just fyi, after fireworks, dead boat suprise...

[geoffm70]

This is just fyi incase something like this ever happens to you.

I have a '94 3200, repowered, rewired, rebuilt legs, etc. I also do my best to keep her and the engine bay clean. Wednesday evening we enjoyed Vancouver's summer fireworks in English Bay, along with a million+ others (literally) and hundreds of boats.

After the show, made way at 1000rpm (5knts) to our slip in one of the most expensive marinas in Canada in terms of boat values, some well into the millions. The transit took about 20min and she's been running grand so far this season. Not my normal marina, I missed my row, and with a 45' Meridian command bridge right behind me, I was now in the way of their berth. I slide out of the way in neutral, and wait for him to berth before I head back his way to my berth with very little wind and no currant. We're drifting slowly towards a boat finger, but we still had plenty of room.

Then the fun started. The Meridian gets a line and person ashore and is out of the way, I put her in gear and pop, everything turns off, the whole boat goes black. She's completely dead, zero power, both engines off. Now our slow drift is bow 1st towards some mega yacht about 10 meters away. 1st reaction is to drop anchor, but how without power to the windlass? With no radio I start to yell, "Help! Dead Boat!" People pop up on the docks out of nowhere, and one of my passengers gets the fending pole to a person on the dock. We were safe. It was a miracle it happened where and when it did. My 16,500lbs 3200 hit nothing.

So what happen and why bother tell this story. Like a plane crash, this entire event started with a loose heat exchanger cap and cascaded from there.

Once berthed, I plug-in and anything 110v worked. Anything 12v was dead, including everything at the helm. Try finding a marine mechanic in July in Vancouver! I start to look for breakers and fuses that are tripped or blown. 2 to 3 hrs after finding everything is fine, I'm down in the engine bay about maybe cry and I notice a new mess on the port heat exchanger and a little water in the bilge. I touch the cap and it's a 1/4 turn loose. I have a new alternator and it looked clean, but the belt is right under the leak. Then I see the red circuit breaker button under the Carburetor cover. I push it and it clicked. Look over at the starboard circuit breaker, touch it, it clicks and the stereo turns on. Everything is back on normal after touching each circuit breaker on the engines.

I then clean up all the water. The water was half a liter of coolant. I turn the rad cap fully closed and ran that engine at various RMPs for an hour. No leaks. The leak was the loose 1/4 turn of the cap. I must have bummed it coming out of the engine bay after doing my pre Straits transit checks (the boat lives on Vancouver Island, it's 35knm open water to Vancouver the city).

My only question that I'm left with and will figure out, is why would one circuit breaker trip the other and shut down the whole boat while underway?!?

[mmwjr]

This is an interesting scenario. Did you have the battery switches set to both? In other words when the one engine break trip was its electrical load then fully applied to the other causing it to trip. I would need to study the circuit to truly understand but this is my guess.

[geoffm70]

yes i did have them on both!

[mmwjr]

Originally Posted by geoffm70

yes i did have them on both!

While I can’t say this is why the other tripped, off the top of my head it’s the first thing that comes to mind. I never use Both. I alternate between 1 and 2 every other trip.

[geoffm70]

Originally Posted by mmwjr

While I can’t say this is why the other tripped, off the top of my head it’s the first thing that comes to mind. I never use Both. I alternate between 1 and 2 every other trip.

This will be my new operating procedure going forward, forever.

[mmwjr]

Originally Posted by geoffm70

This will be my new operating procedure going forward, forever.

Live and learn my friend.

[geoffm70]

Had an electrician look her over yesterday, and agreed with me. The coolant caused a short in the one alternator and with the batteries set to both, shut down the boat.

[mmwjr]

Originally Posted by geoffm70

Had an electrician look her over yesterday, and agreed with me. The coolant caused a short in the one alternator and with the batteries set to both, shut down the boat.

Good to know. It’s running well now; correct?

[geoffm70]

She is running great. Had her planning at 3100rpm @ 17.5knts for an hour, then for about 5min WOT 5100rpm @ 38knts!

At 15hrs now and still 1/4 above add a litter.

[mmwjr]

All good.