aborted delivery trip story

tcm

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Right, first off thanks to BrendanS shorteside and crew Studgies and Studgies mate Jim, Tico, No1Moose for all their help. I owe tico some money for flights to so thankyou Mrs Tico for orgainsing us to get back.

The boat was due to be in the med by now, but is in Brest. We had a good time, but the idea was to cover the ground, not hang around waiting for boats to get fixed.

The boat will be proply fixed sometime next week. It has a dud fuel pipe to one of the injectors which might or might not be the cause of viubration, busted thinmgs and other busted things for the last 3 years, not sure.

Saturday, we knew trhe weather wd be dodgy and northish, so decided to go towards Portlnad, and have a look as to whether Brest or West Countyr eg Plymouth. But v blimmin 20-25 knots in the face from Needles, so sneaked round st albans, and inshore round portland not been there, and then all along lyme bay 1-2 miles out, quite nice, Dartmouth, fuel barge, watched rowing boat races on the river, Jimg arriving to take piccies all ready for a slightly better sunday.

Sunday 6am a bit ooer rollyish, with southern component in the sweall so rathewr than take route 1 direct, we went 20 degrees oiff allowing still 20 knots+, then turning with wind beam and waves beam nearer the fr coast with less south in the swell, then on towards chenal de Four, which worked but a bit lairy. This was when i made the "bit lairy" text and about 2 mijns after that all the alarms went one, diesel spraying around the engineroom etc etc.

Turned to Roscof, with one flippin engine, altho it still does 15 klnots just with one engine.

The bloke on the port didn't quite help as well as he mite - directed me to one berth ooh er no, better go to the the orther one, and oops no tell you what, not that one etc jeez. I sneakily rang suncoats Philcool to verify that wi8th one engine you park with the dead engine against the wall - cept tyhe one engine driving doesan't allow for being in a tight channel with no water one side and big 30m concrete wall for ferries on the other side, fort6unate i had a bowthruster, then climbing ladders and 0ooer. Sunday innit, so nothiung till monday morning. We did 1 hour-watches cos the tide was 10metre ish and we could set and leave lines with fishy boats all around.

Monday morning the fixy man turned up five past eight, makes things by 11:30, the diesel man sells me cheap diesel, the sun is out the sea is faily flat and we are on course for a crossing to reach la coruna by early tuesday morning, staying in deep water to avoiud the rough stuff we get ready to go outside Ouessant.

But then we checked the engine, and another sodding pipe thingy summink let go, only an hour out, so went to brest.

It turns out that Jim is a apprenticer trainmed diesel mechanic, so he and Tico identified the pipe with a fault on bothe occasions. We *think* we mite have a decent engine once this lot is sorted.

MAN and Golden Arrow are being v helpful incidentally and not running away from it at all, above and beyond really cos not in warranty. But summink that looks like a bit of metal is in the #11 pipe and *might* have hamered the fuel pump drive, and the other pipe in roscoff, before finally whacking the pipe inlet summink not sure thingy, the bloke in brest and jim and tico know about it. Yer can't really entirely DIY spanner thsese big engines really beyond a certain point unles actually working for the agent - you soon need the bits which means hiring the agent.

Anyway, we played Nurdle drurdle on tiesday evening, and decided wer may as well come home otherwise we'd be rushing the mechanics or chancing the weather. There a couple of seth efrican crew staying on the boat, and Moose#1 comes back on friday.

under the circumstances, I think we did the best we could. The prep wasn't rubbish with full rebuild, and the decsiuons regading the weather, and turning back to roscoff was also ok.

Thanks to all, we'll try again sometime praps next week.
 

mjf

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Good.

But why all these engine issues? same engine that had the fuel p/p need fixing or 'tother one.

either way I would be very upset having this reliability esp. after a long winter of repair and exhaustive engine trials before setting off back to the med

Cannot understand why you remain so casual or is it a
Leo-Pard thing that relaxes you?
 

tome

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Well I hope the engineers sort her out properly this time and it's the end of your run of engine probs.

Our decks look very nice now thanks, but I'm getting tired of printing out copies of your instructions for other berth holders...
 

longjohnsilver

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Piss poor preparation.............................

Couldn't you have just stuck an outboard on a bracket? And why not a spare engine hidden away in the bilges. What's wrong with you, lack of planning and foresight? Just sort yerselves out and get on with it, we're all waiting for the next instalment.
 

tcm

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Re: Piss poor preparation.............................

um, well the boat seems to be able to do 18knots or so on the port engine - i did obvi think about going across but not really sensible to start a biscay xing with one engine altho ok to finish i spose. Also ,i think the props gets spun and wrecks the bearings. the guys (on board (tico and jim) managed to rig it so it could tickover, so at Brest we whammed up the channel towards the marina at bout 20 knots saying oh yes, we're broken down we are...
 

tcm

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Golden arrow - the good guys

um, not sure i am spitting blood at them : this is just one fault on just one engine and not at all yet clear that an outright mistake by them was the cause of these faults: so far i am only sure that a p-bracket wasn't refitted on one of the pipes. It may be that another pipe had an existing fault, but not sure. The fuel system is the problem, and that is a Bosch item (not MAN) that has to be sent away to Bosch and the faults are nearer that fuel system than the engine itself.

I think at all companies which hires out engineers or other skilled people, you get some diamonds, and some not-so sparkly peeps as well. Every comapny does whether it's accounting, lawyeers, computers, or boatfixing. I certainly know that golden arrow have some very very good engineers able to install complex systems (eg the mather electromech controls) which work fine. They rebuilt the engine as well, and that works (mostly) fine -cept for this issue. Yep, they *might* haev been in a position to diagnose the source of the fault, but that process is not easy, and again, it may not be related to previous problem - the fault may be new.

Separately, it is not generally the case that all companies that get bought out are basket cases - buyers are looking for decent outfits with specific skills, client base and good staff. I would say that golden arrow fits this very well and don't really have a problem with them. It is frustrating, maddening if things aren't perfect - for me AND for them too - i think they wd have been dead chuffed if the boat had gone straight to antibes with no probs at all. And they wouldn't be in business if all engines ran perfectly forever with minimal servicing, same goes for lots of other businesses too.

Golden Arrow's good attitude is also shown by their response to my call on monday that there was a big diesel leak - offered tech assistance by phone and said "send us the invoices" - i can't complain at that. Then also gave us direct contact at MAN uk - and all this from a brit company about an italian-made visitng boat based and sold in France. I'd use them again.
 
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