Another 15 minutes

Previous attempt to blow the fuel line clear by lungpower seemed to have failed, but today we tried the same approach with a spraycan of compressed air and it actually seemed to clear the pipe because it was much easier to blow the fuel line afterward. We couldn’t testdrive it today though since the wind is near storm here right now, but after the weekend I will probably know. I’m crossing my fingers…

Today, after days of troubleshooting and replacing filters and lines, we finally located the cause of the problem we have with the boatmotor dying at high speeds. The symptoms pointed to the fact that the engine didn’t get enough fuel and actually was able to suck all fuel lines to a vaccuum. The problem is in the tank itself, something is blocking the pipe that is sucking up fuel from the tank. We know this now since everything works perfectly with another tank, but using the same fuel lines. So now we just have to figure out how to solve it, blowing some air into the pipe didn’t help. There is a flow in it, but just not enough I suppose. So while the troubleshooting is now ended, the problem solving part is now under investigation.

Today we installed a new fuel filter and replaced fuel lines in order to fix the problems that began after the last trip to Vaxholm. We still have to get a new fuel gauge device for the tank, but the other work went fine. We haven’t tested the engine at speed though, only idle, atleast there are no leaks and all lines are new. There are a few more hours of work left to do before testing it again, we hope for the best.

Today I took the boat with a friend and headed to Vaxholm for some lunchin’. The trip was all good until we run out of fuel just outside Stockholm, due to a faulty fuelgauge that incorrectly showed a well filled tank of gas. So we refueled at the nearest gas station and continued the journey, soon after that the engine started to behave abit strange, at high revs it would begin to throttle down by itself, and a few times even die on us. We think that during refueling some junk in the tank got sucked into the fuelfilter and preventing the engine to get enough fuel. We were unsuccessful to take the filter apart and take a look though, the filter was screwed into place like a son of a b*tch. We made it back to port at slow speed though. And oh… I’m pretty red from sunburns too.

We bought some stuff for the boat today and fixed it up, lifevests, new ropes, fixing lights and gauges etc. It’s pretty much ready for daycruising now, but it requires some more stuff for weekend cruises. But it’s getting there!

Today we were on our maiden voyage with the boat, about an hour, just a short trip to fill her up and back. It went pretty smooth but tomorrow we will go to a boatstore and buy the basic equipment we need, like lifejackets, some more rope, spare parts for the electrical system and so on. I forgot to take some pictures today.

Me and a good friend of mine are now proud boatowners. We have browsed alittle bit on a few boats for a few days and I expressed my interest of chipping in with part ownership so we could afford a boat in better condition. So we looked at an Örnvik 570 (5.7 meter plastic boat with an outboard motor and cabin for 2) this afternoon and after a testdrive we decided that it was a very good deal so we took it, the hull and engine is in very good condition, it will only need a few cosmetic fixes on the inside, like new seats and some polishing.

We’ll need to get some equipment and gadgets for us and the boat on Friday, but it’s ready to go already this weekend so we will go for a drive soon and start the work on it so it’s ready for the longer weekend trips this summer =). I will post some pictures of it soon.