Post by Mumbles Motor Boat Fishing Cl on May 27, 2020 17:04:05 GMT 1
Oystercat visit 18 May 2020 by Dean Gifford
Summary
Generally, the boat was in reasonable condition, ropes were tight enough, fenders were doing their work. Unfortunately, on arriving at the boat the batteries were completely flat causing the starboard side bilge to be fairly full of water. Not to a level that will have caused any problems but another couple of weeks would have been an issue.
Very thankful to Swansea Marina in particular John for coordinating the visit and Richard for helping capture and dispose of the bilge water as it had some oil/fuel residue but also to highlight the near miss we had too (through no fault of theirs)
Issues
Batteries completely flat
On arriving at the boat the batteries were completely flat, causing 30ltrs of water to accumulate in the starboard bilge.
Cause
The cause for this appears to have been caused by a breaker trip on the boat; for some reason, the boat’s trickle charge system had tripped, maybe a surge at some point from the shore power source.
This means the domestic batteries weren’t topped up over the lockdown period.
Remediation
The only way to catch this issue would be visiting the boat to check the breaker & trickle charge system. We’ve had the shore power trip a few times on the marina side but never had it on the boat side, so hopefully it won’t happen again.
Additionally, we knew the domestic batteries were in need of replacement - that was the main reason for the visit to the boat. I’ve replaced the 2 domestic/house batteries and ran the boat for 1hr to recharge the other batteries.
I've got another visit booked for Wednesday 27th to do more checks and run the engines again. All looking good to go.
Skepper Dean
Summary
Generally, the boat was in reasonable condition, ropes were tight enough, fenders were doing their work. Unfortunately, on arriving at the boat the batteries were completely flat causing the starboard side bilge to be fairly full of water. Not to a level that will have caused any problems but another couple of weeks would have been an issue.
Very thankful to Swansea Marina in particular John for coordinating the visit and Richard for helping capture and dispose of the bilge water as it had some oil/fuel residue but also to highlight the near miss we had too (through no fault of theirs)
Issues
Batteries completely flat
On arriving at the boat the batteries were completely flat, causing 30ltrs of water to accumulate in the starboard bilge.
Cause
The cause for this appears to have been caused by a breaker trip on the boat; for some reason, the boat’s trickle charge system had tripped, maybe a surge at some point from the shore power source.
This means the domestic batteries weren’t topped up over the lockdown period.
Remediation
The only way to catch this issue would be visiting the boat to check the breaker & trickle charge system. We’ve had the shore power trip a few times on the marina side but never had it on the boat side, so hopefully it won’t happen again.
Additionally, we knew the domestic batteries were in need of replacement - that was the main reason for the visit to the boat. I’ve replaced the 2 domestic/house batteries and ran the boat for 1hr to recharge the other batteries.
I've got another visit booked for Wednesday 27th to do more checks and run the engines again. All looking good to go.
Skepper Dean