Fear of engine failure high up the Dart on a falling tide

[Bosun Higgs]

So given my apparently greater due diligence than you first thought, Bosun, do you think insurance might cover us?

You are on dodgy ground - they will normally not cover you for mechanical breakdown, and it says so specifically on my policy from St Margarets. When breakdown turns into damage from hitting a pier I do not know. Every company will react a bit differently, and it also depends on how you present things and how much you are prepared to tell porkies. Dont be shocked at this - lieing to insurance companies is almost a national pastime. I'm not suggesting you do tell porkies by the way , just that I know a lot of people do just that.

Bend on the jib. There is a world of difference between sailing a course down river and having a sail up which will give you just enough steerage way as you drift down river, so dont write off using the sails simply because you cant properly sail.

 

[prv]

You are on dodgy ground - they will normally not cover you for mechanical breakdown, and it says so specifically on my policy from St Margarets. When breakdown turns into damage from hitting a pier I do not know.

What they don't normally cover is the cost of repairing the breakdown itself. The cost of you hitting things because of the breakdown is nearly always covered. Obviously I don't know what's in your policy, and they do differ, but not covering losses due to mechanical breakdown (as opposed to the breakdown itself) seems unusual.

Pete

 

[sighmoon]

Being off the boat all winter, and in anticipation of launch, 'the fear' has returned somewhat. Posting this as a form of therapy - but also keen to hear reassuring replies or suggestions.

I've installed a new fuel filter system with lots of new pipework and connections. I've triple checked it and bled it, and I will shortly run the engine for a while (on the hard) to check it's working OK.... but I can't realistically run it under any load for any length of time until we're actually underway down river, on the falling tide.

And once we're underway, in the confines of the river valley, I seem to recall there's little radio/phone signal, and therefore I'm worried there'll be little potential assistance should something go wrong. And the sails aren't on - and likely wouldn't help much anyway if they were.

I know how to bleed the fuel system, but we'll have limited time before we run out of water due to tide falling... and air in the fuel isn't the only possible engine issue anyway.

I suspect if there is a failure of any kind, we _might_ be able to drift down river on the current and drop the hook so we're safely over a 'hole'... but we could equally drift onto some shallows and have all sorts of problems as we slowly fall over into the rocks/trees/mud.

Aahhgh. I feel worse than before now.

Does insurance cover this kind of thing?

TY!

I find your post very comforting because it shows I'm not the only one that gets these pre-season jitters. Maybe I'm normal.

If you do run aground, you can make sure you lean the right way by hanging a bucket of water at the end of the boom, and pulling the boom out with a rope at the forward cleat. It's what the East Coast gaffers do.

 

[KellysEye]

>If the engine runs well, then it will make very little difference whether there is loading or not.

If you don't put load on an engine (I said 1300 revs) then you won't have enough fuel going through to test for an air leak. Also run it for an hour, which is difficult/impossibe on the hard if using a bucket. The reason I say this I leant the hard way by not using enough load and enough time and had the revs go up and down and then the engine failed when we motored out of a marina. We sailed to anchorage and fixed it as above.

 

[KAL]

If you're launching from Baltic, they are very good at making sure that your engine is running well and that your seacocks are all fine before letting you go. They will hold you in the slings until you're happy.

There is a brilliant diesel engineer on site (Steve Lethbridge of Marinewise) - if Steve says it's OK, it will be.

As one poster has said, there's a lovely deep peaceful pool by Sharpham - after that you're on the way - or stop to pick up a bottle of Dart Valley reserve..

Pointless trying to sail in the upper reaches anyway - far too many bends in the river and fickle winds.

Go for it - it's a lovely trip down and there are usually any number of folk who will help out if need be. You won't be the only launch that day - go in convoy if you're worried.

Have faith man...

 

[Terra-Loon]

It happened to me a couple of years ago, the engine cut out and couldn't be restarted 5 mins out of Darthaven. I called the marina and they send a rib out. They didn't even charge me.

 

[CaptainBob]

Thanks chaps

sighmoon - thank you, was beginning to think I was the only slightly nervy boat owner!

 

[Boathook]

I find your post very comforting because it shows I'm not the only one that gets these pre-season jitters. Maybe I'm normal.

If you do run aground, you can make sure you lean the right way by hanging a bucket of water at the end of the boom, and pulling the boom out with a rope at the forward cleat. It's what the East Coast gaffers do.

I'm always nervous for the first 'trip'. I do what I can to check everything, but it is always the first trip and then I start to relax as everything works as it should.

 

[charles_reed]

I'm always nervous for the first 'trip'. I do what I can to check everything, but it is always the first trip and then I start to relax as everything works as it should.

A natural reaction, unfortunately worrying about something merely increases the blood pressure...

After 23 years of single-handed sailing I've made most cock-ups and learnt from them...

I think the OP needs to sail more often, liveaboards don't seem to have 1st voyage nerves...