Crisis, help urgently needed.

[Avocet]

Just a thought. You're probably already aware of it but there used to be a boatbuilder who specialises in wooden boats, David Moss, a few miles up the river Wyre.

 

[Graham_Wright]

Woah there! I hope that includes taking the injectors out, if you crank it with water in the cylinders you'll hydraulic it.

I did mention the injector removal;- my course starts in 10 minutes!

 

[fisherman]

I did mention the injector removal;- my course starts in 10 minutes!

Yes you did, and also said the diesel would lubricate things, I wondered where it would come from.

 

[TradewindSailor]

It is extremely likely that any electric motor that has been submerged (unless submersible like some pumps) will either not work or will be much weaker. Galvanic corrosion and rust are the main culprits.

I have helped people after they have spent $$$$$ on trying to reinstate drowned electrical motors, alternators, wiring, and electronics. IMHO it is not worth it. It's better to go down to the marine salvage yard and put the old stuff in the skip.

If you do use the old starter motor, be aware that it could appear to work ..... but it may be too weak to turn the engine over.

Good luck .... and keep the systems simple.

 

[Quest]

Epic thread. Well done you, full of admiration.

 

[TQA]

It is extremely likely that any electric motor that has been submerged (unless submersible like some pumps) will either not work or will be much weaker. Galvanic corrosion and rust are the main culprits.

I have helped people after they have spent $$$$$ on trying to reinstate drowned electrical motors, alternators, wiring, and electronics. IMHO it is not worth it. It's better to go down to the marine salvage yard and put the old stuff in the skip.

If you do use the old starter motor, be aware that it could appear to work ..... but it may be too weak to turn the engine over.

Good luck .... and keep the systems simple.

Total cobblers

It is more than possible to recover starters and the like. Wash in fresh water dunk it in WD 40 put it some where warm and dry and there is a very good chance it will be OK. There may well be a professional disaster recovery service who can do it better but the above works. I have done it twice myself on drowned heavy diesels and on many an outboard they did not all run happily ever after but they all ran.

BUT time is of the essence. Ideally this should be done within hours of recovery.

 

[paulm299]

Slightly off topic but relevant . I recovered and repaired a Land Rover that had been submerged by two tides . Plenty of washing in fresh water , WD40 on the electrics , Dry out , Bit harder in your case , Change all the oils , Remove injectors and turned over to get rid of any water in engine then ran the engine as soon as possible . Vehicle lasted the rest of its service life . Good Luck .

 

[vyv_cox]

Total cobblers

It is more than possible to recover starters and the like. Wash in fresh water dunk it in WD 40 put it some where warm and dry and there is a very good chance it will be OK. There may well be a professional disaster recovery service who can do it better but the above works. I have done it twice myself on drowned heavy diesels and on many an outboard they did not all run happily ever after but they all ran.

BUT time is of the essence. Ideally this should be done within hours of recovery.

I agree. I have seen many an outboard recovered from the seabed and run within a short time. I have dived for a generator that I saw someone drop from the back of his boat. It was on the seabed for 12 hours. I had it running within an hour of recovery, using the same petrol that was in the tank(!), it generates power to this day, several years later.

I kept out of the discussion as there is little I can offer from several thousand miles away, but very pleased to hear of the successful outcome.

 

[AMCD300]

Congratulations on a job well done. It proves that one should never give up when some hope remains.

I hope you get her back to a useable condition soon.

 

[TradewindSailor]

I am very glad that people have had success at recovering engines from the deep depths. I am even prepared to accept that some electrical motors can be recovered after a week in the briny, good luck to you. BUT what I am suggesting is that the chances of full recovery of the spec of the motor is doubtful and if you are to spend any money on it, your better off getting a recon unit. I was talking electrical motors NOT engines.

As for "TOTAL COBBLERS" don't go round trashing peoples experience just because it doesn't match yours!!!!!!!!

 

[rogerboy]

that's great news so pleased for you it is good to stay positive,

My suggestion to scrap the boats has raised some annoyance from others. The correct way to recover the vessel would have been a salvage vessel alongside with all the necessary lifting gear. Trouble is that you would have probably been in for a minimum £ 10 K so that was a non runner from the start.
The trouble is that goodwill only lasts so long. Once that stops a lot of incriminations & finger wagging starts. Then the bill really escalates. If you cannot refloat it you still have to move it.
If you do raise the boat ( & everyone likes to see the little chap struggling against the odds come up trumps) you still have the problem of keeping it afloat, repairing it, using it in the future etc etc. the repairs will take ages, storage will run up costs. There is every chance that your son will eventually have to give up & get on with his life. Perhaps not , he may eventually win & have every right to be extremely proud of achieving something in life.

I do not know the value of the boat but from descriptions it cannot be too high ( although the emotional value may be very high). Emotions are not always the best routes to follow & my suggestion to cut your losses & walk away are not quite so frivolous as some may think. The further you go the deeper in you get.
Good luck with today's efforts but in the end i may be proved right with both of my somewhat contentious posts. My first one has already been proved to be dead right

 

[Plevier]

Congratulations and admiration, that's fantastic.
Now my two pennorth of professional caution. If you try to recover any lead acid batteries that have been under, take care. If contaminated with seawater, on charging they can produce highly toxic stibine gas SbH3. This has caused deaths in submarines.

 

[Graham_Wright]

Congratulations and admiration, that's fantastic.
Now my two pennorth of professional caution. If you try to recover any lead acid batteries that have been under, take care. If contaminated with seawater, on charging they can produce highly toxic stibine gas SbH3. This has caused deaths in submarines.

That is a very useful caution;- thankyou. Passed on to Mark already.

 

[AntarcticPilot]

I agree. I have seen many an outboard recovered from the seabed and run within a short time. I have dived for a generator that I saw someone drop from the back of his boat. It was on the seabed for 12 hours. I had it running within an hour of recovery, using the same petrol that was in the tank(!), it generates power to this day, several years later.

I kept out of the discussion as there is little I can offer from several thousand miles away, but very pleased to hear of the successful outcome.

I bet there are a lot of us who have dropped a Seagull outboard in the sea and got it going again quite happily. We have! As others say, it's a case of getting water out and oil in. We dismantled ours, but it probably wasn't necessary (my brother and I were teenagers, and did things like that for fun). And a long time ago I helped a school-mate recover the starter and dynamo from an engine that had been submerged. Again, the trick was to get it dry which involved dismantling them both, to ensure the coils were properly dry, the bearings lubricated and the brushes and commutators clean. It made an interesting bit of post A-level practical physics! The hardest bit was finding out how to dismantle them without the benefit of a workshop manual. This was long before the WWW, so we couldn't search online for the information!

 

[Graham_Wright]

I bet there are a lot of us who have dropped a Seagull outboard in the sea and got it going again quite happily. We have! As others say, it's a case of getting water out and oil in. We dismantled ours, but it probably wasn't necessary (my brother and I were teenagers, and did things like that for fun). And a long time ago I helped a school-mate recover the starter and dynamo from an engine that had been submerged. Again, the trick was to get it dry which involved dismantling them both, to ensure the coils were properly dry, the bearings lubricated and the brushes and commutators clean. It made an interesting bit of post A-level practical physics! The hardest bit was finding out how to dismantle them without the benefit of a workshop manual. This was long before the WWW, so we couldn't search online for the information!

Current question is how to drill holes through the periphery of lorry tyres. I confess this is outside my experience! It seems that the fendering along the jagged dock wall can shift during tidal movements and this may hve caused the initial damage. Mark needs to arrange a line of tyres strung on a Ø30mm bar suspended at both ends. I can supply the bar suitably terminated but he has found it impossible to drill through the tread. (Tyres arranged with their normal rotation access at right angles, both vertical and horizontal to the wall).

 

[Ross D]

You need to use a cone cutter to cut through the tyre, with a normal drill it is virtually impossible. I have my boat fendered with tyres in it's mudberth.

I would caution against the plan of threading them to a bar, the bottoms of the tyres will fill with mud making the whole thing impossibly heavy and possibly bend the rod or fail.

The system we have is the tyres screwed to a thick plank (9"x2" I think, but our boat is much smaller), using a section of batten inside the tyre to screw through. Make up a long fender board with the board running up against the doskside. Tie the securing lines to the top of the tyres making sure they can't chaff on the wall, if you tie lower down the whole board can topple at high tide. You still need a big hole in the base of each tyre to let the muddy water out.

Ross

 

[Graham_Wright]

Congratulations and admiration, that's fantastic.
Now my two pennorth of professional caution. If you try to recover any lead acid batteries that have been under, take care. If contaminated with seawater, on charging they can produce highly toxic stibine gas SbH3. This has caused deaths in submarines.

The batteries are gel. is that any different?

Can they be flushed clean and refilled with acid? (I have 60 litres of battery acid).

 

[AntarcticPilot]

You need to use a cone cutter to cut through the tyre, with a normal drill it is virtually impossible. I have my boat fendered with tyres in it's mudberth.

I would caution against the plan of threading them to a bar, the bottoms of the tyres will fill with mud making the whole thing impossibly heavy and possibly bend the rod or fail.

The system we have is the tyres screwed to a thick plank (9"x2" I think, but our boat is much smaller), using a section of batten inside the tyre to screw through. Make up a long fender board with the board running up against the doskside. Tie the securing lines to the top of the tyres making sure they can't chaff on the wall, if you tie lower down the whole board can topple at high tide. You still need a big hole in the base of each tyre to let the muddy water out.

Ross

Wouldn't drilling a hole at the bottom as well as the sides avoid them filling with water/mud?

 

[Heckler]

I agree. I have seen many an outboard recovered from the seabed and run within a short time. I have dived for a generator that I saw someone drop from the back of his boat. It was on the seabed for 12 hours. I had it running within an hour of recovery, using the same petrol that was in the tank(!), it generates power to this day, several years later.

I kept out of the discussion as there is little I can offer from several thousand miles away, but very pleased to hear of the successful outcome.

Still running!
Stu

 

[alahol2]

I managed to cut up a couple of heavy van tyres using an angle grinder so you could cut large holes with that. Maybe a bi-metal hole saw would be the best way to get smaller holes.