Shadowfax
Member III
I’m just back from 10 days out on the Chesapeake. We managed to just miss the Shaw Bay affair, which we really wanted to make, but the I 95 gods felt otherwise. We did have an event, actually a couple of them, that I thought might be worth illuminating here.
As we left Tighlman Creek the day after the Shaw Bay meeting, on our way to the Wye River to repair our head sail ripped in furling it [another story] and with thoughts of despair on why our newly tuned up by a professional outboard was not starting, we encountered the classic, for October, 25 to 30 knots, with a very nasty 3 ft chop in the middle of the Miles River. We where under power, as this is a short distance and the head sail was suspect, when suddenly the engine quit. OK, we are a sail boat with lots of wind, so sail we did into the Wye, dropped the hook in 40 ft. and went into the engine. All appeared well, but the engine showed all the signs of no fuel, or clogged filters, even though the filters where new and the fuel gage showed slightly less then half full. There are absolutely no services at all in the Wye and as the wind was right and predicted to die directly we set sail for St. Michael where basic marine services do exist, i.e. a fuel dock.
Sailed into St. Michael’s and rowed [see above about nonfunctioning outboard] into the harbor in search of fuel. After buying a fuel can for $26.00 to put $20.00 worth of fuel into and rowing back to the boat, I found that an additional 5 gallons of fuel had no effect on the problem. Break out the spare filter. The bowl did have some crud in the bottom, so I figured with the rough weather I churned up something that clogged the filter. Started the fuel pump with the new filter, but it wouldn’t fill the filter, thought it was running fine. Shut it off and went to check the fuel tank. Opened up the top of the tank, all appeared well. Tried to remove the fuel lines but didn’t have a small enough wrench to get it apart and by this time with the chop at anchor and the smell of fuel, drove me back to the main compartment where miraculously the filter bowl was now full of fuel without the pump being on. Boat started up, ran for 5 minutes and ran out of fuel. Pump would not bleed out, repeated the process with the same results twice and decided it was time to punt.
The wind which had been blowing pretty well out of the north all day was to die completely the next morning, so sailing out of St. Michael was not an option and there was nobody there with a wrench that I trusted. I made a couple of phone calls and a friend of mine with a 38’ Silverton said he would come get me [bless you Charlie] and tow me back to Rock Hall which is a 4.5 hour trip at 6.5 kn., after the hour plus it took him to get to me from where he was. On the morning, true to his word, he appears and without a breath of air and dead flat water, he throws me a line and off we go. On the tow back I call my crack mechanic and he says he’ll come check it out when we get in. Did I mention this was the 4th of July. We where at the dock by 1, he was there by 2:30 and he started in. I mostly stayed out of the way and turned the key off and on as needed and watched. He took the fuel system apart, bypassed the filter, and took apart the fuel pump all without results. Next he took the fuel line off at the tank and all appeared well until he tried to blow through it. He then asked me if I had a screen on my fuel vent where it passes through the transom. I said yes, he said to check it because he just blew a large, black, dead, spider out of the line. Apparently the spider would let just enough fuel to run the engine for a couple of minutes, but never enough to keep the filter filled. Spider gone, another new filter installed and all is well.
I asked for his opinion. He suggested that I scrap the copper ¼ “ fuel line and replace it with a ½ “ CG approved rubber line as this alone would have averted the problem. He also had nothing nice to say about Raycor filters, which surprised me, or at least what he considered to be a vastly undersized one [R24S] that is fitted to Shadowfax. This sound very reminiscent of the undersized wiring found on the boat and discussed on the list at length, thought it has worked for the last 18 years.
So, a bottle of Grey Goose, a bottle Meyers and a 30 pack of beer, all of which I had to force my friend to take, as he would take no money and equipped with my new nick name “Spiderman”, and we are back on the Bay.
As we left Tighlman Creek the day after the Shaw Bay meeting, on our way to the Wye River to repair our head sail ripped in furling it [another story] and with thoughts of despair on why our newly tuned up by a professional outboard was not starting, we encountered the classic, for October, 25 to 30 knots, with a very nasty 3 ft chop in the middle of the Miles River. We where under power, as this is a short distance and the head sail was suspect, when suddenly the engine quit. OK, we are a sail boat with lots of wind, so sail we did into the Wye, dropped the hook in 40 ft. and went into the engine. All appeared well, but the engine showed all the signs of no fuel, or clogged filters, even though the filters where new and the fuel gage showed slightly less then half full. There are absolutely no services at all in the Wye and as the wind was right and predicted to die directly we set sail for St. Michael where basic marine services do exist, i.e. a fuel dock.
Sailed into St. Michael’s and rowed [see above about nonfunctioning outboard] into the harbor in search of fuel. After buying a fuel can for $26.00 to put $20.00 worth of fuel into and rowing back to the boat, I found that an additional 5 gallons of fuel had no effect on the problem. Break out the spare filter. The bowl did have some crud in the bottom, so I figured with the rough weather I churned up something that clogged the filter. Started the fuel pump with the new filter, but it wouldn’t fill the filter, thought it was running fine. Shut it off and went to check the fuel tank. Opened up the top of the tank, all appeared well. Tried to remove the fuel lines but didn’t have a small enough wrench to get it apart and by this time with the chop at anchor and the smell of fuel, drove me back to the main compartment where miraculously the filter bowl was now full of fuel without the pump being on. Boat started up, ran for 5 minutes and ran out of fuel. Pump would not bleed out, repeated the process with the same results twice and decided it was time to punt.
The wind which had been blowing pretty well out of the north all day was to die completely the next morning, so sailing out of St. Michael was not an option and there was nobody there with a wrench that I trusted. I made a couple of phone calls and a friend of mine with a 38’ Silverton said he would come get me [bless you Charlie] and tow me back to Rock Hall which is a 4.5 hour trip at 6.5 kn., after the hour plus it took him to get to me from where he was. On the morning, true to his word, he appears and without a breath of air and dead flat water, he throws me a line and off we go. On the tow back I call my crack mechanic and he says he’ll come check it out when we get in. Did I mention this was the 4th of July. We where at the dock by 1, he was there by 2:30 and he started in. I mostly stayed out of the way and turned the key off and on as needed and watched. He took the fuel system apart, bypassed the filter, and took apart the fuel pump all without results. Next he took the fuel line off at the tank and all appeared well until he tried to blow through it. He then asked me if I had a screen on my fuel vent where it passes through the transom. I said yes, he said to check it because he just blew a large, black, dead, spider out of the line. Apparently the spider would let just enough fuel to run the engine for a couple of minutes, but never enough to keep the filter filled. Spider gone, another new filter installed and all is well.
I asked for his opinion. He suggested that I scrap the copper ¼ “ fuel line and replace it with a ½ “ CG approved rubber line as this alone would have averted the problem. He also had nothing nice to say about Raycor filters, which surprised me, or at least what he considered to be a vastly undersized one [R24S] that is fitted to Shadowfax. This sound very reminiscent of the undersized wiring found on the boat and discussed on the list at length, thought it has worked for the last 18 years.
So, a bottle of Grey Goose, a bottle Meyers and a 30 pack of beer, all of which I had to force my friend to take, as he would take no money and equipped with my new nick name “Spiderman”, and we are back on the Bay.
