jimmy_the_builder
Well-known member
We can be very quick to have a go about the Volvo main agents sometimes - so I thought I should let you know about some great service I received from RK Marine this week.
This past weekend was the (extended) Wokingham chapter's cruise to Yarmouth for the carols in the town square. We were keen to join in, so after hot-footing it down from Glasgow to Brighton on Saturday morning, we were underway from Brighton marina by about 2pm and heading for Yarmouth. A bit lumpy in the Looe channel, but apart from that, an uneventful passage ... until we were just coming into Yarmouth. I put both engines into astern to stop the boat so we could get setup to go on the walkashore, and immediately got an EVC alarm and automatic shutdown of the port engine. After a couple of attempts to restart, it was clear that we had a transmission problem of some sort, so we moored up on the walkashore - and decided to worry about it in the morning.
After an excellent night out, followed by a rather lumpy night, it transpired that the EVC was reporting a 'shift actuator failure' on the port transmission. I have D6-350's on outdrives, and the way that gear selection works on these is that the EVC sends an electronic signal to an electric linear actuator, and this actuator pulls or pushes a cable which runs out through the transom shield and into the top of the leg, where it moves a gear selector (which in turns moves the cone clutch to engage drive). After a bit of investigation, aided by other forumites, it was clear that (a) the actuator was dead and (b) the leg would not select reverse gear.
So we decided to trundle back to Swanwick on one engine, in order to get some help on Monday. Again, thanks to about 20 other forumites pushing, fendering, advising and supervising
we had an uneventful departure from Yarmouth, and a slow but actually very relaxing passage back along the eastern solent and up the Hamble. Swmbo did the helming, and I did the zzzzzzing.
Swanwick Marina were very helpful, and kindly gave us a hammerhead berth to make it as easy as possible for us - perfect. So by the middle of Sunday afternoon we were at least within striking distance of help for Monday morning. Jumped on a train, and we were back home in Brighton in a couple of hours.
And this is where we come to RK Marine. Rightly or wrongly, I'm a great believer in expediting projects by just 'being there', if you will. So on Monday morning, I sprinted back along the A27 to Bursledon, and met David, the service manager at RK. He put an engineer on the boat, and after a couple of hours investigation, it transpired that the failure of the actuator was just collateral damage from some upstream failure in the leg, and to investigate further the boat would have to come out of the water.
By now the tide was dropping, so there was no opportunity to lift it on Monday (RK's slip needs good tide coverage). But first thing on Tuesday morning the boat was lifted and blocked off - and by the time I arrived at about 10am she was in the yard and ready to receive the attentions of the engineer once again.
Having proved that there was no fault with the cable that runs from the actuator to the leg, it was clear that we were going to have to get inside the leg itself. So we pulled the gear selector mechanism - and lo and behold, there was the problem. My particular DPH outdrives are a relatively early instance of the leg, and it seems that in some cases there can be some wear to the selector pin that causes the selector to fail to get out of neutral - which is what had happened to me.
So - the remedy is to change the selector assembly, and as a precaution, I decided to change the starboard assembly as well. It is annoying that the failure of the relatively cheap (£150) selector assembly caused the failure of the relatively expensive (£800) actuator - but there you are.
RK were very quick to get someone on the boat; very quick to lift and diagnose the problem; parts were ordered on Tuesday, and fitted on Wednesday morning; the boat was relaunched late on Wednesday morning and by 3pm yesterday I was back on my way down the Hamble, and at 5pm she was back on her home berth in Brighton.
I was really pleased with the responsiveness that RK showed to my little mishap; and they were very good at putting up with me looking over their shoulders at every step of the way. Excellent service, full marks to RK, to their service manager David Moore, and to (Coggy) Andy, the unfortunate tech who had to put up with all my questions. Great job all round. An honorary mention also to Ian Mackenzie at Fairline Southampton who took my calls on Sunday morning and provided some very helpful advice.
Lovely run back to Brighton by the way, 31kts the whole way on flat seas. Bit chilly though!
Cheers
Jimmy
This past weekend was the (extended) Wokingham chapter's cruise to Yarmouth for the carols in the town square. We were keen to join in, so after hot-footing it down from Glasgow to Brighton on Saturday morning, we were underway from Brighton marina by about 2pm and heading for Yarmouth. A bit lumpy in the Looe channel, but apart from that, an uneventful passage ... until we were just coming into Yarmouth. I put both engines into astern to stop the boat so we could get setup to go on the walkashore, and immediately got an EVC alarm and automatic shutdown of the port engine. After a couple of attempts to restart, it was clear that we had a transmission problem of some sort, so we moored up on the walkashore - and decided to worry about it in the morning.
After an excellent night out, followed by a rather lumpy night, it transpired that the EVC was reporting a 'shift actuator failure' on the port transmission. I have D6-350's on outdrives, and the way that gear selection works on these is that the EVC sends an electronic signal to an electric linear actuator, and this actuator pulls or pushes a cable which runs out through the transom shield and into the top of the leg, where it moves a gear selector (which in turns moves the cone clutch to engage drive). After a bit of investigation, aided by other forumites, it was clear that (a) the actuator was dead and (b) the leg would not select reverse gear.
So we decided to trundle back to Swanwick on one engine, in order to get some help on Monday. Again, thanks to about 20 other forumites pushing, fendering, advising and supervising
we had an uneventful departure from Yarmouth, and a slow but actually very relaxing passage back along the eastern solent and up the Hamble. Swmbo did the helming, and I did the zzzzzzing.Swanwick Marina were very helpful, and kindly gave us a hammerhead berth to make it as easy as possible for us - perfect. So by the middle of Sunday afternoon we were at least within striking distance of help for Monday morning. Jumped on a train, and we were back home in Brighton in a couple of hours.
And this is where we come to RK Marine. Rightly or wrongly, I'm a great believer in expediting projects by just 'being there', if you will. So on Monday morning, I sprinted back along the A27 to Bursledon, and met David, the service manager at RK. He put an engineer on the boat, and after a couple of hours investigation, it transpired that the failure of the actuator was just collateral damage from some upstream failure in the leg, and to investigate further the boat would have to come out of the water.
By now the tide was dropping, so there was no opportunity to lift it on Monday (RK's slip needs good tide coverage). But first thing on Tuesday morning the boat was lifted and blocked off - and by the time I arrived at about 10am she was in the yard and ready to receive the attentions of the engineer once again.
Having proved that there was no fault with the cable that runs from the actuator to the leg, it was clear that we were going to have to get inside the leg itself. So we pulled the gear selector mechanism - and lo and behold, there was the problem. My particular DPH outdrives are a relatively early instance of the leg, and it seems that in some cases there can be some wear to the selector pin that causes the selector to fail to get out of neutral - which is what had happened to me.
So - the remedy is to change the selector assembly, and as a precaution, I decided to change the starboard assembly as well. It is annoying that the failure of the relatively cheap (£150) selector assembly caused the failure of the relatively expensive (£800) actuator - but there you are.
RK were very quick to get someone on the boat; very quick to lift and diagnose the problem; parts were ordered on Tuesday, and fitted on Wednesday morning; the boat was relaunched late on Wednesday morning and by 3pm yesterday I was back on my way down the Hamble, and at 5pm she was back on her home berth in Brighton.
I was really pleased with the responsiveness that RK showed to my little mishap; and they were very good at putting up with me looking over their shoulders at every step of the way. Excellent service, full marks to RK, to their service manager David Moore, and to (Coggy) Andy, the unfortunate tech who had to put up with all my questions. Great job all round. An honorary mention also to Ian Mackenzie at Fairline Southampton who took my calls on Sunday morning and provided some very helpful advice.
Lovely run back to Brighton by the way, 31kts the whole way on flat seas. Bit chilly though!
Cheers
Jimmy
