I have had my share of tragedies. More often than not I have come through better on the other side. This is one story where I totally lucked out for the better through no fault of my own.
Refitting our used
Columbia 10.7 that we bought back in December. Old
boat, left
on the hard for probably 10 years or so. I've been giving her a lot of love all summer and enjoying sailing her along the shores of Lake Michigan near Waukegan, IL.
One
project was to get the
engine control panel working again. Neither the Tachometer nor the
fuel gauge were working, both looked original to the
boat: 40 years old. Bought two new gauges about three months ago, but after installing them, neither came to life. The
fuel gauge read "E" for empty and the tach never budged.
One of my crew members is an electrician. He tested the circuit and found we were getting
power to the panel. So, the next step was to check the sending unit in the
fuel tank. He climbed down in the locker and tested the unit and found it was getting
current, as well. I would have to replace the sending unit.
But first, I wanted to fill up the gas tank, just to see by chance if the tank was actually empty. We went to the fuel pier and topped off the tank. Or, at least we thought we did.
The attendant at the
dock filled the tank and said he saw fuel halfway of the fuel fill hose. He pumped 3.5 gallons. At the time, we had only used the
engine a handful of times and only to go in and out of the harbor. The engine is a
Yanmar 2QM. I had no idea how economical that engine was. My
Yanmar 1GM sips fuel.
Thinking the tank was full, I used the boat for over a month without refueling thinking I was burning down the fuel enough to allow me to remove and replace the sending unit. About three weeks ago I climbed down into the locker and removed the sending unit. No fuel came out of the tank so I had succeeded in burning the fuel down enough.
I used the old sending unit to find a compatible replacement. Last week I installed it. Once it was wired up I turned the
batteries on and started the engine, thinking that the gauge was wired into the ignition system. But, the gauge read "E". I was dejected. Now, I thought I'd have to replace all the
wiring too.
Since we were pulling the boat out of the
water soon, I needed to fill up the tank regardless of the state of the gauge. I had sailed all season without a working fuel gauge, one more week would not matter.
While I was down in the locker, I noticed that the fill hose was routed behind a shelf in the locker and as a result dipped about 4-6 inches below the inlet to the
fuel tank, like in the following diagram (A):
I thought this was an odd arrangement and posted a question in this forum. Others agreed with me that the arrangement was not a good idea.
So, Tuesday, before I took the boat over to the fuel pier, I went back into the locker and cut 8 inches off the hose and rerouted it directly into the tank. So, now it looks like the (B) diagram.
I motored over to the fuel
dock and had the attendant start to fill up the tank. He asked me, "How much fuel will you need?"
I said I didn't know. I hadn't filled up for over a month. And, we had used the engine for many hours, due to light winds. I guessed 3-6 gallons.
He kept filling. After a while he stopped and walked over to the
pump.
"It's at 9 gallons."
I told him to keep going. I told him the gauge was broken. I had no idea how much fuel I needed. He told me he was concerned that the fuel might not be going into the tank. I told him I never had problems with leakage before. I even opened the locker and looked at the fill hose and fitting I had just adjusted. No
leaks. No smell of
diesel.
He kept going.
Finally, after another few minutes he heard fuel coming up the fill hose. He looked in and saw it half way up, exactly as he had three months ago. The
fuel pump said 21.7 gallons. The
Columbia is supposed to have a 22 gallon tank.
Wow. You could say I was running on fumes.
But the story get better.
I paid for the fuel and untied the boat and motored back to my pier confidant now that the tank was actually full.
At my pier I tied up and reached down to shut off the engine and remove the ignition key. I was shocked to see that the fuel gauge now said "F" for full. I started laughing.
The sending unit did
work. It always worked. The tank was empty when I installed the new gauge. I didn't believe the gauge was working! The scary part was that I did not know whether the tank had ever been full before. Since the fill hose was not installed properly, the tank could have been half full or nearly empty for a long time! We could have run out of fuel a dozen times.
So, pay attention to the small details. Something like the routing of a fill hose sounds like a stupid detail, but it could save your life or, at the least, your boat in the end.