cellis
New Member
Dear All,
This story is offered by way of a warning to owners of recently-purchased vessels equipped with Volvo Penta diesel engines as currently installed in Nimbus motor cruisers.
My wife and me were recently asked by a friend and his wife to accompany them on their first cross-channel voyage in their Nimbus motorcruiser - we having sailed to France and the Channel Islands on a number of previous occasions (though never before in a motor cruiser).
Their Nimbus is powered by a single 300hp (or thereabouts) Volvo Penta diesel and was purchased new from Nimbus UK approximately 6 months ago.
At the time of the crossing earlier this month, the engine had accumulated approx 50hrs running time.
Whilst the outward voyage was not without its moments and disappointingly slow, I'll confine the story to the homeward leg from Cherbourg to Poole that was started at midday with a full fuel tank, in near perfect conditions - no wind, flat sea, cloudless sky, excellent visibility.
Again the speed was disppointingly slow (around 13kts) but there were no indicated problems and with plenty of daylight in hand we made pleasant and reasonable progress.
However, some 30 miles south of Poole, approximately half way into the busy south-west bound traffic separation lane, I noticed some unwanted smoke and vapour in the exhaust and my friend confirmed that he was losing power.
Apart from the tacho now showing 2500 revs with full throttle a quick review of the panel guages revealed nothing untoward so the engine was throttled back and the engine hatch was raised.
To say that everone was absolutely horrified and dismayed to witness the engine compartment awash with diesel, spraying around under high pressure would be an understatement of the first order - A large freighter perceived by some onboard to be bearing directly down on us only added to their understandable horror.
At first the source of the leak could not be determined other than it was roughly top centre of the engine. A number of close inspections with the engine stopped similarly revealed nothing.
We finally confirmed that there was a hairline fracture in No3 (?) fuel injector pipeline, on a short vertical run just above the injector.
With nothing available to effect a proper repair it was decided to concentrate on suppressing the spray (by relocating an anti-vibration clamp and judicious use of tea-cloths) and get out of the shipping lane as quickly as possible.
With the situation by then under a reasonable level of control it was decided to limp onwards to Poole, hoping that the fuel would last the distance.
Suffice to say it didn't - due mainly to a strong, adverse tide as we approached the Dorset coast.
Fortunately we managed to make contact with the skipper and mate of a Poole-bound yacht, explained our plight and asked them to keep an eye on us while we continued.
When the engine finally and with no immediate warning died close to Swanage Ledge, the yacht crew reacted extremely quickly, rapidly dropping their sails and, to their great credit and our huge relief, had us safely in tow within 15 minutes.
By later that evening we were safely back in Poole and on the following day a Nimbus-arranged repair was carried out to my friend's apparent satisfaction.
I personally am not so easily impressed and decided to email Volvo Penta Head Office in Sweden to express my deep concern and dismay that such a simple but safety-critical component on such a new engine could fail as described.
Predictably, my email was simply referred back without direct comment to the VP(UK) office (in Watford?) who apologised for the distress caused but said they could not comment until they had further information, etc., etc. Contact information was provided and nothing more has been heard to-date.
On reflection, we could regard ourselves as unlucky at what transpired on what was after all a confidence-building trip for a person new to channel-crossing but I believe we were extremely lucky that such a potentially catastrophic experience took place in near perfect sea conditions and visibility and that we were blessed with the assistance of a very able and obliging yacht crew.
So, to anyone out there with comparable craft and engine installations I would earnestly recommend that they contact Volvo Penta for assurance (if not a thorough physical inspection), that the problem is not a design defect or manufacturing batch problem.
Coming from the yachting fraternity, I remember clearly around 4 years ago a major problem with a Volvo Penta engine widely used in yachts that was persistently ignored until VP were finally forced to concede under weight of evidence and support of the yachting press and others.
I hope this is of assistance to those to whom it might concern.
Regards,
Chris Ellis
ellis@canddee.wanadoo.co.uk
This story is offered by way of a warning to owners of recently-purchased vessels equipped with Volvo Penta diesel engines as currently installed in Nimbus motor cruisers.
My wife and me were recently asked by a friend and his wife to accompany them on their first cross-channel voyage in their Nimbus motorcruiser - we having sailed to France and the Channel Islands on a number of previous occasions (though never before in a motor cruiser).
Their Nimbus is powered by a single 300hp (or thereabouts) Volvo Penta diesel and was purchased new from Nimbus UK approximately 6 months ago.
At the time of the crossing earlier this month, the engine had accumulated approx 50hrs running time.
Whilst the outward voyage was not without its moments and disappointingly slow, I'll confine the story to the homeward leg from Cherbourg to Poole that was started at midday with a full fuel tank, in near perfect conditions - no wind, flat sea, cloudless sky, excellent visibility.
Again the speed was disppointingly slow (around 13kts) but there were no indicated problems and with plenty of daylight in hand we made pleasant and reasonable progress.
However, some 30 miles south of Poole, approximately half way into the busy south-west bound traffic separation lane, I noticed some unwanted smoke and vapour in the exhaust and my friend confirmed that he was losing power.
Apart from the tacho now showing 2500 revs with full throttle a quick review of the panel guages revealed nothing untoward so the engine was throttled back and the engine hatch was raised.
To say that everone was absolutely horrified and dismayed to witness the engine compartment awash with diesel, spraying around under high pressure would be an understatement of the first order - A large freighter perceived by some onboard to be bearing directly down on us only added to their understandable horror.
At first the source of the leak could not be determined other than it was roughly top centre of the engine. A number of close inspections with the engine stopped similarly revealed nothing.
We finally confirmed that there was a hairline fracture in No3 (?) fuel injector pipeline, on a short vertical run just above the injector.
With nothing available to effect a proper repair it was decided to concentrate on suppressing the spray (by relocating an anti-vibration clamp and judicious use of tea-cloths) and get out of the shipping lane as quickly as possible.
With the situation by then under a reasonable level of control it was decided to limp onwards to Poole, hoping that the fuel would last the distance.
Suffice to say it didn't - due mainly to a strong, adverse tide as we approached the Dorset coast.
Fortunately we managed to make contact with the skipper and mate of a Poole-bound yacht, explained our plight and asked them to keep an eye on us while we continued.
When the engine finally and with no immediate warning died close to Swanage Ledge, the yacht crew reacted extremely quickly, rapidly dropping their sails and, to their great credit and our huge relief, had us safely in tow within 15 minutes.
By later that evening we were safely back in Poole and on the following day a Nimbus-arranged repair was carried out to my friend's apparent satisfaction.
I personally am not so easily impressed and decided to email Volvo Penta Head Office in Sweden to express my deep concern and dismay that such a simple but safety-critical component on such a new engine could fail as described.
Predictably, my email was simply referred back without direct comment to the VP(UK) office (in Watford?) who apologised for the distress caused but said they could not comment until they had further information, etc., etc. Contact information was provided and nothing more has been heard to-date.
On reflection, we could regard ourselves as unlucky at what transpired on what was after all a confidence-building trip for a person new to channel-crossing but I believe we were extremely lucky that such a potentially catastrophic experience took place in near perfect sea conditions and visibility and that we were blessed with the assistance of a very able and obliging yacht crew.
So, to anyone out there with comparable craft and engine installations I would earnestly recommend that they contact Volvo Penta for assurance (if not a thorough physical inspection), that the problem is not a design defect or manufacturing batch problem.
Coming from the yachting fraternity, I remember clearly around 4 years ago a major problem with a Volvo Penta engine widely used in yachts that was persistently ignored until VP were finally forced to concede under weight of evidence and support of the yachting press and others.
I hope this is of assistance to those to whom it might concern.
Regards,
Chris Ellis
ellis@canddee.wanadoo.co.uk
