but after the first voyage when the boat rocked an’ rolled, the speakers didn’t work anymore.
Current Carrying Capacity of heavy load systems: Two examples here:
One: On a 42’ we surveyed and then sailed from Florida to the Chesapeake, there was an added Aux Fuel tank in the bilge with a transfer pump that moved fuel from the Aux tank to the Main tank. The transfer pump powered on during the survey, but the Aux tank was empty, so the pump wasn’t tested under load. While underway, testing with full Aux tank, the pump failed due to a partially corroded fuse buried in a circuit panel behind a bulkhead. When later diagnosing the failure it was found that the corrosion was such that with no load, 13V showed at the pump connections and enough current could pass to drive an unloaded pump. As soon as the pump was loaded and large current drawn, the corrosion caused a very large voltage drop and the pump did not operate. Not a chance of finding this on the survey!
Two: On a 44’ Catamaran, during the survey the anchor windlass was tested at the dock. The windlass operated down and up with no apparent issues. But the only load was the chain going back and forth since the anchor was secured to the deck. The first morning anchored out, while voyaging this Catamaran to her new home, the windlass could not get enough current to pull the chain and 70lb anchor up, so we ended up doing it by hand. No connection or corrosion problems were sighted in any of the visible connections and 13V+ was measured at the windlass terminals when no load. It was eventually discovered that the windlass motor had the corrosion in its internal structure. When possible on a survey, we’ll kick the anchor off the bow and drop it to the bottom and bring it back up for the windlass check, but this isn’t possible on many of our surveys.
Sail handling systems, especially In-Mast Main furling systems: It is very common for the Sea Trial to be done on a calm or moderate day that may not reveal issues that can only be found when the wind is strong. One example is an In-Mast furling system that often has internal pawls
fail in the furling drum that cannot be detected until it is attempted to furl an already partially reefed main in the rest of the way in strong winds. On a 42’ sloop, the furling system worked fine during the Sea Trial in 15-20kn air. During the vessels voyage to its new home the main was reefed about half way in. When the winds picked up to 30kn and we went to furl in all of the main, the whole sail came unfurled and flogged due to the problem with the furling system.
Engines, Fuel and Oil systems: Some clients request an Oil test be done on the engine(s). These will come with a small additional charge for the time, processing and interpretation. Note that there is a key bit of data that must be provided for the oil test to have any meaning: how many engine hours has it been since the last oil change! If the boat has been well maintained and a proper maintenance log kept, this should be an easy answer. Sadly, most of the boats we’ve surveyed, the seller has no idea how many engine hours it has been since the last oil change. An oil test looks at the number of particles in the oil. Some particles will always work their way in and the longer the time from the last oil change, the more particles that can be expected. Thus, test results could be good for an engine that’s been run 100 hours since the last oil change, while the same results would be a glaring failure for an engine with only two hours since the last change. Yes, there are failures that an oil test will show no matter how many hours, and these reflect serious issues with the engine. In most of these cases, the engines will have other “tells” indicating further investigation is warranted. Dirt in the bottom of the fuel tank. If the fuel in the tank is old, even if the vessel has been sailed on a regular basis, there maybe a layer of sludge on the bottom of the fuel tank. If the seller recently changed the fuel filter, so the bowl is clear, the sludge cannot be detected by a regular survey. The Sea Trial is unlikely to be long, or rough, enough to stir the sludge up into suspension. You will do that the moment you clear the Sea Buoy on your voyage to the vessels new home. Then you’ll wonder why your engine is failing with clogged filters all the way home, even though the system surveyed out fine. We ALWAYS have our voyaging clients have the tanks cleaned and fuel polished on every boat that is
72 | ISSUE 107 | MAR 2024 | THE REPORT
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