Author Archives: Gerhard Malan

Wet Exhaust Alarm: Cheap Insurance

Posted on by

Soon after I acquired Sunny Spells, I experienced the dreaded “exhaust muffler meltdown”. We were motoring out to a twilight race when the exhaust note suddeny changed and a lot of smoke was emitted from the engine room. We had the main up already so the engine was killed immediately and we continued the race. After the race we picked up a mooring under sail (lucky I was not on my own).

I established that a cooling hose had come off (a separate story could be told about the cause). The plastic water lift muffler had melted and a very simple fault had now resulted in a nasty repair job. Graham Friend, having decades of experience, had fortunately saved the engine by killing it instantly.

After a bit of “Googling” I found what appeared to be the perfect solution to avoid a repeat of the problem. Borel Mfg in the US makes an exhaust temperature alarm that claims to activate immediately should the exhaust temperature rise. It seemed to be reasonably priced at $89 and I ordered one straightaway – it arrived after about a week. Installation was simple enough – the most onerous task being the wiring. I chose to install the alarm below, but ran a repeater wire to the engine alarm in the cockpit.

Borel Wet Exhaust Alarm

Borel Wet Exhaust Alarm

I’ve often wondered whether it actually works – it’s just been sitting there for two years, making a quick beep whenever the engine is started… Recently, however, it finally paid for itself many times over, when a raw water impeller failed, and saved me a lot of hassle and expense. The engine and exhaust system was saved by the exhaust temperature alarm when a brand new raw water pump impeller failed. The story of that event is the subject of an earlier post…

Broken Bay to Coffs Harbour

Posted on by

With the heads repaired, we set off Monday and motor sailed for a large part of the day. After we passed Port Stephens we managed to sail for the occasional thee-hour stretch, but we still motored for 18 hours out of the first 24. I was very grateful for the new soundproofing I had recently installed as it made a vast difference to comfort aboard.

Pascale enjoying night watch treats

The crew were coping remarkably well with the offshore conditions. Only Pascale had done any real offshore sailing before and, at the other end of the scale, Melissa had never been on a sailboat before. Melissa struggled a bit with seasickness initially, but boy she recovered quickly after vomiting, always returning with a big smile and infectious enthusiasm.

The watch system was easy on everyone, with a 6 hours off, 3 hours on schedule giving everyone adequate rest. I took Melissa on my watch, being the least experienced sailor, and Helen and Pascale, who were by far the two better helmsmen and had more experience than the others, led the other two watches. The crew kept log and wrote short stories in a notebook, some of which (like Melissa’s “Dolfie the Dolphin” story) had us in fits.

Melissa having a ball on the helm

By the time we reached Coffs Harbour early on Wednesday 27 May, everyone had settled in and there was much relief at being able to go for a hot shower.

The Sailor and the Albatross

Posted on by

A short story with a nautical theme by Helen Dudley to entertain Pascale + Peter during their night watch.

Helen admiring Cape Byron at sunset after a long watch.

Once upon a time there was a sailor who, while at sea shot + killed an albatross. For his crime he was condemned to remain at sea never putting foot to shore for the next 10 yrs.

When he learnt his fate he cursed the day he saw the albatross and wept for the life ashore that was now lost to him. For 10 long years he sailed the oceans counting down the days til he could return to the land + pining for his home.

At long last the great day came – the curse was lifted and he sailed into port + finally left the boat to stand on dry land. But everything had changed. The land seemed to move in a strange way making him feel sick. After the fresh air of the sea the smell of the land + people + pollution was overpowering. People + buildings semed to crowd around him. So he turned and returned to his boat + set back out to sea.

A False Start: Sunday 24 May 2009

Posted on by

Having waited for the east coast low to wreak it’s havoc, we planned to depart early on Sunday 24 May 2009.

A shake-out sail on the Saturday afternoon did not bode well. A jolly sail was terminated with an overheating engine just as we prepared to drop the mainsail. The engine and exhaust system was saved by the exhaust temperature alarm, which I had installed after the last cooling failure (which had resulted in a melted the exhaust box…), but we still required a tow back to the RMYC marina. After much head scratching I determined that the otherwise perfect raw water pump impeller had failed with the rubber impeller separating from the brass drive bush. Not a satisfactory performance from a (original Volvo Penta) part with less than 30 hours use.

I always carry a couple of spares, and one was pressed into use, solving the problem.

We left the dock around 5:30AM on Sunday morning. The sea-state was still pretty confused after the stormy weather of the previous week and the easterly breeze just stopped us from setting course up the coast for Port Stephens, requiring an offshore tack. It was pretty wild, slicing upwind through a three metre swell and the boat was pretty wet.

About two hours after leaving Broken Bay, I decided to visit the heads. I opened the seacocks and was shocked to hear the hissing sound of water spraying out of the discharge hoses! I closed the seacocks immediately and sat down on the floor with my head in the bilge trying to work out what went wrong. I soon realized that the 25 year old spiral-reinforced flexible hoses had finally reached the end of their lifespan and had split in several places, probably encouraged by all the tugging etc during the recent installation of the holding tank.

Sitting in the heads with my head between my knees, inside the smell bilge, while thrashing to windward in a three metre swell was not a good idea. The dismay at discovering a fault that potentially terminated our trip was enough to turn my stomach anyway, and by the time I got back on deck I felt pretty nauseous.

I broke the news to the crew and was astounded that they all believed we could carry on, using a bucket! I wasn’t having it though and ordered a tack and bear away back to the Pittwater. This manoeuvre was interrupted by me first having to be violently ill over the side, which made me feel lots better but destroyed my record of never having been seasick.

Soon after we turned around the girls “had to go”, a consequence of the copious quantities of water I had encouraged them to drink. A bucket with about 5 litres of urine was soon passed up and this resulted in Melissa succumbing to a bout of retching over the side. Helen formed informed us that she “really rather liked the bucket” which was so out of character for her that we all cracked up laughing.

Back at the dock after a rather nice downwind sail, Peter started disassembling the toilet plumbing while I went off searching for parts.