An interesting experience

[AndrewJ]

I was motoring back up a river recently, trying to beat the arrival of a forecasted 30 knot breeze and my engine overheated. After checking I found the problem was the impellor on my engine, the water pump impellor had disintegrated. I found I had not spare impellor for this particular pump on board (I know, I should have had one), I removed the broken pieces of the impellor from inside the water pump, put the pump back together, sans the impellor and took a hose from the seawater inlet to the input of my pressurized fresh water system pump, took the output of that and ran it to the input to the engine and turned on the pump. Lo and Behold, I had water thru the system. By the time I had finished this, the forecasted breeze had arrived, I was aground, but on soft mud and was able to get off quite easily. I was able to restart the engine and motor in. I probably should have dropped the hook, but again I was trying to beat the arrival of the wind. In any event, If you loose your impellor, it's something to try.

<hr width=100% size=1>The only easy day was yesterday

 

[steve_cronin]

Well done!

A true "Practical Boat Owner"

A few good mottos have seen me by over the years, including:-

Neccessity is the mother of Invention

Needs must when the devil drives

Adopt, adapt & improve

The Lord helps those who help themselves.

But aren't there a lot of skippers who just shout out for help when the slightest thing goes wrong. I'm not sure that I would refuse to call for help and "...go down with the ship like a gentleman." Blondie Hasler style, but I would always (& have) have a go at some sort of rig-up as you did.

I blame it on evening class seaschools and VHF radio, in that order.

Steve Cronin



<hr width=100% size=1>The above is, like any other post here, only a personal opinion

 

[sailorman]

Re: Well done!

HERE HERE Matey
there the ones with "fenders" deployed whilst sailing / motoring just waiting to raft-up or come along-side at the earliest oppotunity

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[bob26]

A friend of mine once had a similar impeller failure which he overcame by removing the pipe from the seacock and connecting it to the outlet of his electric bilge pump. He then opened the seacock (allowing water into the bilges) and turned on the pump. I expect it required a bit of balancing inflow to outflow. This way it even flushes out the bilges!

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[johnsomerhausen]

Re: Well done!

Pretty good show ! But since river water isn't all that clean, it migjht be a good idea to flush your fresh water system to get rid of all the mud particles that entered
john

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[yoda]

The only danger I can see in this is the risk of back flooding the engine before it starts throught the exhaust system. Provided you start the engine first and stop the pump before the engine all should be well provided the exhaust has enough power to expel the volume of water being supplied. The beauty of the on engine pump is that the volume of water being pumped depends on engine speed so it isn't a problem. Of course indirectly cooled engines have 2 pumps to worry about. Of course for us concieted owners with exhausts that are not water cooled it's not something to worry about as long as some form of flow is maintained!

Yoda

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[LadyInBed]

Good thinking Batman.
But drifting around with your head down the engine bay/forums/images/icons/blush.gif tut tut!

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[ArthurWood]

Re: Well done!

Well done, indeed, but I would add
"prevention is better than cure."

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[TheBoatman]

I noticed that you said your impeller disintigrated, so I ask one question?
What happened to the "bits", where did they go?
Maybe into your heat exchanger and are still there? Bloking the water flow. After all if the viens dropped off your impeller they had to go some where and unless they went completely through your engine (which I doubt) they are still stuck somewhere?

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[Jacket]

Re: Well done!

Normally I'd agree- too many people shout for help unecessarily, but in this case I think he should have done.

He was aground with 30 knots forecast imminently. Surely the priorities getting off the mud. Now I'm not saying call out the lifeboat. If there really were no other boats around then he did the right thing getting the engine going again.

But being a river, there were almost certainly other boats around. Surely the priority would be to ask one of them for a tow off. Once you've been towed to a vacant morring, and the boat is safe, surely thats the time to fidle with the engine?

Andrew- don't take this as criticism. Its not. after all, you got your boat home safely, and showed more inventiveness than most of us can manage. I'm just disagreeing with the idea of never asking for help. Yes, don't put peoples lives at risk. But asking for a tow on a sheltered river? I know I'd always ask for one, and would be happy to offer a tow to anyone in a similar situation.

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[steve_cronin]

Maybe...

but like you, I wasn't there but self reliance should always be encouraged, surely?

Steve Cronin

<hr width=100% size=1>The above is, like any other post here, only a personal opinion

 

[ArthurWood]

When did you last check the condition of the failed impeller?

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[dickh]

I had an impellor disintegrate on me about 3 years ago(forgot to turn the seacock on as I was in a hurry to catch the tide...), replaced the impellor with a spare and carried on - water flow as usual. Always had this nagging feeling as to wether they were blocking up the heat exchanger, so this layup I removed the hoses and checked the heat exchanger, expecting to see lots of bits of impellor but NOTHING! The water /AF mix was like soup though, so I renewed that.


<hr width=100% size=1>dickh
I'd rather be sailing... /forums/images/icons/smile.gif

 

[charles_reed]

God, Steve

but you're becoming curmudgeonly in your dotage.

Just because Mike Martin spoiled all your fun with "Radio Check please..."

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[AndrewJ]

I last checked it 3 weeks before it failed.

<hr width=100% size=1>The only easy day was yesterday