Jury rig 4amp fuse mid Atlantic?

[maxi77]

This may be a bit harsh. I am quite capable of dealing with such a situation (given access to a "copper wire fusing current" table. Given a micrometer I think I could draw out a slightly oversize strand to somewhere near the right size (although ipod headphone leads are a good source of tiny wire and in a family-used boat can be found under almost every berth).

However, I think I would still involve the owner in the way this crew have done. This is not the 19th century where communication with owners was only possible within sight of land. A better solution usually emerges from consultation, and asking for help is not a weakness!

Isn't this rather like the way the skipper sleeps better if she/he knows the crew will wake her/him if they feel there is a need.

I may be being hard as we perhaps do not have the whole story. On the other hand the general concern seems to be to replace the fuse, when my mind immediately cries out why does the fuse need replacing. Was the original the right size or was it too small, hence replacing it will perhaps not work until you move up to the correct size of fuse, or is there a problem with the equipment and it is drawing more current than it should perhaps with a partial short when going up a fuse size may lead to a fire.

Yes comms is good now that we can do it so easily (I can remember having to book international calls through the operator) but I would hope that the report would include the fault, suspected diagnosis and intended solution.

 

[shmoo]

[...] but I would hope that the report would include the fault, suspected diagnosis and intended solution.

Fair enough

 

[Hampus]

If they have other fuses with ratings less than 4 they can connect them in parallell.
2 x 2amp or 4 x 1amp or 1 x 2amp AND 4 x 0.5amp. Well, you get the picture

/Hampus

 

[savageseadog]

To those that say that they should just sort it out with a bent nail or whatever. If there were no comms you just get on with it and do what you can. They have comms so they're using the resources available to them, correctly in my opinion.

Anyone who wants to mock my caution, go and burn yourselves down.

 

[jeremyshaw]

Situation update

Many thanks to the posters who have given advice. The trick to identify a blown rather than failed-through-age fuse was new to me and helpful.

It's interesting that some debate has been generated on this topic. Personally I am very glad that the crew emailed to ask for advice. I told them to check on such things. And it was me asking for advice on the best way to jury rig a fuse, not them! I would have been annoyed if they had not checked in with me and made things worse as I've known too many delivery skippers do. This is a very competent experienced crew and they have already sorted and fixed a couple of other problems. But it is my boat and my $x000 dollar watermaker. It is as others have said entirely prudent of them to check before jury rigging a fix on a bit of kit which is complex, expensive and new to them. Also as I think I mentioned in the original post, the fuse in question is undocumented/unfound in the manual, so they wanted to see if I knew more about it. I have been able to get onto the manufacturer and get that info. We have SSB email on the boat so why not use it?

In practice they have jury rigged a new fuse by soldering a thin strand of wire. And that has blown too. So now, thanks to Sea Recovery's advice, we believe the problem is with the automatic salinity valve, and there is a chance of bypassing it so they can shower again before Horta. Let's hope so.

And thanks again for all the help.

 

[nimbusgb]

Geez give the guys a break!40 years ago the guys aboard Apollo 13 were rocket scientists and even they got in touch with home base before they tried to fix the problems themselves.

I'd be more concerned with a crew that didn't get in touch! Once the voyage was finished repairing a fuse mid Atlantic could well become a forgotten event. Months or years later when the 'temporary' replacement failed to do its job any resulting damage could be outside insurance cover.

 

[Heckler]

Many thanks to the posters who have given advice. The trick to identify a blown rather than failed-through-age fuse was new to me and helpful.

It's interesting that some debate has been generated on this topic. Personally I am very glad that the crew emailed to ask for advice. I told them to check on such things. And it was me asking for advice on the best way to jury rig a fuse, not them! I would have been annoyed if they had not checked in with me and made things worse as I've known too many delivery skippers do. This is a very competent experienced crew and they have already sorted and fixed a couple of other problems. But it is my boat and my $x000 dollar watermaker. It is as others have said entirely prudent of them to check before jury rigging a fix on a bit of kit which is complex, expensive and new to them. Also as I think I mentioned in the original post, the fuse in question is undocumented/unfound in the manual, so they wanted to see if I knew more about it. I have been able to get onto the manufacturer and get that info. We have SSB email on the boat so why not use it?

In practice they have jury rigged a new fuse by soldering a thin strand of wire. And that has blown too. So now, thanks to Sea Recovery's advice, we believe the problem is with the automatic salinity valve, and there is a chance of bypassing it so they can shower again before Horta. Let's hope so.

And thanks again for all the help.

So my advice was good, suck it and see, and what came back was there WAS something else wrong. Boat didnt burn down and the problem solving advanced us to the next possible culprit.
Its what I did for a living in the oil field for most of my life, and where I worked there werent any spares shops! If I couldnt fix it with my ingenuity, it didnt get fixed! (most of the time I fixed it!)
Stu
PS
poopp de pa! (noise of blowing my own trumpet!)