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Sunday looked OK, but I had a trip planned with Dave for a long day on Monday. Should we go? With what may be the last bit of Summer, Wendy was up for a short day and a picnic lunch. Unfortunately we could not get any worms, so that was limiting the inshore options 10AM to the boat and without any pressure we head out to double check the boat and have some fun in the sunshine. Out to the middle of Swanage bay and drop anchor, lots of Bream ragging the big baits. so I handed Wendy a spinning rod and she had fun catching a few, while I tried to keep a bigger bait out. As well as the bream we had a Tope and LSD and just as we were about to move Waverly passed by. I decided to go around her to get a better picture and was amazed to see how fast she was going. I had to up revs and do 22knots to get on her sunny side, but at least that confirmed that our speed per engine RPM was right again. A move closer in got us away from the bait robbing bream and we added a couple of Small Eyed Rays to the catch, before a very early finish at 1500. It had been a nice little trip in lovely weather

Well done guys Great report Mal and a lesson to others to stay calm and think through the issue, before it becomes a bigger problem. Chris has all the skills and spares required, but an impeller change at sea is not easy. Well done We were out in Swanage but had heard nothing on the VHF when I called out on Channel 6 as we passed the ferry. Out of interest we too suffered from bream hammering baits, and you caught more than we did.

Well done boys handled textbook style, glad you still had a reasonable days fishing

With small tides and very little water movement we were planning a trip way off shore, that did not happen as you will read below. A 5.00am alarm for me and on the boat prepping by 6.0am. Lots of bait thawing and dreams of something large bending the rods. All was going well till Chris had a troubled look on his face and his ears tuned in to the engine note and watching the rev counter, temp and oil gauges. He had noticed 400 revs missing at the top end, maybe something around the prop, a dirty bottom or something unexplained. Then I suggested could it be as simple as the throttle cable adjustment. Up came the engine hatch and a quick check, no not the throttle cable, but what's that noise and the temp has gone up. A quick look over the side and no water pumping around the engine, switch off quickly and let the engine cool down. Right lets deploy the Anchor, we do not want to end up in the channel. Get the rods out, no point wasting the opportunity, who knows the fishing gods may give us a gift to raise the spirits. It was very strange, we had broke down but no panicking just methodical thinking and complete confidence in Chris, with his engine knowledge, his meticulous planning carrying spare parts often needed and all the tools he needed. Well, lets get the kettle on. The fish were biting and a steady stream of bream and a Tub caught whilst we put a plan together. Time to do some investigations, undo some awkward hoses and lets check the water pump, we were fairly sure it was not spinning, with me on the Helm and Chris balancing on one leg in the engine well, right Mal hold the stop button and turn the engine over was the instruction, okay, the impeller is not turning, is it stuck, not turning. That's weird these are all new parts, plan B call home and dig out the spare from the garage ( thanks Leanne) and ask Martin at home to be on standby for a break down call out. Why is it not turning, lets get it out and inspect it. With the Impeller in hand Chris then took the centre out of the impeller, and Bingo. In the meantime as if we did not have enough on our minds, I suggested we could lift the anchor and drift over to the SRM and drop Anchor there, we can better that. If you sit in the engine well Mal with the hose running down the engine intake we can slowly make our way over there. Job done, rods over, kettle on and let the Engine cool down again. With the part in hand and the centre pulled out, what's that burning rubber smell, a quick look at the centre spline noted the grip was just not there and the splines had worn down. No problem I have 4 spares in the locker up front, change that over and put the pump back together and see what happens. Whilst all this is going on we have managed a small undulate and some more bream. Right Mal do the same in the wheel house, that's better, its spinning. Lets put it all back together, turn the water back on and see what happens. Water thundering out the exhaust is what happened, right stand Martin down and thank him. Right what's the plan where shall we go, the Banks were close so lets go there, not much tide so a bit quiet with the boat wandering on the Anchor line till the tide started. We had as many bream as we wanted, in fact they were chewing up all the baits. We also had a few Conger, Smooth Hounds running riot and some Tope, so the fish count was doing well. Not happy with that, lets deploy the Shark rod. First bite a short strip of line and a small mouthed bite off (Tope). New bait down and a fifty yard run, much more furious and some triangular tooth shapes and a much larger mouth (Shark). We have a shark in the area, all the bream went missing for a while. Very exciting and another bite off before it was time to go home. A few more small Rays and Smooth hounds added to the total for the day. Still time for a Guinness and a good clean down before our bodies and minds started to shut down, neither of us would have needed much rocking after that day out.

I agree, reference the show and the chandlery. Plenty of Champaign palaces but very little for the "normal" guy. (although the Louisiana Chicken food was nice) 😉

went to boat show today, absolutely waste of money ,big empty spaces,not a lot of chandlers, not as many affordable boats, less food and drink stalls,hardley any seating for us old farts.

Well done on finding his first boat, of a sensible size and power. Many of us would of got carried away with that budget. He also sounds very sensible in booking the training, prior to starting using it. A good friend did the same two seasons ago, bought a similar boat and did training with his family. He has really enjoyed being confident to take the boat out from Cobbs in the nice weather. He has moved her from dry stack to a pontoon to make it even easier.

That's bad if these parts are inferior. Ordinary boaters could have done some damage to their engine before realising what was going on. All because of one cheap part that was used to save a few pence. Very well done Chris for getting it fixed. 😉

Flapping and panic generally help no one. Many many many years (decades?) of going to sea experience obviously came in to play, and Chris wouldn't have been phased and called upon that knowledge. Also, the best way to think is to keep distractions at bay (hence, he told you to fish Mal! All part of his plan [emoji1787][emoji1787][emoji1787] ). Top job on you both, making ready a secondary plan and being self sufficient! And to have a few fish and species on top, a great day! R

Well done Charlie, as Mal sayes if you didn’t have the knowledge you have it would no doubt of been far worse £££££. I have VP which I have discovered seem to really know how to charge crazy prices. Should I ever change my boat which I doubt I ever will, going with a more agricultural engine, like an Iveco would definitely be my choice, on a shaft, with a rope cutter. I chose VP and legs on advice that they were more fuel efficient, well, the cost of a complete service on the legs (first in five years, I stretched it!) was unbelievable, I think I could of taken my boat on a world cruise for the price!!!! I would strongly advise anybody thinking of buying a boat to chat to club members who have something similar, ie shaft/leg/outboard to the pros and cons. Especially those like Charlie and Chris who have brilliant engineering knowledge. CONGRATULATIONS Charlie your up and running, look out fish !!!!!!

Well that took way too long to sort out. From what looked to be a small fault, it proved to be a much larger and more expensive one. Initially the engine would not start, I checked some connectors and it started. Tested it several times and went to an anchorage in the harbour, went swimming and cleaned the hull and sterndrive. A few days later went onboard to give the clean boat a test run, as on the previous fishing trip it seemed to have lost speed compared to the engine RPM. When I got onboard the engine failed to start. Fiddled with all of the same connections again, but this time it would not start. read out said , engine in gear will not start. Initially I kept checking things online and Chat GBT which gave a variety of possible causes. I made a list of them and over a few days in really hot weather, worked through the list. No change I was being helped by Richard from Pinnicle Marine, but eventually we ran out of things to try. I had to book another engineer to bring his Volvo Vodia diagnostic system onboard to fault find my Volvo Penta D4. [Richard did spot a cracked bracket on one of the pump mounts, I ordered parts and fitted while waiting for parts to arrive.] This system indicated that one of the EVC units was showing fault, not only would I need to buy a replacement PCU, but then I would have to have it programmed to communicate with the other parts of the system by Volvo. This part is not refundable due to programming, we were only 99% sure Vodia had this right, but it had to be changed. To be honest the engineer was as worried about this as I was, so with permission of another boat owner at the yacht Club, he fitted my PCU to another vessel and its system immediately came up with the same fault code. This is where time started go wrong. The engineer went on holiday. Volvo Penta messed up the order. Engineer returns to be told part not ordered. But worse than that Volvo Europe were now on shut down. Part arrived back in UK about a week earlier than anticipated after programming. engineer fitted it and all system start communicating with each other, great news, but engine would not start [*^*^*^] A bit more auto configuration and calibration bought up the same message that we started with, "engine in gear will not start." During the initial fault finding Richard and I had tested the throttle lever, to find that its microswitch closes a circuit when in Neutral. I had made up a small lead to insert in the circuit to trick the system. It had not helped at the start , but was still onboard, so we used it again. I was very pleased when Sam turned the key and the engine started for the first time in over a month. Three faults all at the same time. who would believe it When I get back to the office, I contacted Volvo to just pay them for fast delivery of a part. Once again they were useless [Its obsolete, no alternative] Back to the boat to get the control lever, then a few hours trying to chase up the part required. I could not find the complete part ,but did source two options for microswitches, sod it I ordered one of each. After a few more days parts arrived and one of them was a good match, so was fitted. I took the lever back onboard, wired it up and all was good again, engine runs, gear change works. I only had time to properly fit the various parts back on the boat and engine, before Wendy and I flew off to the sunshine of Madeira for a week, [The holiday was cheaper than the parts] When we came back, I still had the original fault to sort out. That of slow boat speed for engine RPM. After getting hold of, and cleaning up a second hand set of G5 props, I changed them from my dinghy last Friday. Out past the chain ferry, throttle up and back to the usual boat speed at 2500RPM. At last I have my boat back. Sorry for the long ramble, but I wanted to give other Members an idea of what I have learned from this experience, apart from how frustration it is to have a broken boat in a long hot summer. 1. If you fiddle with what may be loose connections, do it one at a time, so you know which one fixes the issue, should the fault return. 2. Volvo Penta parts departments are useless, chase them up for spares and ask for confirmation of orders 3. Volvo parts are expensive and not always available. 4. Find yourself a good engineer with knowledge and contacts for your boats engine. 5. Have a very understanding wife. Lastly have some very good friends at your fishing Club, that will listen to you banging on about bloody boats, engines and particularly Volvo F*****G Penta. But offer you the use of their boats or take you out fishing. Thanks guys, you have helped keep me sane since July. I hope that the fish are biting now Alfresco is up and running.

Thanks for the report Mal spot on. A big thank you for Martin for being on call if required, benefit of being in the club. 👏👏 An ok day in the end, personally never seen the insert spin in an impeller before, I’m suspecting it maybe a copy and not a genuine Jabsco as it didn’t have Jabsco numbers on it, where as all the others I have do have.