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In which sailing does not happen

F

Far Out

Junior Member
A friend of mine once told me that you shouldn't own a boat unless you like working on a boat.

Ever since I bought Far Out I've been concentrating on getting to know how she handles. Pull her out of the slip, turn around, put her back into the slip. Boring. Tedious. But absolutely essential to my confidence that I can handle her.

But May 20th is going to be the big day. Rich and Geoff are coming to crew. We're going to put the genoa on the roller furler. The 20th is the day that we are going to sail.

But alas, it is not to be. Oh, the sail goes up all right. Twice in fact. But try as we might we can't get the darn thing to roll up around the furler. Still not sure why, but we figure that the wind filling the sail can't be helping. Maybe pointing her nose into the wind will do the trick. So Rich and Geoff pull the sail down one more time while I start getting us ready to motor out.

Pull the cover off the binnacle. Check. Turn the A/C switches off. Check. Pull the shore power cord. Check. Push the starter... Uh... Go below and get the key. Check. Put the key in and turn it. Check. Push the starter button.

Nothing.

Just a clicking noise. The starter solenoid. I know that noise. It's the sound of a battery that doesn't have enough juice to start a motor.

So I throw the big red switch to "Both." Try again. Grind...Grind......Gri...

The signs were there, of course. The voltage gauge that didn't quite reach 13 volts. The fact that the only way I was confident that I could start the motor was with the battery switch set to "Both." The little tag on the battery that said it was purchased in a year ending in "6." Was that battery a year old? Or was it 11? My bet was on 11.

There is good news to this. West Marine was having a sale on Group 27 dual-purpose batteries.

Putting them back in again, well that's a story for another post.
 
Christian Williams

Christian Williams

E381 - Los Angeles
Senior Moderator
Blogs Author
Sounds like a normal day on a sailboat.

Seriously, if you'd like to troubleshoot roller furlers or battery connections and chargers, feel free to ask.

We've all been through this stuff and there's a lot of knowledge here for the asking.
 
bgary

bgary

Advanced Beginner
Blogs Author
I'm in Everett (and work in Redmond).

I know very little about marine engines... but if you need any help with rigging, deck gear, sails, etc, I'd be happy to help any way I can.
 
Kenneth K

Kenneth K

1985 32-3, Puget Sound
Blogs Author
I'm having the same problem right now, with batteries that I'm pretty sure are well charged. I'm guessing it is the starter switch. When I push it straight in, click click click click. When I push it from the sides, and jiggle it just right, the engine cranks over no problem. Old start switches are known problems in these boats. I may try jumping the leads in back, just to make sure, but I've got a new switch on order anyway.
 
Kenneth K

Kenneth K

1985 32-3, Puget Sound
Blogs Author
I tried jumping the starter switch to cure the click-click-click noise I was getting at the starter solenoid when I press the starter button (as I said earlier, the batteries have a good charge).

From behind your engine panel:

Back of the glow plug switch: Post with single red wire = hot lead from key switch. Post with grey/blue + red wire = "switched" side (blue-grey wire goes to glow plugs, red wire goes to start switch).

Back of starter switch: Post with single red wire = hot lead from glow plug switch. Post with yellow/red wire = "switched" side (yellow-red wire goes to starter solenoid). If your start switch is bad (as mine was), this yellow-red lead is not getting sufficient current through the start switch to energize the solenoid. I think mine was a grounding issue as I noticed the lights on the panel dim (current loss) when the start switch was pressed, even though the solenoid only clicked away.

To jump the starter switch: Attach a short wire to the "switched" side of the starter switch (atop the yellow-red wire). Leave the loose end of the wire bare. Select 1-2-or all on your batteries. Touch this bare wire to the "hot" post on the glow pug switch (post with the single red lead). Starter should crank up full-bore if it is a switch problem (in doing the above, you've actually bypassed both the glow-plug switch and the start switch). If you have good batteries, and this doesn't crank the starter, your problem is not in the batteries or the switches.

Note; when you let go of your bare jumper wire, it is not a "hot" wire; it only becomes hot when you, 1. press both the glow-plug and start switches, or 2. touch it to the hot side of the glow plug switch as described. I'm leaving this bare wire attached until my new switch arrives. I just cover the bare wire with electrical tape so it doesn't inadvertently contact another hot lead on the back of the panel.
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