Morpheous
Well-Known Member
Just returned back from our annual cruise - did the south coast of Wales starting from Portishead, did Cardiff, Milford Haven then a few a days at Swansea.
This has helped get to the bottom of some of the curious electrical problems I have been having. It seems sea water has been getting on to some of the more sensitive components in the engine compartment, most significantly the battery charger. Highlighted by plugging in the shore power at MH and it blowing up in spectacular fashion. When I took it out clearly a dribble of seawater had got in the internals.
Obviously the 6 million $ question is where is it coming from. 2 candidates, being one of the olde Sunseeker models (1989 Portofino 31) it has the egg cup vents through the side of the hull near the stern, or maybe leaking in through the radar arch. My suspicion is that it is spray being forced through the vents. We have had 2 rough passages - on the way to Milford, St Govans head was nasty and returning from Swansea yesterday. Noticed yesterday as SWMBO returned from having a chat with Huey and Ralph over the side that she had got properly soaked! (More on this below) so clearly there is a whole lot of spray in the vicinity of these vents.
There is a sort of barrier inside so that a direct squirt won't go straight into the engine compartment but I reckon water with enough force is just going straight over the barrier. Anyone owned one of these and had a similar problem? Presumably I can't just put mesh or similar on the inside of the vents because of the air flow required by the engines?
I have resealed the joins around the radar arch and they look OK.
Any way as for SWMBO - she was warned that we should leave on Thursday cos the weather was looking rough on Friday. She insisted more shopping was required and would put up with a rough passage without complaint. She kept to her word.
This has helped get to the bottom of some of the curious electrical problems I have been having. It seems sea water has been getting on to some of the more sensitive components in the engine compartment, most significantly the battery charger. Highlighted by plugging in the shore power at MH and it blowing up in spectacular fashion. When I took it out clearly a dribble of seawater had got in the internals.
Obviously the 6 million $ question is where is it coming from. 2 candidates, being one of the olde Sunseeker models (1989 Portofino 31) it has the egg cup vents through the side of the hull near the stern, or maybe leaking in through the radar arch. My suspicion is that it is spray being forced through the vents. We have had 2 rough passages - on the way to Milford, St Govans head was nasty and returning from Swansea yesterday. Noticed yesterday as SWMBO returned from having a chat with Huey and Ralph over the side that she had got properly soaked! (More on this below) so clearly there is a whole lot of spray in the vicinity of these vents.
There is a sort of barrier inside so that a direct squirt won't go straight into the engine compartment but I reckon water with enough force is just going straight over the barrier. Anyone owned one of these and had a similar problem? Presumably I can't just put mesh or similar on the inside of the vents because of the air flow required by the engines?
I have resealed the joins around the radar arch and they look OK.
Any way as for SWMBO - she was warned that we should leave on Thursday cos the weather was looking rough on Friday. She insisted more shopping was required and would put up with a rough passage without complaint. She kept to her word.