Lost power in a bit of a gale

[s3raphim]

A friend of mine and I recently took my 1978 Cal 39 MKII, AIOLOS, on what was to be a four day there and back to the San Juans in the PNW. We had 35 degrees and a bit of snow heading up, and then lost power with 30kts on the nose (gusts a tad higher) in the Strait.

Date: Sunday, April 2 / Elliott Bay Marina (EBM)
Weather: 35 degrees, cloudy, light rain, wind S 10-15 kts

Comments:
Shopped and provisioned the boat with food for 4 days. Carted over the dinghy from storage and inflated it; stowed and organized all food and belongings; checked engine fluids, batteries, pfd’s; topped up the water tanks; lights out at 10:30pm.

Date: Monday, April 3
Destination: Elliott Bay Marina to Friday Harbor, San Juan Island
Weather: 32-36 degrees, cloudy, rain, snow, sun, wind S 8-12 kts shifting to W-NW 15-22 kts in the afternoon.

Comments: Woke at 4:15am, made coffee, donned foulies, cast off at 5:00am. Snow (!) at 6:30am.

Decided to motor for the initial stages, as we needed to average 5kts/hr and the winds were not strong enough. Hit the ebb tide perfectly and averaged 6-7kts (hitting over 8kts through Admiralty Inlet). Winds shifted in the afternoon W-NW 12-15kts. Sunshine!

Raised sail as we entered the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Port tack close reach most of the way to San Juan Island (glorious sailing). Lowered sails as we entered Cattle Pass, motored to Friday Harbor arriving 4:30pm. Bought better gloves in town.

Date: Tuesday, April 4
Destination: Aleck Bay, Lopez Island
Weather: 45-50 degrees, sunny. Winds S 5-10kts.

Comments: Leisurely morning. Left FH at 11:30am, motored to Aleck Bay, dropped anchor at 2pm. Sun felt so nice, we both dove in off of Aiolos twice. Read. Made a feast. Lights out at 10:30pm.

Date: Wednesday, April 5
Destination: Elliot Bay Marina (home)
Weather: 38-40 degrees; started sunny; clouds at 10am; winds S 20-32kts (Small craft advisory, gale warning)

Comments: Decided to end the trip a day early and hoof it home as a projected system with 40kt southerlies was to hit on Thursday. Weighed anchor at 6am. Raised sails at 6:15am, intending to sail across the Strait with 10-15kts forecast. Port tack close hauled until just past Smith Island. Doubled reefed as winds hit 20-25kts.

Once we passed Smith Island, I decided to motor sail (with a double reefed main) as winds were 27-30kts steady on the nose, seas 3-4ft, and we were making no more 1.5-2kts.

Tried to turn over the engine (Perkins 4108) and it would not start.

Hove to, quickly considered options:

- Call for assistance (nah, felt premature)

- Sail to Pt Townsend and anchor, but that big system is coming in. Not optimal.

- Troubleshoot the engine.

Since the boat was relatively stable hove-to and we had plenty of daylight and seaway; opted to troubleshoot the engine.

Opened port settee, inspected racor fuel filter bowls, discovered water in the port side racor bowl. Drained the water and pumped fresh diesel into the filter and bowl.

Began to slowly bleed the fuel lines by opening individual fuel injectors at the engine and cranking the engine.

The repeated cranking killed the batteries.

Had to wait for solar power to re-charge them, and then continue to bleed the lines again.

Rinse repeat.

After more than an hour of bleeding, cranking, waiting for solar, the engine started at (approx) 10:45am. Ran like a top from that point forward. Batts and starter seem fine.

Then discovered that the winds had blown the port sheet free, which was still secure to the port winch, but the sheet somehow ended up under the boat. Took a few mins to discover what was happening, but eventually untied the sheet stopping knot, pulled the sheet under the hull, retied and secured.

Began motor-sailing at 11:00am. As the winds were against current, we took a bit of a pounding for the next 8 hours. Winds steady at 25-30kts on the nose the entire time.

Opted to lower the main at 1pm, as we needed to head direct south, straight into the wind, to maximize time. It was a long haul.

Winds lowered to 15-20 kts as we passed Port Ludlow.

Arrived EBM at 8:45pm.

Packed, stowed, organized the boat and dinghy, arrived home at 11pm, totally spent but grateful.

[jt11791]

Nice trip report. Thanks for posting it!

[Searles]

Now is the time to clean that fuel tank and lines ,by the way once you have bled the injector pump cracking one injector will do the trick ,no need to bleed them all,once she fires she will soon clear the rest ,plenty of experience with lots of Perkins ,verry hard to kill ,but always leak oil from someware.⛵️⚓️

[Searles]

P S good log ⛵️⚓️

[s3raphim]

Originally Posted by Searles

…by the way once you have bled the injector pump cracking one injector will do the trick ,no need to bleed them all,once she fires she will soon clear the rest ,plenty of experience with lots of Perkins ,verry hard to kill ,but always leak oil from someware.⛵️⚓️

Yes, I started with the injector pump. There was a fair amount of water. She used to leak oil, but Bar's Rear Main Seal Repair has effectively stopped it.

[skipperpete]

Originally Posted by s3raphim

Yes, I started with the injector pump. There was a fair amount of water. She used to leak oil, but Bar's Rear Main Seal Repair has effectively stopped it.

Are you saying you actually got water from the injector pump during priming? Your experiences with dirty fuel back in mid 2020 should have provided you with enough incentive to clean out the fuel tanks, judging from the photos from that incident you had badly contaminated fuel....
water in the fuel is very bad for your 4-108 injector pump... actually “Bad” understates how damaging even just emulsified water can be.

[Rohan]

Originally Posted by s3raphim

Then discovered that the winds had blown the port sheet free, which was still secure to the port winch, but the sheet somehow ended up under the boat. Took a few mins to discover what was happening, but eventually untied the sheet stopping knot, pulled the sheet under the hull, retied and secured.

Good thing it didn't get caught in the propeller!

[s3raphim]

Originally Posted by skipperpete

Are you saying you actually got water from the injector pump during priming? Your experiences with dirty fuel back in mid 2020 should have provided you with enough incentive to clean out the fuel tanks, judging from the photos from that incident you had badly contaminated fuel....
water in the fuel is very bad for your 4-108 injector pump... actually “Bad” understates how damaging even just emulsified water can be.

I did have the tanks cleaned, access ports cut, etc… from that 2020 issue. This was about a cup or so of water in the racor filter bowl. I made the mistake of not having the tanks topped up over the winter and condensation happened. Lesson learned.

[jamhass]

Food for thought:

https://marinehowto.com/does-an-empt...nk-condensate/

[Sailor 99]

Originally Posted by s3raphim

I did have the tanks cleaned, access ports cut, etc… from that 2020 issue. This was about a cup or so of water in the racor filter bowl. I made the mistake of not having the tanks topped up over the winter and condensation happened. Lesson learned.

Condensation happens in diesel tanks all the time. Once you have been running for a while the fuel returning from the engine is quite warm. Eventually if you have been running a long time you will have circulated most of the fuel and it will be warm.

I will be installing the water sensors that Racor sells to sense when there is any water in the bowl before it accumulates and becomes a problem

[Scubaseas]

Nice report. Good choices and problem solving, kudoes. Maybe clean the inside of the tanks well and add an electric fuel pump that can make bleeding easy and not tax the starter and batteries. Or pump water into the engine by filling the muffler which is how my current boat got a new motor. Always good to shut of the raw water or drain the muffler if you're going to be cranking the engine a long period.

[Cloroxbottle]

Nice write up. Out of curiousity, how old is your deck fuel fill and how old are the o-rings or gaskets on the cap? I used to blame condensation for the water in the diesel problem on our previous boat, but it turned out to be the fuel fill. That was its own story because it had a nonstandard fuel fill whose manufacturer had changed the design of the cap so the new cap and gasket didn't fit the old fill tightly. Ended up replacing the whole thing.

[sailingharry]

Originally Posted by jamhass

Food for thought:

https://marinehowto.com/does-an-empt...nk-condensate/

Jamhass,

Thanks for this link. I've never really worried about the admonitions about condensation, leave my diesel tanks "as they are" every winter, and never see any water in my Racors. And now I have the backing of RC agreeing!

On my boat, the custom after-market tanks have a 2"x 4" sump about 2" deep that the pickup tubes sit in. This ensures that ANY water and most crud is sucked up and filtered out before it accumulates, so if I have any condensation I'd see it quickly.

[Bill O]

While the report was based on an empty tank, will agree w/Harry that the partially filled tanks do not generate any noticeable water in the Racors after a winter storage. Have done this practice over many years and never had an issue w/water in the fuel.

[s3raphim]

Originally Posted by Cloroxbottle

Nice write up. Out of curiousity, how old is your deck fuel fill and how old are the o-rings or gaskets on the cap? I used to blame condensation for the water in the diesel problem on our previous boat, but it turned out to be the fuel fill. That was its own story because it had a nonstandard fuel fill whose manufacturer had changed the design of the cap so the new cap and gasket didn't fit the old fill tightly. Ended up replacing the whole thing.

Great question. Given this faulty o-ring possibility, and the other posts about the feasibility of condensation, I am going to start sleuthing.

Thanks all for the feedback and questions.