ACE Delivery for Whitby 100

Went by GO Train to National Yacht Club to deliver ACE for the Whitby 100.

Had two people bail on me, so I did the delivery single handed.

Not much wind (maybe 4 knots).

ACE is impossible to sail single handed or for that matter double handed.  Without an autohelm, you cannot leave the tiller for more than 10 seconds, or the boat wanders excessively.

I didn't even bother with the sails.

Even to go below, I throttled the motor back to nothing, got a water or whatever, then resumed when I got back to the tiller.

Leaving National

Selfie off Toronto Island

In flat water, ACE will do 6.0 knots at 2,900 RPM comfortably.

Off Ajax, I passed Tom and Marge's Belize Magic (Jeanneau 40) who were sailing home:

Approximately 0.6 miles from the mouth of the Whitby Harbour, the engine started sputtering.  I immediately when into neutral, and went below to get the jerry can that had 5 litres of diesel in it.  The engine died as I was putting it in.

Whitby Yacht Club in the back ground

Call the Whitby Yacht Club, and Tony and Joe towed me in using the club's workboat (took about half an hour for them to get out to me):

They towed me into Port Whitby Marina to get some fuel.  After fueling, the guys helped me bleed the air our of the fuel lines, water separator, and fuel filter.  We towed the boat back to the visitor's dock and completed bleeding the lines.  The motor started and ran for about 10 minutes.  We bleed it again, same result: started, and stalled again after 10 minutes.

ACE crew member Tony is a diesel mechanic.  He discovered that the fuel pickup in the tank was blocked with sediment stopping the fuel flow.  Had to disconnect the line and blow forefully to clear it.

In restrospec, I should have immediately shut the engine down, and the fuel system would not have need bleeding and not have sucked sediment into the intake tube.