More Maintenance

Spent the day trying to sort out the engine problem, tidy up the boat, and catch up with sleep!

We moved Robinetta and Worm into the marina at 6 in the morning, with the engine warning noise on all the time, and went back to bed as soon as we were tied up. A cooked breakfast from the marina café filled the food gap at half ten.

Julian started the engine and the problem seemed to have cleared, although I could still hear a faint whine. He had a good look at the engine anyway and spotted that the battery connection was lose. It wouldn't tighten and on closer inspection the stud it fixed to on the solenoid was damaged and had almost no thread. It seems as though the engine problem was with the solenoid connection. Julian took the solenoid out to see if the stud was easy to replace and worked out that if he left the washers out there would be enough thread left for the nut to bite. Then he did not manage put it back properly, which let to a host of other problems. Luckily John from Bridget was on hand to show him how it should go, and all the problems went away.

Yesterday's other problems were the failed plug on the stern light and the continual voltage drops which turned off the chart plotter and dimmed the running lights.

Julian replaced the plug and socket for the stern light which should now be fine.


He couldn't track down the problems with the chartplotter so he made a few improvements to see if they will help. He tightened the switches in the switch box and checked all the solder joints and replaced the chock block connecting the engine earth to the domestic supply with crimped rings on the bolt. As there were three wires sharing the two sides of the chock block this should be more reliable and lower resistance.

He still wants to replace the primary domestic earth to the engine, but that is probably winter work.