Neeves
Well-known member
I thought Bukh engines could be hand started with a rope round the flywheel and use of a decompression lever, or was that just the smaller engines.
Towing a Converted Lifeboat Forth Clyde Canal
- Thread starter Jack 1Boom
- Start date
ProDave
Well-known member
If towing by hand attach the main tow line to the stern and pull on that. That will naturally make the boat turn away from the bank.
Have a second line on the bow, not to pull on, but just to gently use to pull the bow back in and steer the boat.
Then you can do it single handed with the boats rudder lashed straight ahead.
We do this to walk our boat through the staircase locks on the Calley.
Have a second line on the bow, not to pull on, but just to gently use to pull the bow back in and steer the boat.
Then you can do it single handed with the boats rudder lashed straight ahead.
We do this to walk our boat through the staircase locks on the Calley.
bikedaft
Well-known member
ps shout if you want a hand from forumites 
. i cycle along the canal daily.
. i cycle along the canal daily.
ProDave
Well-known member
Tie the tow rope to your bike.ps shout if you want a hand from forumites
bikedaft
Well-known member
it crossed my mind
rogerthebodger
Well-known member
If you tie the tow rope at about 1/3 of the length from the bow towing a boat will tend to tow straight parallel to the tow canal side i the came way as horse used to tow narrow boats along the canal
NormanS
Well-known member
That's the obvious solution. Borrow a horse.
Boathook
Well-known member
Cheaper to give bikedaft a beer !
LittleSister
Well-known member
The Bukh DV series (the ones we see in yachts and lifeboats) have a hand start facility, the socket for the handle being on the front of the engine in the smaller/older series (8, 10 & 20), and both front or back for the larger later motors (36 & 48 and, I assume, the 24). They have a socket with ratchet for the handle, and a geared chain drive from that to the crankshaft, so you don't need to faff about with a rope around the flywheel. There is also a decompressor lever on all DV models.
Hand starting requires (a) you have have a handle (available from Bukh for £100+!), and (b) the installation doesn't preclude you getting the handle into the socket and swinging it (as is sometimes the case). I believe lifeboat engines must be hand start capable, but (as I mentioned above) I am sceptical that a lifeboat would have originally been fitted with a DV48, which IIRC has a turbo).
More fundamentally for the OP, if the engine won't start on the electric starter, which he seems to imply, you are not getting it going by hand starting. (An exception to that being if the battery is knackered and can't spin the engine fast enough.)
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Irish Rover
Well-known member
I could nominate some of the slow plodders I've backed over the years for the job
.Neeves
Well-known member
If the Bukh engines had to be capable of hand starting when installed in a lifeboat (seems an eminently sensible demand) then as this engine is installed in a lifeboat then it should be able to be hand started. The handle, ours had a rope round the flywheel - but it was a small engine, would not cost Stg100 - it would come as standard (in a lifeboat).
Maybe the starter handle is lurking somewhere in the bowels of the vessel and the owner is simply unaware of its use, and importance.
I can confirm that space was a major restriction when we had the need for a hand start - the confines of a small space (in which the small engines would be installed) demanded special care of any crew members and one's own elbows.
In addition to a knackered battery negating an easy start you might also add a knackered starter motor and wiring.
Jonathan
I note that the OP might have been discouraged by the initial flurry of replies - as he appears to have disappeared.