New Volvo Penta engines are only good for daytime use

[mainsail1]

I discovered on my first night sail with my new D2 50 that Volvo Penta have decided to save money and provide no backlighting for switches. Only the rev counter has back lighting.
It really was most inconvenient.

 

[mbroom]

I’ve lost count of the number of marine items that don’t have backlighting!

 

[prv]

I don’t know what the panel on a D2-50 looks like, but the buttons for my D1-30 are at a slightly awkward angle from the helm so I haven’t looked at them for years. My fingers know where the on/off, start, and stop buttons are.

You could perhaps install some kind of small dim light fitting above the panel if yours forget?

Pete

 

[Sandy]

I rarely look at the engine panel as it is tucked away under the companionway hatch. Switch on, check there is water coming out of the exhaust and off we go, What am I missing?

 

[ctva]

I rarely look at the engine panel as it is tucked away under the companionway hatch. Switch on, check there is water coming out of the exhaust and off we go, What am I missing?

Ditto. When out at night, I like as little light pollution as possible.

There‘s a whizzy invention called a torch if you need.

 

[BabySharkDooDooDooDooDoo]

I'd imagine not being certain which button stopped the engine and which would pointlessly engage the starter motor while engine is still running would be a problem.

For the with panels using an ignition key set up and a separate stop cable then not so much

 

[Sandy]

Ditto. When out at night, I like as little light pollution as possible.

There‘s a whizzy invention called a torch if you need.

Just remembered I can turn the light off on the rev counter.

those torches are brilliant, even got one that has a red bulb.

 

[dom]

I rarely look at the engine panel as it is tucked away under the companionway hatch. Switch on, check there is water coming out of the exhaust and off we go, What am I missing?

i dunno, personally I quite like knowing the rpm, especially when manoeuvring in a marina, and guess also the occasional glance at the fuel gauge, etc? On top of which, even if one knows one’s own engine’s sounds, it’s often nice to say “xyz rpm ahead or astern please”.

 

[mjcoon]

i dunno, personally I quite like knowing the rpm, especially when manoeuvring in a marina, and guess also the occasional glance at the fuel gauge, etc? On top of which, even if one knows one’s own engine’s sounds, it’s often nice to say “xyz rpm ahead or astern please”.

"please"? Don't you mean "ding; ding"?

 

[Sandy]

i dunno, personally I quite like knowing the rpm, especially when manoeuvring in a marina, and guess also the occasional glance at the fuel gauge, etc? On top of which, even if one knows one’s own engine’s sounds, it’s often nice to say “xyz rpm ahead or astern please”.

I've now got the vision of you blowing down a wee pipe and saying "xxx revolutions". I've read The Cruel Sea too many times.

 

[mainsail1]

The trouble is that the very clever people at Volvo have been very clever. They have decided sailors don't want a key or anything much else on the control panel so all you have is a rev counter and about five or six flat touch buttons that all look the same and are black so you cannot see them at night. You have to press a button to switch on the ignition, then press a button to start, then press a button to stop, then press the ignition button for off. If you overlook the off button when stopping it waits a few seconds and then beeps loudly at you until you press it but you cannot see which button it is is in the dark. Brilliant.
Of course with the old key system I could start and stop the engine by feel.

 

[dom]

I've now got the vision of you blowing down a wee pipe and saying "xxx revolutions". I've read The Cruel Sea too many times.

Oops busted, my hero is Joseph Conrad's Captain McWhirr !!

Does this not still describe the perfect sailor and perfect reasons to sail?

"Having just enough imagination to carry him through each successive day, and no more, he was tranquilly sure of himself; and from the very same cause he was not in the least conceited. It is your imaginative superior who is touchy, overbearing, and difficult to please; but every ship Captain MacWhirr commanded was the floating abode of harmony and peace. It was, in truth, as impossible for him to take a flight of fancy as it would be for a watchmaker to put together a chronometer with nothing except a two-pound hammer and a whip-saw in the way of tools. Yet the uninteresting lives of men so entirely given to the actuality of the bare existence have their mysterious side. It was impossible in Captain MacWhirr’s case, for instance, to understand what under heaven could have induced that perfectly satisfactory son of a petty grocer in Belfast to run away to sea. And yet he had done that very thing at the age of fifteen. It was enough, when you thought it over, to give you the idea of an immense, potent, and invisible hand thrust into the ant-heap of the earth, laying hold of shoulders, knocking heads together, and setting the unconscious faces of the multitude towards inconceivable goals and in undreamt-of directions.​

​

"Captain MacWhirr had sailed over the surface of the oceans as some men go skimming over the years of existence to sink gently into a placid grave, ignorant of life to the last, without ever having been made to see all it may contain of perfidy, of violence, and of terror. There are on sea and land such men thus fortunate—or thus disdained by destiny or by the sea. "​

 

[cmedsailor]

I discovered on my first night sail with my new D2 50 that Volvo Penta have decided to save money and provide no backlighting for switches. Only the rev counter has back lighting.
It really was most inconvenient.

Yes, I find it annoying too. Not only on the D2 50 of course. Same on D2 55 or D2 75 ....

 

[westhinder]

i dunno, personally I quite like knowing the rpm, especially when manoeuvring in a marina, and guess also the occasional glance at the fuel gauge, etc? On top of which, even if one knows one’s own engine’s sounds, it’s often nice to say “xyz rpm ahead or astern please”.

When manoeuvring I do not have the time to check rpm, I just have a pretty good feeling of how much throttle to give to get the desired effect. If someone else is on the helm I prefer they keep their eyes on the manoeuvre and the surroundings instead of the rpm down below by their knees

 

[prv]

i dunno, personally I quite like knowing the rpm, especially when manoeuvring in a marina, and guess also the occasional glance at the fuel gauge, etc?

I only really look at the RPM when setting the throttle to our chosen "standard cruise revs". Manoeuvring is done on lever position, how the boat's behaving, and to some extent sound.

I had to put the fuel vacuum gauge reasonably near the engine because of the plumbing, and I decided to put the fuel contents gauge next to it so they can be checked together. Really it's the vacuum one that's most likely to spring a surprise, I make sure to always have plenty of fuel on board so the contents gauge should never need much attention while under way.

I put them both by the companionway steps so I can glance at them each time I return to the cockpit after getting a drink, going to the loo, plotting an hourly position, etc:



Pete

 

[Graham376]

The trouble is that the very clever people at Volvo have been very clever. They have decided sailors don't want a key or anything much else on the control panel so all you have is a rev counter and about five or six flat touch buttons that all look the same and are black so you cannot see them at night. You have to press a button to switch on the ignition, then press a button to start, then press a button to stop, then press the ignition button for off. If you overlook the off button when stopping it waits a few seconds and then beeps loudly at you until you press it but you cannot see which button it is is in the dark. Brilliant.
Of course with the old key system I could start and stop the engine by feel.

Sounds like a good idea to bin the panel (along with black box engine control) and revert to old tech.

 

[mainsail1]

Sounds like a good idea to bin the panel (along with black box engine control) and revert to old tech.

No doubt my lovely new engine will only work with the new control panel.

 

[cmedsailor]

I only really look at the RPM when setting the throttle to our chosen "standard cruise revs". Manoeuvring is done on lever position, how the boat's behaving, and to some extent sound.

I had to put the fuel vacuum gauge reasonably near the engine because of the plumbing, and I decided to put the fuel contents gauge next to it so they can be checked together. Really it's the vacuum one that's most likely to spring a surprise, I make sure to always have plenty of fuel on board so the contents gauge should never need much attention while under way.

I put them both by the companionway steps so I can glance at them each time I return to the cockpit after getting a drink, going to the loo, plotting an hourly position, etc:

View attachment 98954

Pete

What's a fuel vacuum gauge? I mean what does that gauge measure/show?

 

[Graham376]

No doubt my lovely new engine will only work with the new control panel.

Unless common rail, it will work if you bin the black box as well, plenty of those are failing leaving owners unable to start the engine if they don't know how to hot wire the starter solenoid.

 

[dom]

I only really look at the RPM when setting the throttle to our chosen "standard cruise revs". Manoeuvring is done on lever position, how the boat's behaving, and to some extent sound.

I had to put the fuel vacuum gauge reasonably near the engine because of the plumbing, and I decided to put the fuel contents gauge next to it so they can be checked together. Really it's the vacuum one that's most likely to spring a surprise, I make sure to always have plenty of fuel on board so the contents gauge should never need much attention while under way.

I put them both by the companionway steps so I can glance at them each time I return to the cockpit after getting a drink, going to the loo, plotting an hourly position, etc:

View attachment 98954

Pete

Very neat - as I would expect yours to be - and it touches on two indispensable gauges IMHO: fuel vacuum gauge to warn of a blocking filter and an exhaust temp alarm to prevent critical engine damage.

Re the maneuvering rpm point, I'm pretty much the same but rpm advice helps if the Mrs is on the helm. One of my pet hates is gearbox scrunching which is a high risk with my iffy folding prop. Technique is to approach the berth at reasonable speed engaging reverse at t/o rpm a couple of boat lengths out. Then feed the power in to stop the boat, then slow ahead with spring line attached. A sudden engagement of reverse makes a lot of noise but is about as effective as a Kenwood Foodmixer on the back!