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A few months ago I saw a 1962 columbia 29 sailboat posted for sale. $5000. I really liked it from the pics, but never went and saw it. I live in an anchorage, and routinely get deals on great little old boats in need of some TLC in the 1-3 thousand range.
A month or so ago, a friend told me they were buying a boat from one of their friends, and it turned out to be this one! Apparently she had been sailing with the previous owner on it for years and he was going away for a PHD program. I knew she had crewed to the bahamas and been sailing with friends for years and was passionate , and a very intelligent young lady so I was excited to hear she got a boat.
She says they never had any problems really in their journeys and was enchanted with the boat. I figured at 5k, at this age, it was going to be a really really nice boat! But when I pulled up to it, my heart sank. All by herself in the shadow of key biscayne for young kids to raid on their drunken escapades, overgrown with barnacles and missing such critical pieces as rubrails, toe rails, etc... and what was there was improperly made, what appeared to be florist foam coated in topcoat to form the cockpit structure. Aluminum ports, ragged running rigging, a depressed mast stepping, and cob jobbed hatches made out of particle board and doorskin. The sails were beyond blown out, ragged and torn. Literally the worst sails i have ever seen on any boat. They did not even fit and were clearly the wrong size. The entire rig was jerry rigged to the max, involving multiple modified cams just to get the topping lift to work, and a pull pin to get it... i can't go on... the boat was a mess. Inside i won't even begin to speak of. I learned that this previous owner had spent the last few years "restoring" and then somehow sailing this boat around south florida and the keys. Now he had passed on this great project and frankly horrible burden onto an unsuspecting and new to boats 26 year old young woman who was apparently his friend. She assures me that he truly believed his boat was worth the money....im still not convinced.
Surprisingly the engine turned on, and sounded pretty quiet other than the horrendous screech of a belt. "The alternator belt still needs to be changed" he said. Apparently they had just changed the plugs, oil, and other such things, and that was the one thing they had not yet gotten to...oh...and there's no blower installed !!! Funny I just read a story of a boat exploding for just this reason not too long ago!
The engine was squeeling away in a way that if i didn't know it was just an alternator i would not be running the engine. It was also smoking... but "it always does that" One thing i noticed on that god given 4 mile downwind run to the new anchorage is that the A4 was not providing what i would expect 30 HP of inboard to do. Ive moved similar boats faster with 5 HP outboards. I would say it was not even getting us to hull speed even with all the growth i would think it should. well end of story is we made it there and ended the day without incident. Before leaving that day i investigated the prop underwater with snorkel and it was heavily encrusted for sure.
supposedly they went out together (the new and old owner) one more time before he moved away and that was also without incident.
But one week later, a couple girlfriends of hers and myself went out, and initially had trouble getting the engine started. When we finally did, it was making strange noises. It was also smoking a lot more than last time. New owner reassures me that the old guy had just added something to the fuel that was supposed to burn off. We get out in the channel, barely moving the boat against a bit of current and 15 kn of wind. We decide we are out far enough and to fall off now that our main is up, and unexpectedly drift a ridiculous amount backwards, the boat is losing headway. We decide to return to the channel, but its too late, just a few feet outside the channel we hit an old wreck, or some underwater ridge that despite living in the area for a while now on the water i apparently didn't know about. Ok my mistake, but we aren't grounded badly. We put the A4 in reverse and are able to get off, but we have to rev it like crazy to do so with all the current and wind. The engine doesnt sound good. Its making all kinds of crazy noises now, and the owner wants to kill it and try to sail off. Impossible I tell her with the boat so barnacled and no functional sails. So we keep the motor running, but it seems to have lost its punch. Its making pretty shitty noises and they are getting worse. Its only about a minute before the engine is barely giving us anything and we start blowing back into the anchorage. I believe at this point the A4 stalled, or it might have stalled while we were aground...anyway we got it running again, but barely, and it stalled again. We threw out anchor 40 feet off my friend's boat to avoid hitting him drifting in.
We waited a few minutes, then decided to try and start the engine again. After a dozen or so tries, the starter engine was cranking but nothing was happening, finally it fired up. It ran for a few seconds made horrible noises as we revved it, and then there was a boat shaking bang as loud as a canon going off, and the entire cabin filled with thick billowing smoke. We quickly killed all engine related things, including the battery switch just in case, and the engine continued to smoke for about 10-15 minutes afterwards. Needless to say, we did not start the engine again that day. I actually used my diving skills to pull the anchor and reset it about two dozen times until we had narrowly navigated a mooring field and drifted right back to our mooring a half hour later.
So the new owner and I took the compartment covers off finally yesterday. Investigation revealed to us only one thing. A snapped alternator belt. Strangely, the belt looked rather new, had no cracks or missing chunks...reads Napa autoparts on it so I'm guessing not original to the a4???LOL The new owner optimistically believes that this is the whole problem right here, but I'm telling her a failed alternator/belt is not enough to make an engine backfire/explode flames back into the boat. I am thinking that either the belt was not sized appropriately to begin with which is not unlikely considering it is clearly not a genuine part. But more than that, if it was loose, and in otherwise good condition , why would it snap? I have read things about frozen pulleys... which could signal greater problems in the engine that may relate to the explosion.
So i guess my main question is what to do as far as diagnosis, was what we experienced a backfire?
Ive thought of the following possible problems
Dirty propeller,
bad piston rings/blowby
leaking oil
gummed up carb as always
under tensioned alternator belt
frozen pulleys leading to alternator belt snapping
any comments welcomed, please help us keep this new captain's adventure alive!
A month or so ago, a friend told me they were buying a boat from one of their friends, and it turned out to be this one! Apparently she had been sailing with the previous owner on it for years and he was going away for a PHD program. I knew she had crewed to the bahamas and been sailing with friends for years and was passionate , and a very intelligent young lady so I was excited to hear she got a boat.
She says they never had any problems really in their journeys and was enchanted with the boat. I figured at 5k, at this age, it was going to be a really really nice boat! But when I pulled up to it, my heart sank. All by herself in the shadow of key biscayne for young kids to raid on their drunken escapades, overgrown with barnacles and missing such critical pieces as rubrails, toe rails, etc... and what was there was improperly made, what appeared to be florist foam coated in topcoat to form the cockpit structure. Aluminum ports, ragged running rigging, a depressed mast stepping, and cob jobbed hatches made out of particle board and doorskin. The sails were beyond blown out, ragged and torn. Literally the worst sails i have ever seen on any boat. They did not even fit and were clearly the wrong size. The entire rig was jerry rigged to the max, involving multiple modified cams just to get the topping lift to work, and a pull pin to get it... i can't go on... the boat was a mess. Inside i won't even begin to speak of. I learned that this previous owner had spent the last few years "restoring" and then somehow sailing this boat around south florida and the keys. Now he had passed on this great project and frankly horrible burden onto an unsuspecting and new to boats 26 year old young woman who was apparently his friend. She assures me that he truly believed his boat was worth the money....im still not convinced.
Surprisingly the engine turned on, and sounded pretty quiet other than the horrendous screech of a belt. "The alternator belt still needs to be changed" he said. Apparently they had just changed the plugs, oil, and other such things, and that was the one thing they had not yet gotten to...oh...and there's no blower installed !!! Funny I just read a story of a boat exploding for just this reason not too long ago!
The engine was squeeling away in a way that if i didn't know it was just an alternator i would not be running the engine. It was also smoking... but "it always does that" One thing i noticed on that god given 4 mile downwind run to the new anchorage is that the A4 was not providing what i would expect 30 HP of inboard to do. Ive moved similar boats faster with 5 HP outboards. I would say it was not even getting us to hull speed even with all the growth i would think it should. well end of story is we made it there and ended the day without incident. Before leaving that day i investigated the prop underwater with snorkel and it was heavily encrusted for sure.
supposedly they went out together (the new and old owner) one more time before he moved away and that was also without incident.
But one week later, a couple girlfriends of hers and myself went out, and initially had trouble getting the engine started. When we finally did, it was making strange noises. It was also smoking a lot more than last time. New owner reassures me that the old guy had just added something to the fuel that was supposed to burn off. We get out in the channel, barely moving the boat against a bit of current and 15 kn of wind. We decide we are out far enough and to fall off now that our main is up, and unexpectedly drift a ridiculous amount backwards, the boat is losing headway. We decide to return to the channel, but its too late, just a few feet outside the channel we hit an old wreck, or some underwater ridge that despite living in the area for a while now on the water i apparently didn't know about. Ok my mistake, but we aren't grounded badly. We put the A4 in reverse and are able to get off, but we have to rev it like crazy to do so with all the current and wind. The engine doesnt sound good. Its making all kinds of crazy noises now, and the owner wants to kill it and try to sail off. Impossible I tell her with the boat so barnacled and no functional sails. So we keep the motor running, but it seems to have lost its punch. Its making pretty shitty noises and they are getting worse. Its only about a minute before the engine is barely giving us anything and we start blowing back into the anchorage. I believe at this point the A4 stalled, or it might have stalled while we were aground...anyway we got it running again, but barely, and it stalled again. We threw out anchor 40 feet off my friend's boat to avoid hitting him drifting in.
We waited a few minutes, then decided to try and start the engine again. After a dozen or so tries, the starter engine was cranking but nothing was happening, finally it fired up. It ran for a few seconds made horrible noises as we revved it, and then there was a boat shaking bang as loud as a canon going off, and the entire cabin filled with thick billowing smoke. We quickly killed all engine related things, including the battery switch just in case, and the engine continued to smoke for about 10-15 minutes afterwards. Needless to say, we did not start the engine again that day. I actually used my diving skills to pull the anchor and reset it about two dozen times until we had narrowly navigated a mooring field and drifted right back to our mooring a half hour later.
So the new owner and I took the compartment covers off finally yesterday. Investigation revealed to us only one thing. A snapped alternator belt. Strangely, the belt looked rather new, had no cracks or missing chunks...reads Napa autoparts on it so I'm guessing not original to the a4???LOL The new owner optimistically believes that this is the whole problem right here, but I'm telling her a failed alternator/belt is not enough to make an engine backfire/explode flames back into the boat. I am thinking that either the belt was not sized appropriately to begin with which is not unlikely considering it is clearly not a genuine part. But more than that, if it was loose, and in otherwise good condition , why would it snap? I have read things about frozen pulleys... which could signal greater problems in the engine that may relate to the explosion.
So i guess my main question is what to do as far as diagnosis, was what we experienced a backfire?
Ive thought of the following possible problems
Dirty propeller,
bad piston rings/blowby
leaking oil
gummed up carb as always
under tensioned alternator belt
frozen pulleys leading to alternator belt snapping
any comments welcomed, please help us keep this new captain's adventure alive!
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