Turning the Infrared Camera On
When you see smoke filling the engineroom in the video above, you know right away that something’s wrong. But you don’t get the full picture until 49 seconds in, when the view switches to video captured by a thermal-imaging camera. First, the room goes dark. Then engine parts light up in fluorescent pinks and oranges against the black background. That’s when you see the dripping.
“There’s actually two things going on. One’s more obvious than the other,” says marine surveyor John Banister, who shot the video while inspecting a 1980 Detroit Diesel 8V92.
Why You Shouldn’t Go Easy on a Diesel
Steve D’Antonio (all)
A turbo charger turbine wheel fouled with soot and fuel, the result of chronic underloading.Many boat owners, and even some marine industry professionals, are under the misguided impression that they are somehow preserving or extending a diesel engine’s lifespan by using only a small fraction of its available power, i.e. going easy on it. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. While it may at first appear counterintuitive, when a diesel engine is operated frequently and under light loads, it often suffers the consequences.
Capacitor Power
from “Rovings,” Professional BoatBuilder No. 153
Compiled by Dan Spurr
Steve D’Antonio
Capacitor starting systems, such as the Micron PowerPak, were developed for the military to deliver a lot of power for short-duration loads, such as engine starting. Unlike batteries, capacitors are depleted quickly but also recharge in just 30 seconds.
Imagine replacing a vessel’s starting battery with one that virtually never wears out and has virtually no self-discharge, one that produces no hydrogen gas and isn’t damaged if it’s left completely dead indefinitely, and this battery produces 2,500 cranking amps—several times what’s needed to start even a large diesel engine. Sound impossible? I thought so too until I encountered capacitor power packs about a decade ago. At that time, the technology was new, developed originally at the request of the Department of Defense for starting military vehicles.
On a Grand Scale
from “Rovings,” Professional BoatBuilder No. 153
Compiled by Dan Spurr
Dan Spurr
During a recent visit to Southern California, I stayed at a Long Beach hotel with a view of the Queen Mary, launched in 1934 for the Cunard Steamship Co. The 1,019′ (311m) passenger liner was built by John Brown & Co. in Clydebank, Scotland, and designed to carry passengers from Europe to the U.S. faster than any other ship. Her other feats are no less impressive:
A Fuji Rudder Repair Revisited
from “Rovings,” Professional BoatBuilder No. 153
Compiled by Dan Spurr
Courtesy CCI (both)
Carbon rudderstocks, such as this one in a rudder mold, require no additional structural support to prevent the rudder from rotating around the stock. Preferably, the stock is squared inside the rudder.
In the Rovings column in PBB No. 151, page 16, we published photos of reader Michael Robertson’s 1978 Fuji 40 (12.2m) rudder, which he had opened up to investigate why it was dripping water. From one side he cut out a 12″ x 18″ (305mm x 457mm) panel and was surprised to find no metal webbing, just foam and epoxy. At the end of the write-up we asked, Is this observable method of construction sound? And, How common is this construction method?
We received a fairly detailed response from Phil Locker at Competition Composites Inc. (CCI) in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada:
