Sailing Vessel Still Time: MUMM36 ZAMBONI Wed Race Night

Wednesday, September 15, 2021

MUMM36 ZAMBONI Wed Race Night

I got down to the boat again at 3pm to avoid traffic.

Tested the motor
Tested the charging system
Checked the oil
Replaced the engine cowling and companionway stairs
Got the sheets and guys on deck

We left the dock just before 5:30pm for a 5:55pm start.

While raising the mainsail, we saw Tabasco coming out of the harbour:

Baltic 76 Tabasco

Our engine sounded normal, but tons of white smoke was coming from the exhaust:

If picture is worth 1000 words, what is a video?

We noticed that there wasn't much cooling water coming out the back (just a trickle). Shortly after this, the engine overheat alarm came on. We quickly shut the motor off and sailed to the start line.

The start was delay due to no wind:

After about 15mins, the wind filled in with 5-6 knots of breeze.

It was good to be course racing again after a 2 year Covid break.

Saw a Catalina 22 Capri racing:

The race was shortened to only one loop of the windward-leeward course.

The wind shifted so both legs were more of less upwind (no spinnakers).

We finished 2nd to the well sailed Beneteau 36.7 Zingara:

After the race, Phil and I got the engine cowling off and found that the raw water strainer was mainly plugged with weeds. Shut the seacock and Phil cleaned it out on deck. Got it back in and we had full flow of water out the exhaust and no more smoke!

Another lesson learned: check the strainer a couple of times in the summer, especially after the boat has sat for a while. The smoke was actually water vapour caused by a restricted raw water intake flow. The little bit of water coming past the strainer was vapourising on the hot engine and not really cooling it properly. We will definately check the impeller at haulout.