alt
Well-Known Member
Scuba and myself decided to go hardcore and spend the night on the Shannon - Brrrr! But I thought 'Why Not', it'd be nice and relaxing and a great way to wind down the Christmas. So a relaxing boat trip on Lough Ree for the night? Oh how wrong I was.....
alty was feeling a little sick after a feed of beer the night before, so goes 'outside' for some fresh air:
So it's all good, engine warm, ropes & fenders in, everything secure. Let's put Lunasea on the plane WEEHEEEEE! All is good for about 20 mins on the plane then all of a sudden BANG! "What the heck was that?" We look around, everything looks normal. scuba at the helm takes the boat off the plane. Then all of a sudden he realises he has lost steering and then the alternator alarm comes on, so he pulls the boat off the plane. The engine is running and we had a suspicion what was wrong. Then we look where we are; In the middle of Lough Ree with no one else around.
"Oh sh1te" we thought, "A real-life 'What Now Skipper' situation". We leave the engine running as there's no screeching or overheating, but since we've lost alternator power we don't want to be stuck unable to re-start the engine. We lift the engine cover and our suspicions confirmed - All the belts had shredded to bits. Thankfully, rather than panicking, we take a look around us - Plenty of water so no major panic and we're not taking on water, so we sit down for a minute to get our nerves back. So we've no power, no power steering, no supercharger and we're in the middle of Lough Ree. What Now Skipper? Thankfully, scuba remembered getting great advise on this forum before about leaving a spare set of belts and tools on-board, so off he goes into the cabin and returns with a box of belts and tools. He gets a can of beer, throws the belts & tools at me, smiles at me and then points to the engine - I guess this is where AltyMonkey comes into play:
Belts ready to go:
alt gets into 'down & dirty' mode:
The alternator belt was a little tight, even with the mounting bolts as loose as possible:
A little while later we've all the belts back on except the supercharger belt which was missing from the Volvo kit - LESSON: When you buy a 'kit', double-check that you have everything you think you have
So, we've no supercharger and don't know how the engine will react. Is this going to spoil our fun? Not a chance, we'll just cruise to our destination at 6knots, under 1700RPM (Where the supercharger would kick in) to be safe as we don't know if the engine will get moody with the lack of boost from the supercharger. So, alty takes the helm and scuba has some fun in his tender:
Some pics of Lunasea:
alty in deep concentration at the helm:
So we arrive at our destination, Portrunny (North West of Lough Ree with a great public harbour) a little later than planned, just as it begins to get dark. LESSON: Always expect the un-expected and allow extra time. Had we been leaving base any later we would have been trying to change belts in the middle of a lake in the dark
We're hungry, tired and covered in bilge sh1te so straight to the cooking:
scuba the master chef:
After dinner it's time for some night-time pike
fishing:
Lovely self-portrait:
So we run out of beer and fall asleep around 3am, deciding on an early start this morning we thought since we'd have to cruise home slowly we'll just cook brekkie on-board:
WOW, what a fantastic morning. A bit 'eerie' because the colour of the sky, but wow, nice and misty and totally flat calm. This is winter boating at it's best:
scuba decides on more pike fishing:
Time for some breakfast:
Into Hodson Bay for a nosey:
So on our way home we discussed could the engine work without the supercharger. "Only one way to find out". Slowly pushing down the accelerator, before we know it we're back on the plane. Yipee! I always thought that the KAD engine would go crazy if it didn't detect boost from the supercharger, but the only difference we found was it was slower to accelerate (Obviously enough):
So heading back to base, I am in awe of this house... It would be perfect for me... Nice sized house, nice gargen and a nice private harbour:
Approaching base, WOW, it's flat calm:
And finally a nice Bavaria:
All in all, a great trip on the Shannon. Lessons learned were to leave well in advance and if a situation arises, KEEP CALM! What could have been potentially a disasterous sistuation with the 2 people onboard freaking out and panacking was nothing more than a minor inconvenience thanks to cool nerves. Oh, and if you have a KAD, keep spare belts onboard! (Thanks SonVida for that advise)
Thanks a million scuba and thanks to Mrs. scuba for preparing some lovely spuds to keep our belly's full :cheers
alty was feeling a little sick after a feed of beer the night before, so goes 'outside' for some fresh air:
So it's all good, engine warm, ropes & fenders in, everything secure. Let's put Lunasea on the plane WEEHEEEEE! All is good for about 20 mins on the plane then all of a sudden BANG! "What the heck was that?" We look around, everything looks normal. scuba at the helm takes the boat off the plane. Then all of a sudden he realises he has lost steering and then the alternator alarm comes on, so he pulls the boat off the plane. The engine is running and we had a suspicion what was wrong. Then we look where we are; In the middle of Lough Ree with no one else around.
"Oh sh1te" we thought, "A real-life 'What Now Skipper' situation". We leave the engine running as there's no screeching or overheating, but since we've lost alternator power we don't want to be stuck unable to re-start the engine. We lift the engine cover and our suspicions confirmed - All the belts had shredded to bits. Thankfully, rather than panicking, we take a look around us - Plenty of water so no major panic and we're not taking on water, so we sit down for a minute to get our nerves back. So we've no power, no power steering, no supercharger and we're in the middle of Lough Ree. What Now Skipper? Thankfully, scuba remembered getting great advise on this forum before about leaving a spare set of belts and tools on-board, so off he goes into the cabin and returns with a box of belts and tools. He gets a can of beer, throws the belts & tools at me, smiles at me and then points to the engine - I guess this is where AltyMonkey comes into play:
Belts ready to go:
alt gets into 'down & dirty' mode:
The alternator belt was a little tight, even with the mounting bolts as loose as possible:
A little while later we've all the belts back on except the supercharger belt which was missing from the Volvo kit - LESSON: When you buy a 'kit', double-check that you have everything you think you have
So, we've no supercharger and don't know how the engine will react. Is this going to spoil our fun? Not a chance, we'll just cruise to our destination at 6knots, under 1700RPM (Where the supercharger would kick in) to be safe as we don't know if the engine will get moody with the lack of boost from the supercharger. So, alty takes the helm and scuba has some fun in his tender:
Some pics of Lunasea:
alty in deep concentration at the helm:
So we arrive at our destination, Portrunny (North West of Lough Ree with a great public harbour) a little later than planned, just as it begins to get dark. LESSON: Always expect the un-expected and allow extra time. Had we been leaving base any later we would have been trying to change belts in the middle of a lake in the dark
We're hungry, tired and covered in bilge sh1te so straight to the cooking:
scuba the master chef:
After dinner it's time for some night-time pike
fishing:
Lovely self-portrait:
So we run out of beer and fall asleep around 3am, deciding on an early start this morning we thought since we'd have to cruise home slowly we'll just cook brekkie on-board:
WOW, what a fantastic morning. A bit 'eerie' because the colour of the sky, but wow, nice and misty and totally flat calm. This is winter boating at it's best:
scuba decides on more pike
fishing:
Time for some breakfast:
Into Hodson Bay for a nosey:
So on our way home we discussed could the engine work without the supercharger. "Only one way to find out". Slowly pushing down the accelerator, before we know it we're back on the plane. Yipee! I always thought that the KAD engine would go crazy if it didn't detect boost from the supercharger, but the only difference we found was it was slower to accelerate (Obviously enough):
So heading back to base, I am in awe of this house... It would be perfect for me... Nice sized house, nice gargen and a nice private harbour:
Approaching base, WOW, it's flat calm:
And finally a nice Bavaria:
All in all, a great trip on the Shannon. Lessons learned were to leave well in advance and if a situation arises, KEEP CALM! What could have been potentially a disasterous sistuation with the 2 people onboard freaking out and panacking was nothing more than a minor inconvenience thanks to cool nerves. Oh, and if you have a KAD, keep spare belts onboard! (Thanks SonVida for that advise)
Thanks a million scuba and thanks to Mrs. scuba for preparing some lovely spuds to keep our belly's full :cheers
