Nautical trouble-shooting
If you’ve ever attempted to fix anything from a lawnmower to a jet engine, you know to troubleshoot the most simple possibilities first. Often the issue is so simple, you would have never considered to look there.
Years ago I got a great deal on a boat knowing the engine would soon need to be replaced. Chuck, previous owner of Ft. Myers Marine, called to tell me he found a new 90HP Yamaha in the box a couple of guys won in a tournament in Stuart and wanted to sell it cheap. I got it for $6k and Chuck took the old Honda as trade for swapping them out.
I now had something all boaters crave, a smooth running and dependable new engine, compared to the old Honda which had me looking at the transom of TowBoat US twice….
While running across Pine Island Sound early morning in the dark, the engine I was so fond of completely shut down. Puzzled, I restarted, and was on my way with no issues the whole day. A couple weeks later, it happened again, a complete shut down at high speed. The newer engines have a computer chip that can tell you when and why there was a shutdown, so Chuck had me bring it in. After a complete diagnostic, nothing was found.
Puzzled again, I took the boat home, and it ran perfect for a few weeks, then did it again. Chuck had me back in the shop where a mechanic and I went for a ride in the river. You know an engine would never act up while a mechanic is on board - it’s written maritime law - passed down by Captains Blackbeard and Bartholomew themselves…. but I entertained the notion anyway.
My dog was with us. Bo was a dog found in Hurricane Charley’s aftermath who needed a home. We became best friends, and everyday fishing buddies. From fishing to delivering the Nautical Mile route, people rarely saw us apart. The three of us started upriver past the slow zones, we put it on plane and headed east towards the Franklin Locks.
We ran full speed, pulled back to idle, full speed again, and so on. We turned left, right, we ran in circles, everything. As I said, it’s not going to act up with a mechanic on board….
As we started heading back to the ramp we approached a trawler with a bit of a wake so we slowed to pass it, and as we hit the wake, the engine completely shut down. I was so thrilled that this happened while a mechanic was on board, though I was a bit nervous about breaching the Pirate Code.
My dog Bo knew the boat well, and he knew when a wave was coming based on my reactions. Bo developed a habit of wedging himself between my knees and the center console to brace himself from the bounce, and when we passed that trawler he wedged himself so tight between Jeff & I, that he was pushing against the key-switch, turning off the ignition. Mystery solved.
Hindsight says I should have noticed that the key was off when I went to restart the engine, but who would have caught that? I really thought it was a short in the kill switch lanyard, but that was replaced, along with a few other items it “could” have been.
So as you’re working on an unknown problem with an engine, or anything else, do yourself a favor and eliminate then simplest things, and go far out of the box when you define “simple.”
Yes, I relocated the key switch…. and I installed a pad Bo could now lean against.
Jim Griffiths
Publisher, Nautical Mile
