jimL
Senior Member
- Joined
- Mar 8, 2015
- Messages
- 359
- Location
- USA
- Vessel Name
- Lemon Drops
- Vessel Make
- 2001 Grand Banks Europa 52
Sharing an experience.....
2005, Mainship 430 Aft Cabin Trawler, 2,000 hours; We recently had the impellers replaced and barnacle buster used to clean the cooling system. On our first voyage with new impellers, after about 15 minutes above idle speed I heard an unusual alarm under the upper helm dashboard. I have never heard this alarm before. I looked at all of the gauges and all were reading normal. I immediately handed off the helm to my wife and I went into the engine room where I saw sea water all over the engine strainers and deck. I quickly realized the starboard engine cooling hose that goes from the impeller assembly to the heat exchanger experienced a slight burst and sea water was streaming into the engine room at 2600 RPMs.
I ran to the helm, put the engines into idle speed and told my wife we need to return to the marina – at idle speed. I returned to the engine room and used Rescue Tape to wrap where the burst was, which sufficed until we got back to the marina.
I usually do one-hour engine room checks, and this reinforces the need to check the ER often. I’m not sure if the alarm I heard could have been a low-pressure alarm on the cooling water? All I heard was a steady tone.
What I do know is that if I hadn’t caught the leak while it was small and my RPMs were relatively low, when I would increase the RPMs I probably would have seriously burst the hose and salt water would have gone all over both engines, the batteries, alternators etc… and could have created a catastrophic situation.
When I got back to the marina, we ordered all of the hoses for the engines and they will be replaced this week.
JimL
2005, Mainship 430 Aft Cabin Trawler, 2,000 hours; We recently had the impellers replaced and barnacle buster used to clean the cooling system. On our first voyage with new impellers, after about 15 minutes above idle speed I heard an unusual alarm under the upper helm dashboard. I have never heard this alarm before. I looked at all of the gauges and all were reading normal. I immediately handed off the helm to my wife and I went into the engine room where I saw sea water all over the engine strainers and deck. I quickly realized the starboard engine cooling hose that goes from the impeller assembly to the heat exchanger experienced a slight burst and sea water was streaming into the engine room at 2600 RPMs.
I ran to the helm, put the engines into idle speed and told my wife we need to return to the marina – at idle speed. I returned to the engine room and used Rescue Tape to wrap where the burst was, which sufficed until we got back to the marina.
I usually do one-hour engine room checks, and this reinforces the need to check the ER often. I’m not sure if the alarm I heard could have been a low-pressure alarm on the cooling water? All I heard was a steady tone.
What I do know is that if I hadn’t caught the leak while it was small and my RPMs were relatively low, when I would increase the RPMs I probably would have seriously burst the hose and salt water would have gone all over both engines, the batteries, alternators etc… and could have created a catastrophic situation.
When I got back to the marina, we ordered all of the hoses for the engines and they will be replaced this week.
JimL