“What would you do?” (asking for a friend of a friend)

[Kukri]

Well if it was my boat it would be insured. In which case it would be taken to a suitable yard & left to them. 6 months later I would ring up & say " is it done yet?"
Lot to be said for insurance.

I think not. She’s worth, and insured for, HS$500k or say £47k. As are many MABs of that size and age. In which case you will get a cheque from the insurers for a CTL and the wreck to raise and dispose of.

I have “been there, done that thing and got the T shirt” after the October 1987 hurricane in the UK. The ECMYIA offered the insured value promptly; I rebuilt the boat, spending rather more than twice the insured value in so doing.

 

[Wing Mark]

I think not. She’s worth, and insured for, HS$500k or say £47k. As are many MABs of that size and age. In which case you will get a cheque from the insurers for a CTL and the wreck to raise and dispose of.

I have “been there, done that thing and got the T shirt” after the October 1987 hurricane in the UK. The ECMYIA offered the insured value promptly; I rebuilt the boat, spending rather more than twice the insured value in so doing.

It will never be the same again, even after absorbing a great deal of work. And cash.
Much to be said fior taking the cheque and buying something ready to go.
Let some young nutcase buy the wreck and sort it. Unfortunately that tends to mean stuff will sit around corroding for the next year or so.

 

[Daydream believer]

I think not. She’s worth, and insured for, HS$500k or say £47k. As are many MABs of that size and age. In which case you will get a cheque from the insurers for a CTL and the wreck to raise and dispose of.

I have “been there, done that thing and got the T shirt” after the October 1987 hurricane in the UK. The ECMYIA offered the insured value promptly; I rebuilt the boat, spending rather more than twice the insured value in so doing.

Surely cost of raising & disposal should be part of the insurance. So once again you leave it to salvage experts, as you would if you wanted to keep it anyway. But this time you take the money & walk. I would have though that a write off would be a good result if negotiated correctly. Does one not engage negotiators for that & they charge the insurance co their fee inclusively? Presumably there are those that handle this for clients

 

[Kukri]

Maybe, but that’s not the question being asked. The question is about immediate conservation measures.

In my case I wanted my boat back and with lots of work (yard work up to the insured value, thereafter my work) I got her back. If this were a production AWB I think I would agree, but she’s of an earlier generation - thick plastic and hand fitted solid wood with simpler plumbing and electrics and a very experienced owner.

 

[fisherman]

I drowned a Yamaha 8B in 1987, I washed it out and started it, it gave up in about 2004. It only died from internal rot in the waterways, which, I was told, that model usually did.

 

[AntarcticPilot]

Surely cost of raising & disposal should be part of the insurance. So once again you leave it to salvage experts, as you would if you wanted to keep it anyway. But this time you take the money & walk. I would have though that a write off would be a good result if negotiated correctly. Does one not engage negotiators for that & they charge the insurance co their fee inclusively? Presumably there are those that handle this for clients

Recovery of wreck is a standard part of marine insurance; it CAN be the biggest part of a claim if you take into account the potential for a wreck to block access for commercial activities.

 

[Blueboatman]

My two bobs worth
Get it up
Get the engine free of water and pickle it in paraffin or diesel or oil oil oil
Pause
Sell ‘as is ‘ with the hope of a good pickled engine that can be resuscitated by young enthusiastic impoverished buyer /live aboard
If one seacock is/was seized … there will be plenty of other stuff hey Ho
I have some experience of Formosa , there is an awful lot of plywood and coring in the mix to keep dry…

 

[srm]

A similar experience in Shetland in to 70's when a heavy wooden launch sank at its mooring. I lifted it over a couple of days using oil drums as improvised lifting bags and towed it on to the beach at HW. A couple of days later the owner had the engine running, effectively using the methods described above.
Pressure washer on internal woodwork may damage the surfaces, but definitely lots of fresh water inside. Just make sure the bilge pumps have a bigger capacity than the inflow.

 

[jwilson]

Engine damage is pretty trivial in the great scheme of things. Taiwan and HK built boats fitout could look fantastic, but hid a lot of invisible bits of corner-cutting. I had the original surveyors "build supervision" report (about 40 pages) on my Cheoy Lee, and is was essentially a record of the surveyors attempts to check what Cheoy Lee hid between the surveyors visits under very pretty finish. Just about every single visible bit of wood was solid old-growth teak, but there was some only-fit-for-a-pallet pine really well hidden below in semi-structural places, which I found many years later.

I have refloated and rebuilt a much smaller and less complex boat. In the circumstances shown I'd take the insurance and buy another boat. Even when I left there 20+ years ago HK labour rates were not that low. And it will cost a lot ( REALLY A LOT ) to keep her ashore to work on yourself. Most larger boats in HK spend 364.75 days a year afloat.

 

[Kukri]

Ah, yes…

Off the point but I’ll just relate a silly story about Taiwan built Bill Garden ketches.

In the 1980s I worked in Hong Kong and my employers very generously provided and paid for a nice boat which lived in the Causeway Bay typhoon shelter and was for use by airline staff on weekdays and by shipping staff at weekends. The boat was replaced from time to time. A Wing on Shing built teak Arthur Robb Lion Class was duly replaced by a Taiwan built GRP (but « dripping with teak ») Bill Garden ketch.

It was found that the gearbox tended to overheat. A formidable brains trust assembled to look into this, made up of most of the head office engineering staff of one of the world’s most admired airlines, a major offshore oil support company and a venerable British line of steamships.

An oil cooler was fitted - and in the course of fitting this the Engineering Manager of the offshore boat company spotted that the engine was driving ahead through the astern gear train.

He phoned the builders in Taiwan, and spoke to a chap with the memorable name of Seadog Deng. It turned out that this particular Perkins 4.108 came not from Peterborough but from Spain, where it was made as a tractor engine, and had been marinised in Taiwan. Deng could not see the problem with using a wrong handed prop and driving astern for ahead…

A new propeller, of the alternative persuasion, was fitted..

 

[DownWest]

Ah, yes…

Off the point but I’ll just relate a silly story about Taiwan built Bill Garden ketches.

In the 1980s I worked in Hong Kong and my employers very generously provided and paid for a nice boat which lived in the Causeway Bay typhoon shelter and was for use by airline staff on weekdays and by shipping staff at weekends. A Wing on Shing built teak Arthur Robb Lion Class was replaced by a Taiwan built GRP (but « dripping with teak ») Bill Garden ketch.

It was found that the gearbox tended to overheat. A formidable brains trust assembled to look into this, made up of many of the head office engineering staff of one of the world’s most admired airlines, a major offshore oil support company and a venerable British line of steamships.

An oil cooler was fitted - and in the course of fitting this the Engineering Manager of the offshore boat company spotted that the engine was driving ahead through the astern gear train.

He phoned the builders in Taiwan, and spoke to a chap with the memorable name of Seadog Deng. It turned out that this particular Perkins 4.108 came not from Peterborough but from Spain, where it was made as a tractor engine, and had been marinised in Taiwan. Deng could not see the problem with using a wrong handed prop and driving astern for ahead…

A new propeller, of the alternative persuasion, was fitted..

Ah So, I had a Datsun Sado in Portugal (Google it..) fitted with a 4-108 built in Spain. It did the job, but was a trifle noisy.. Oh, really tricky starter motor, as I found when mine was nicked...

 

[ghostlymoron]

As others have said, this is an insurance problem rather than technical provided the boat is insured for its true value. My experience is that marine insurance companies usually pay up without demur.

 

[HissyFit]

Instead of WD40 for displacing clean wash water in the electrics, I'd go for isopropanol; it does the water displacement job of WD40 and evaporates quicker without residue being left. Plus the victim won't have to stand there all day with the spray can.
Just be sure to ventilate the area well and avoid naked flames.

 

[Kukri]

Instead of WD40 for displacing clean wash water in the electrics, I'd go for isopropanol; it does the water displacement job of WD40 and evaporates quicker without residue being left. Plus the victim won't have to stand there all day with the spray can.
Just be sure to ventilate the area well and avoid naked flames.

Thank you.

I should perhaps have made myself clearer. As you have gathered and perhaps others have not, the owner wants his boat back, and I was asking for “technical” advice.

As of now she has been refloated and is ashore and being attended to. The engine was, alas, full of water.

 

[DownWest]

Thank you.

I should perhaps have made myself clearer. As you have gathered and perhaps others have not, the owner wants his boat back, and I was asking for “technical” advice.

As of now she has been refloated and is ashore and being attended to. The engine was, alas, full of water.

Speed is the essence, as before, get the electrics into fresh water and off to the automotive fixers. Drain the engine of everything and put fresh oil in , then turn her over lots of times. Again, the diesel bits are probably OK.
I do see a lot of input from the owner, as you found.

 

[jwilson]

Lots and lots of fresh water everywhere below, including into hidden compartments, nooks and crannies, headlinings, everywhere. It's probably still mainly dry weather in HK, but he will probably also need dehumidifiers on board to dry it out afterwards.

 

[Kukri]

An update: the engine is back in business, the owner has replaced the windlass, the rest of the electrics are phttt.

 

[MADRIGAL]

Regarding the engine, one school of thought is that the diesel system will still be full of diesel, the bearings with still be full of oil, the best thing may be to do the minimum and get it running ASAP.
Hose it down, Drain the sump, fresh oil and filter, temporary diesel supply ,crank it over to get the oil around and fire it up. There will be water in the diesel tanks of course.

Things like the alternator and starter, may have water in the bearings , various bits may never be the same, take your chance and budget for new.

Pressure washers can do a lot of damage, lots of freshwater and then drying is what most things need.

Is it insured?

A German tank was discovered at the bottom of a lake in Russia or Poland some years ago. The Diesel engine fired up just fine, the injector system still being full of 50-year-old diesel fuel.

 

[Moodysailor]

Much like with wiring, unless the engine has been fully stripped, or run under load for a very long period of time, it is not out of the woods yet, by far. An engine has tons of small cavities for water to sit and hide that will not get displaced by an oil change and a bit of running - I have pulled apart engines that have been 'saved' before and found water in them still. One did not make it through a UK winter as water corroded the crankshaft after being trapped in the cavities between the crank and bearing caps - and this was after multiple oil flushes.

If I were on a budget and the boat were ashore (so could not be properly run), I would actually 'pickle' the engine by filling it with diesel (or some other equivalent). That will stop enough of the trouble and preserve it until the rest of the boat were back together after which I would do a full service and check then go for a day long motor to dry out the rest of the damp.

 

[pandos]

anyone who doubts a boat can be resurrected, have a look at "Following Seas" those folks wrecked their boat on a reef, lifted the engine and all other salvagable bits and pieces built a new boat using the hardware and measurements from the old one and continued to sail for years....