Originally Posted by
Westsail
(Continued)
Crawling westward in super light air, I had a chance to google “diesel runaway”. Scary videos!!! I realized that I was indeed lucky that my motor hadn’t exploded! It turns out the best way to stop a runaway diesel is to cover the air intake with either a piece of wood or a t-shirt in a thick plastic bag. Too bad I hadn’t known this earlier! Also, too bad the air intake is on the far, back side of the Yanmar...
Luckily HULA lives on a dock that’s pretty easy to sail to, and that I’ve practiced it many times. My wife was there to help bring our 20,000 lb beast to a nice gentle stop. Just like stopping 5 Olson 30’s all at the same time!
After tying up the boat, I had to know if the engine would start. I removed the cockpit floor to access the motor, and gave it a crank. It started right up, rpms ok, but sounded awful, all “clickety-clackety”. I immediately decided I was not going to rebuild or repair this oversized rusty motor that had tried really hard to kill me, and so with some satisfaction, I snuffed her out with a t-shirt in a thick plastic bag! That trick works really well...
HULA will be getting an owner installed brand new Beta diesel soon.
THE END
oh goody! Another project before June!
1968 Selmer Series 9 B-flat and A clarinets
1962 Buesher "Aristocrat" tenor saxophone
Piper One Design 24, Hull #35; "Alpha"