Cummins Engine—Rebuild Or Replace?

by John April 16, 2010
Top of the Cummins marine engine with head removed.

Initially we were firmly in the rebuild camp, as were most of the experts we consulted. After all, at 6000 hours our engine is, in the words of David in his comment, “[a] baby and has many hours running [still] available”. Rebuilding would also save all the expense and aggravation of changing all kinds of [...]

Selection Criteria For The New Engine For Morgan’s Cloud

by John April 27, 2010
3 blade feathering Max-Prop marine prop.

The Cummins was a six cylinder naturally aspirated (no turbo-charger) 5.9 litre diesel that theoretically put out 120 horse power (HP) at 2800 RPM.  (I say “theoretically”, because we suspect that it never did develop its specified horse power or torque due to the blow-by problem.) It swung a 21 inch MaxProp through  a Velvet [...]

A Tale Of Two Water Heaters

by John April 29, 2010
Two marine hot water heaters.

Last year our venerable and functional 9 gallon Allcraft water heater (on the right) finally bit the big one after 15 years of faithful service. And, wouldn’t you know it, Allcraft had gone out of business.

New Engine For Morgan’s Cloud—What We Chose

by John May 5, 2010
Perkins Sabre M92

We decided that we wanted to stick with a simple machine without a turbo-charger or a controlling computer (more on this in a future post). And that we wanted an engine based on a block designed for commercial/industrial use, and to run for at least 10,000 hours without rebuild and with only routine maintenance—this is [...]

Grounding The Engine On An Aluminum Boat

by John May 11, 2010
Bronze sea cock

Question: I was wondering if you think the engine should be grounded to the hull or not [on an aluminum boat].

About Fig Leaves And Installing Seacocks

by John May 23, 2010
Marelon And Bronze Seacocks With Plastic Spacers

Installing a seacock properly is not a trivial project. First you need to  install a backer plate and then you need to figure out how you will bolt the flange of the seacock down.

Cooking And Heating With Kerosene (Paraffin)

by John July 1, 2010
Kerosene (Propane) Stove (Cooker)

[While living on Polaris for a month, I wrote about the boat’s kerosene stove (cooker), which sparked a lively debate in the comments about the benefits and drawbacks of various cooking fuels on boats. Continuing that theme, we just got a note from our good friend and Norwegian Correspondent for the Norwegian Cruising Guide, Hans [...]

Propeller Shaft Rope Cutters

by John July 7, 2010
image_thumb.png

Question: Do you have a rope cutter? I ask because we are thinking of fitting an Ambassador Stripper (stainless) to a new build alloy [aluminum] yacht with an alloy sterntube, and we wonder if it is possible to get the two to live happily together.

Engine Installation—The Devil Is In The Details

by John July 16, 2010
Morgan's Cloud's engine room showing new engine installation.

Back in March, when we were crossing the US/Canada border heading for Maine to start the re-power project on Morgan’s Cloud, a US Homeland Security officer asked the usual questions about what the purpose of our visit was. After I explained that we were replacing the engine in our boat, he asked how long we [...]

Perkins M92B, Initial Report Card

by John October 23, 2010
perkinspick_thumb.jpg

We have long believed that the prevalence of high revving lightly built engines installed in sailboats, particularly those boats built in recent years, is often more about ease of availability to the builder and initial price than making the best choice to give long term economical service to the owner. Particularly an owner, like many [...]

Feathering Propeller Review

by Colin April 2, 2011
Better light airs performance was our goal

When we took delivery of our new OVNI 435 in 2008, we decided to stick with the standard 3 bladed propeller, partly for reasons of cost (we were running out of cash!). But on all of my previous boats I’d had either a folding or feathering prop, and fully intended to fit one to Pèlerin [...]

Setting The Pitch On A Feathering Propeller

by John April 15, 2011
JHH5-14760_thumb.jpg

Getting ready to launch Morgan’s Cloud after her annual haul, which includes lubricating and polishing her three blade Max-Prop. A fascinating and very informative comment stream got going on Colin’s recent review of feathering propellers, and one of the subjects discussed was the correct pitch setting for these propellers.

Gear Test—Engine

by John January 7, 2012
JHHGH1_0971.jpg

As most of our regular readers know, we just completed a 10,000 mile, eight month voyage to the Arctic and back on Morgan’s Cloud, our 56-f00t McCurdy and Rhodes aluminum cutter. A voyage that constituted a gruelling test of all the gear on the boat. Here is our report on how the engine and drive-train [...]

The Bug Is Taking Over

by Colin March 30, 2012
Tank aperture

Following our arrival in the Canary Islands last autumn we watched an endless stream of yachts line up at the pontoon alongside the boatyard, all of them with fuel contamination problems. In my experience, it’s usual to find that in cases like this the outbreak can be isolated to one or two suppliers who have [...]

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