Jump to content

Water Rail Out And About - Aug 2021


grendel

Recommended Posts

since I was in Norwich, I decided to go out on the town last night - well why not, everyone needs to spoil themselves occasionally, and last night it was my turn, got in late so slept in until 6.45 this morning, and now definitely needing a coffee to wake me up and clear my head.

Plans for today, still dont know really, do some exploring maybe, up to new mills probably to start with, depending upon the weather as that is a top down trip.

when I woke the sun was shining, but its turned grey again now, lets hope its not as wet as yesterday.

  • Like 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

what a day, first I set off for New Mills, and forgot to turn on the fuel, this became apparent just after the bridge, and I just caught it, however something was amiss, revs were dropping and rising in a manner suggesting air in the system, or a fuel blockage, I suspected either, but re-purged the fuel filter, having stopped and deployed one of the small mudweights, this helped for a few minutes, but as I turned in new mills basin the engine cut out, I managed a couple of bridges on the restart, then deployed the mudweight again, unfortunately as I was doing this the engine cut again, leaving me moving forward, Bump into the bridge side, fortunately only with the tip  of the prow. anyway after getting air out of the filter I proceeded to get rid of any air in the injectors. this got me through bishops bridge and onto a yacht station mooring where i repeated the purge procedure.. once again this got me going and I made it to postwick wharf, where I stopped and tied up for a more thorough look at the fuel system, this time removing the filter once again, this was clear but I did find a problem, the washer on the bleed screw was cracked no problem, I had a small o ring in the filter kit we hadnt used, this fit the bleed screw perfectly, so that was put back with the washer on, and although not perfect, got me to Rockland Staithe OK, where 5 boats departed as I arrived, leaving me plenty of space. I must Thank Griff for the wash he left me when he passed just an arm lengths away in the opposite direction.

on the way past Brooms I dropped in and got fuel, 25 litres, I came in with the fuel filler on the correct side, but soon realised that the tide wasnt going to make this easy, so with the nose of water rail just 2 foot off the quay, I gently allowed her to pivot round and come to a perfect side on mooring on the starboard side, coming to rest parallel to the quay heading and 6" away, this of course meant getting the hose across the opposite side, which was accomplished fairly easily. once under way I remembered the bottle of diesel fuel system cleaner in the locker, so added that into the fuel in the hopes of helping clear it.

  • Like 6
Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, grendel said:

what a day, first I set off for New Mills, and forgot to turn on the fuel

:facepalm:

 

To be fair, poor Peter absolutely set himself up for this one. As he readied to leave the wooden boat show I casually asked if he had remembered to turn the fuel on, something he has been meticulous about all season. "Of course I have" he replied in a way that suggested I was just fussing.

I turned to Ali at the time and said something about talking it up.....

 

  • Like 1
  • Haha 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 hours ago, grendel said:

this of course meant getting the hose across the opposite side

Last year the Brooms fuel key attendant mentioned they were not doing that, so since then we have been turning MS on her ropes, so we can do a pump out and refuel. I guess it may have been part of the extra ‘elf’n’safety’ measures that were brought in last year due to a number of accidents on the Broads that we read about at the time. He also mentioned a couple of incidents when Brooms staff ended up in the drink. Mostly we find turning her on her ropes not a problem. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

14 hours ago, grendel said:

what a day, first I set off for New Mills, and forgot to turn on the fuel, this became apparent just after the bridge, and I just caught it, however something was amiss, revs were dropping and rising in a manner suggesting air in the system, or a fuel blockage, I suspected either, but re-purged the fuel filter, having stopped and deployed one of the small mudweights, this helped for a few minutes, but as I turned in new mills basin the engine cut out, I managed a couple of bridges on the restart, then deployed the mudweight again, unfortunately as I was doing this the engine cut again, leaving me moving forward, Bump into the bridge side, fortunately only with the tip  of the prow. anyway after getting air out of the filter I proceeded to get rid of any air in the injectors. this got me through bishops bridge and onto a yacht station mooring where i repeated the purge procedure.. once again this got me going and I made it to postwick wharf, where I stopped and tied up for a more thorough look at the fuel system, this time removing the filter once again, this was clear but I did find a problem, the washer on the bleed screw was cracked no problem, I had a small o ring in the filter kit we hadnt used, this fit the bleed screw perfectly, so that was put back with the washer on, and although not perfect, got me to Rockland Staithe OK, where 5 boats departed as I arrived, leaving me plenty of space. I must Thank Griff for the wash he left me when he passed just an arm lengths away in the opposite direction.

on the way past Brooms I dropped in and got fuel, 25 litres, I came in with the fuel filler on the correct side, but soon realised that the tide wasnt going to make this easy, so with the nose of water rail just 2 foot off the quay, I gently allowed her to pivot round and come to a perfect side on mooring on the starboard side, coming to rest parallel to the quay heading and 6" away, this of course meant getting the hose across the opposite side, which was accomplished fairly easily. once under way I remembered the bottle of diesel fuel system cleaner in the locker, so added that into the fuel in the hopes of helping clear it.

How much did they charge you a litre, Hippersons was £1.35 fortunately I only needed around 20 litres. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Is the tank above the level of the engine then?

Sump filling with diesel is usually a lift pump issue or the drive seal in the injector pump giving up (usually from modern fuel attacking old seal material), there should be no other way for it to happen, I would have thought any siphon effect would need an air leak somewhere that would soon stop the engine anyway, dribbling injectors would give the game away by the smoke.

I've also never turned my fuel off other than when changing filters so there's less fuel to suck through to bleed.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On most shaft driven boats, and probably some hydraulic as well, the engine is comparatively low in relation to the fuel tank. Fuel tanks tend to be tucked under decks and can, in some cases, end just below the deck beams. 

A fuel tank will happily syphon it's contents into your bilge at any opportunity so it's always prudent to turn the fuel off when away from the boat for any length of time. That's just good practice.

We had a problem recently with Water Rail that may or may not have been fuel related. I suspect it was just an overfilled sump but, not wanting to lose the season, we are taking extra precautions until she comes out at the end of the year. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This morning was awake relatively early after a quick pint and natter with Griff in the pub last night, this morning I tested the battery voltage, 11.08, not good as I had only been running the fridge and laptop, luckily the socket was now available so I plugged in to get some charge back in the house bank. I had checked out the video voltage after arriving yesterday, and it had been 12.7, so not too bad, as I had been on shore power at Norwich 

I borrowed Griff's battery tester to check the batteries, and this showed under 12v on the drop test, but not in the 'weak' area, so while not great, still supposedly ok.

 

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Would the battery happen to be from Multicell? I've had a couple which will quickly charge to 12.7V and after a short amount of discharging will quickly drop to around 11 or 105V. Seems like they develop a fault where one of the cells suddenly has about 10% of the capacity of the other five. Had this now on 2 out of four Multicell batteries, never had it on any other make. Generally if a cell fails it fails permanently, but the Multicell batteries reach a point where one cell is capable of taking some charge, but not holding it for long.

Also worth noting that on batteries with a magic eye, it is only giving you the condition of the one cell with the magic eye, they are pretty much next to useless really. A good way of selling more batteries.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Meantime said:

Would the battery happen to be from Multicell? I've had a couple which will quickly charge to 12.7V and after a short amount of discharging will quickly drop to around 11 or 105V. Seems like they develop a fault where one of the cells suddenly has about 10% of the capacity of the other five. Had this now on 2 out of four Multicell batteries, never had it on any other make. Generally if a cell fails it fails permanently, but the Multicell batteries reach a point where one cell is capable of taking some charge, but not holding it for long.

Also worth noting that on batteries with a magic eye, it is only giving you the condition of the one cell with the magic eye, they are pretty much next to useless really. A good way of selling more batteries.

Strange. I've always had Multicell batteries for my cars and caravan and they last for years without a problem. Have you contacted Multicell about it? Their customer service is usually good. The only reason they're not in my boat is because the boat ones are still good.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Today I have cruised around from Rockland to the totem pole wild mooring above the WRC, battery check just after stop 13.17v, I am trying an experiment, laptop not plugged in, so today I will use my tablet for everything and see if that makes a difference.

The good news is the trip round was uneventful, and after entering the new cut, I was at 2200 rpm all the way.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Overnight I did a battery check, now I left the fridge running and just unplugged the laptop power supply from the 12v, and following on from that I have to conclude the laptop charger is the culprit, under the fridge alone the battery this morning is at 12.46v which equates to 80% charge, it may have helped that before I started out yesterday I tightened the alternator belt, as when I arrived at rockland Wednesday the battery was at 12.7v, when I arrived here yesterday it was at 13.1v, either way the laptop isn't helping, so the plan is to only charge via the inverter on its normal charger, and only while underway today, and see how that affects the battery levels.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

This morning I had a quick swim around the boat ( I use a safety line when swimming in the tidal areas) breakfast will be under way, I have cooked my cheese and bacon turnovers, and wish to use the tide to get me up to geldeston later. So need to get going soon.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 hours ago, BroadAmbition said:

2,200rpm - Wow, that would give us about 8mph and a decent consumption of Dyno juice 

Griff

That's why I was asking about the engine earlier in the thread. I reckon at 2200 revs I'd need a lookout for the water skier I'd be towing! :default_rofl:

  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

For details of our Guidelines, please take a look at the Terms of Use here.