roof with a can of beer in my hand.
I rushed to the control panel, and tried to switch the engine off. Nothing happened. There was a smell of burning as I lifted off the engine cover. I shouted to my neighbour that I was on fire. He rushed off to get a fire extinguisher, as I reach for my own. There were no flames, it was just smoke from melted wires.
The engine rattled on, with a tinny noise. The starter motor was going full pelt. The battery monitor was having fits as the voltage of the 110 amp/battery fell rapidly. I did not dare turn off the batteries in case I blew up the alternator. But the priority was to turn off the engine. The stop solenoid did not work. I took off the control panel to see if its wire was connected. It was, but also thoroughly fried.
The only way that I could think to turn off the engine was to starve it of fuel. The cockpit sole floor came up, the life-raft was removed and 7 screws were undone to remove the locker under the sole locker. I jumped into the space behind the engine, and turned off the diesel fuel tap, and waited! Nothing happened.
I then reached for the diesel secondary filter intending to remove it. The suction from the air filter almost caught my hand. That minded me to try and stop the air supply. The steel filter has a intake of about 1" diameter. I reached for a screw driver which had a rubber handle and fitted nicely into the intake. The engine slow a little but carried on ticking over.
So it had to be the fuel filter. That came off easily, with no immediate effect. There was nothing else to do. I waited for an age, about three minutes in reality before th engine reluctantly came to a halt. I turned off the battery, and started to survey the scene!
Being quite dark did not help. I shone the torch into the abyss, and could see several fried wires. I looked at the batteries, they looked OK. The battery monitor was blank. I decided to test the voltage of the batteries. The engine battery was almost 14 volts, the domestic was 0.98 volts!!
The shore was on, so I switched on the charger. Its red light came on telling me it was charging at full power. I switched the domestic battery back on, and the interior lights glowed dimly. I ma not sure of the exact sequence of the following that but suddenly the engine started again. But it only fired a couple of times on the diesel fumes left in it. I hurriedly turned of the battery again.
I was too late in the evening to do anything other than to disconnect the batteries, and put the boat back together. My neighbour lent me a lantern whilst I tied up, and packed to go home.
The following morning I returned to put the fuel filter back on. I took the video of the scene and arranged to have the local marine electrician to come and rewire the engine.
Watch this space......
Video of the scene (photobucket)
or
Video of the scene (direct but slower)
