Cough, Cough Splutter, Stop

[Goodall_M1]

Well there we were last week, half way around Sardinia, doing a 60 mile passage from Alghero to Stintino on a 3 year old Bavaria 46.

The Mistral had blown through but the sea was still high, with some sets coming in at 12 to 15 feet, and the wind and sea about 45 degrees off the port bow.

The boat was doing some interesting gyrations and shaking everything up a little, but things were just beginning to calm down as we got to the tip of Isola di Asinara.

We were motor sailing, about 1 to 0.5 miles off a lee shore of rocky cliffs, 40 miles out of Alghero, and about 20 miles to go to Stintino with only one possible anchorage on the way and the engine decided to go cough, cough, splutter and stop.

Sounded just like fuel starvation, but there was plenty in the tank...

So it was a case of fly the jib, set the main and sail her to the marina, which we managed to do, coming in side-to on one of their pontoons with the assistance of the Marinero in his rib just on sunset (we had phoned ahead to warn them we would be coming in late, and full marks to the Marina di Stintino for their help).

Then we could investigate the cause of the problem...

Well we found some strange bits of black plastic in the fuel filters and a spiral of black plastic in the fuel cut off valve. As far as we can work out someone (possibly Bavaria) had drilled a 4 or 5 mm hole in fuel tank (presumably to fit a sensor or something similar) and the drill swarf had fallen off the drill into the tank. Eventually this had got into the fuel pipe, reached the valve and blocked it.

Hopefully it will not happen again!

My first engine failure when underway, and a good teaching experience.

[SV Bacchus]

Obviously had been there all along but it took the rougher passage to stir it off the bottom. Hey, lots of tanks have been cleaned by a rough passage!