Paul soon discovered the problem. The frame holding the fuel filter had pivoted on an arch and the fuel filter had been chafing against the engine until it was holed with fuel leaking out of it. Fortunately I had a spare filter and made the replacement, but I could not find a bolt below the engine in the bilge in order to firmly position the frame holding the filter. We decided that we would go with the loose frame, and take measures to prevent the filter from making contact with the engine frame.
I fitted a large plastic tie around the filter where it would make contact with the engine, and for good measure jammed a short section of hose between the filter and the engine. This jury rig got me back to Fremantle OK.
Then there was the question of how much fuel I had lost. I had left Fremantle with both tanks full for a total of 140 liters of diesel, and had run the engine for a total of about 9 hours. Unfortunately the tanks are sealed and cannot be plumbed. Fortunately I had 18 liters of spare diesel on hand, which would guarantee me at least 5 hours of running. At Quindalup I lugged another 20 liters from Dunsborough and was delighted to find that the tanks were full after another 5 liters or so.
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| Fuel Filter Jury Rig |
Back at Fremantle I visited the Volvo distributor and we could not figure out which bolt was missing. The man printed out the fuel system page and back at the boat I was surprised to see that the entire frame was held by only one bolt. That bolt had not dropped off but had merely gotten loose, causing the entire frame to swing the 10 degrees or so enough to cause contact by the fuel filter.
The frame has 3 points for bolts but on my engine only one of the points has a bolt through it because the other two are in mid air doing nothing. I've concluded that Volvo decided to cut some corners and used a standard frame for my engine, using only one bolt. This is lunacy of course, since it relies on the bolt being tight enough to provide enough friction to prevent movement. The proper way is to achieve stability by geometry, not friction.
The bolt is very tight now but from now on I'll have to check the rigidity of that frame every time I do an engine check.
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Then there was the leak in the forecastle.
While beating hard to weather I went forward to retrieve my laptop and was distressed to see sea water pouring in big time through the deck. I took measures to protect the gear in that section then set up two wide plastic containers to catch the streams of water,which came down every time water swept the foredeck.
At Bunbury we discovered the problem. For years I had marveled at how the anchor bollard that had been originally fitted to the boat had only small washers between the nuts fastened to the bolts and the fiberglass ceiling. I concluded that nobody would be stupid enough to fit the boat's sole anchor bollard with only washers as backing plates and there must be a stainless steel backing plate inside the fiberglass deck. WRONG! The bollard, bolts, washers, nuts and all, had started to rip through the deck. This must have been caused by one of the pen lines during perhaps a strong wind. Had I relied on this bollard during my circumnavigation there is a good chance that I would have lost the boat during a rough anchorage, but fortunately I had used a larger bollard with a big backing plate that I had fitted myself.
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| Loose Bollard |
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| Bolts Too Small |
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| Temporary Fix |
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| New Bollard |
I was in no mood to mess around with this one, so I installed a large jetty bollard that makes my "large" bollard look small.
The new bollard has a similar backing plate to its partner: a 20 mm thick piece of jarrah 300mm x 110mm.
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