Portishead - Marine handyman recommendation?

oldmanofthehills said:
Though I may criticise their slowness, Phil and crew can get it done and sorted. Just get it booked in with firm date and keep on top of the job. Boating costs twice what you budget for but well worth it. If you get someone else to come and look at it there will be travel costs and travel delays and Advance Marine are the English regional Volvo dealers however the other option is Wigmore Wright in Penarth but I have never used them.
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As stated earlier (#31) Alan Stafford will support Portishead and Penarth with no travel cost. High quality work, easy to deal with, turns up when scheduled and excellent value. What not to like? Only wish he would come down to the Hamble where we are now based.
 
rafiki_ said:
As stated earlier (#31) Alan Stafford will support Portishead and Penarth with no travel cost. High quality work, easy to deal with, turns up when scheduled and excellent value. What not to like? Only wish he would come down to the Hamble where we are now based.
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Very much appreciate the contact, and am now scheduled to meet him next week :).
 
And back from Chepstow... Engine stayed chill, even got her up onto the plane and topped out at just over 25mph (we've only got GPS/mph, not figured kts out yet).

Huzzahhhh! All from Alan's investigation. :).
 
Not entirely sure. Could be any combination of these... though obviously, the last seems 75%+ chance of being the most likely candidate...

1. Alan showed me how and where to uncouple the seawater intake hoses, to enable a proper seawater-cooling-section flush. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to order/receive Salt-Away or Rydlyme... so after a bit of scouring online for what else has the ingredient, it turns out there's another safe, but not as effective solution... Phosphoric Acid. So after watching a few videos like the one below... yep... I poured in 4 litres of prime quality Coca-Cola and left it for 24 hours. I laser-measured the temperature of various points prior to this and after... but left the results onboard, unchecked due to being rushed, will retrieve at some point and compare.
2. The bottom was grubby, as was the intakes (though not blocked). She's been in the water, barely moving for 9 months. These got jetwashed down as part of Portishead's 50% off thing, for a total price of ~£80. Many people have said it absolutely affects performance. Seems it will cause more strain on the engine, and earlier in the RPM range. Also totally worth it due to...
3. ... the trim tabs were locked fully down due to barnacles and other sealife forming a colony on the piston covers. All now jetwashed off and fully capable of being retracted.
4. I checked the coolant previously by eye. As the manual says, it should be about up to an inch before an opening in the filler pipe. Alan reckoned sod that, fill it to an inch below the cap, the cap having a pressure release and little vent pipe out. So I poured in pre-mixed 5-yr antifreeze. And kept pouring. And more. Bloody thing swallowed up a whole 1.75 litres! Turns out "full" wasn't FULL.

So yeahhh, after a massive face-palm, it very strongly looks to be #4.

There were lots of other little things we talked about; outboard maintenance, the two leaks from the engine (both small, one "usual, drips under load very slightly, ignore it unless it gets worse" and one "get it resealed when it's next on the hard, within the next 6 months, but otherwise fine"), how the toilet works (seriously, never managed to ask, now a godsend on our trip to Chepstow!), explanations of the precise flow through the engine of coolant/seawater/exhaust, other candidates for overheating (pumps, though he verified they're working, thermostat, verified again though amount of flow potentially not enough, oil clogged at the bottom of a ... forgotten what bit, internally leaking exhaust verified fine by sound).

As a result of all the above (or maybe just #4), we managed to get up on the plane and nail ~25.5mph in the channel. It was like Star Trek / Wars... the M4 bridge was a couple of miles away from us at the mouth of the Wye... trundling along at 10mph... engage warp... bloody hell, the bridge looked like it was attacking us! The distance was just eaten up so damn fast. I'm not entirely sure the plotter was reading the right speed either as it seems to take its time figuring it out, and stay at 25 when I'm sure we continued getting faster... but blaaaaddy hell that was awesome!

Overall, complete success! Boating is back to being awesome, instead of an endless burden of learning and throwing money at it :). Next up... we just need the fuel gauge fixing, instead of flickering left/right too much... we got scared coming back after the planing that we might have eaten up all our fuel! We got overtaken (possibly by Sneds), as we were concerned over our fuel state... but it would have been nice to open up again alongside the other vessel waving at us for a couple of minutes.

 
That's good news.
If it was #4 then so what. Lesson learnt and at least it wasn't anything major! More likely it was a combination of things as you say.
Your tabs being jammed down would have also made it hard to get on to the plane, so you only want them in that position when travelling into a head sea or if you need more bow grip on the water when doing slow speed close quarters stuff (raise them when going astern though). Next time you get her on the plane in calm conditions try trimming your outdrive leg out (with tabs fully up) slowly - you should eventually get an increase in speed without any more throttle and you will then be even more fuel efficient
 
Lioness said:
That's good news.
If it was #4 then so what. Lesson learnt and at least it wasn't anything major! More likely it was a combination of things as you say.
Your tabs being jammed down would have also made it hard to get on to the plane, so you only want them in that position when travelling into a head sea or if you need more bow grip on the water when doing slow speed close quarters stuff (raise them when going astern though). Next time you get her on the plane in calm conditions try trimming your outdrive leg out (with tabs fully up) slowly - you should eventually get an increase in speed without any more throttle and you will then be even more fuel efficient
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I think you're right about getting the speed up with the tabs up... I've re-watched a video where we're poodling along by Clevedon, and the water behind us is a mess... with them up, it quickly forms the V on approaching the plane.

The outdrive leg is jammed near fully down at the moment... only the "up" button is working... gonna request Alan to do an investigation when she's out in late winter (he reckoned he needs it out for that). Will look into it in Spring though :).

Having the tabs down for close quarters stuff... ahhhh... that'll be why she was misbehaving a little coming into the outbound lock... until Sunday, they'd been fully down... and I did notice slightly less control when they were up, but put it down to some mystery unfelt wind. Will make it part of my routine now... down in dock, up when out.

Either way... Sunday was bloody awesome! Our first trip to a another country ;)
 
vodzurk said:
I think you're right about getting the speed up with the tabs up... I've re-watched a video where we're poodling along by Clevedon, and the water behind us is a mess... with them up, it quickly forms the V on approaching the plane.

The outdrive leg is jammed near fully down at the moment... only the "up" button is working... gonna request Alan to do an investigation when she's out in late winter (he reckoned he needs it out for that). Will look into it in Spring though :).

Having the tabs down for close quarters stuff... ahhhh... that'll be why she was misbehaving a little coming into the outbound lock... until Sunday, they'd been fully down... and I did notice slightly less control when they were up, but put it down to some mystery unfelt wind. Will make it part of my routine now... down in dock, up when out.

Either way... Sunday was bloody awesome! Our first trip to a another country ;)
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Great result. Well done. I have learned that it is usually something relatively simple that needs attention. We boaters tend to have a bit of Munchausen's about us, always looking for the "......we're all doomed..........." Alan Stafford is a top bloke, hugely experienced and generally gets to the root cause with little pain.
 
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