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Well, our Saturday sail started out nice enough. Motoring out of the Cuyahoga
river to Lake Erie on the perfect day. After 10 months of sweat, Smiling Skull
finally slipped her dock lines and was going to sail. A simply incredible
feeling. Once we were on the lake, I noticed a funny smell - and it was coming
from the engine!. Overheated and smoking just a little we shut it down, hauled
sail,and decided not to worry for the moment. We would just sail for a while
and give it time to cool down before we looked at the problem. She sailed like a
dream, I was particularly impressed by her sharp turning radius (coming from a
full keel boat with outboard rudder,). I almost forgot, the boat is a Tripp
31Seafarer Yawl. We slipped along smoothly in 10 knots of wind with as much
sail as we could carry, until it was time to head back in. After 30 minutes, I
couldn't figure out what was wrong with the engine. I tried turning it over,
and it fired on the second try. We were in business. Well, we had to motor
while waiting for N&S#1 (a large rr bridge) to open, and in the meantime
overheated the engine. With the wind and current from the river we had to motor
past the bridge to the tow company dock who took us back to our slip. I can't
believe after 10 mos of work this happened, I was even wearing my lucky shirt!
Once at the dock we got the enigne to fire up again and checked everything out.
As it turns out, the oil pressure sending unit was fried. The check valve in
the oil pump froze and overheated the engine, thereby blowing the head. Now
you're probably thinking - no big deal, right? That is what I was thinking.
I'll just order the parts and spend the next weekend fixing everything and still
get some much needed sailng time in before winter comes. That's what I thought,
until I found out that they don't make the oil pump for my engine! So to make a
long story less long, if any one knows where I might find an oil pump for a
Palmer P 60 gas engine, I could sure use one. I was told they also used these
engines in fork lifts and towmotors. I was planning refitting with a diesel
eventually just not so soon. If I cant find the pump, I am considering going to
a Universal diesel simply because it will fit the space easily as the Palmer is
similar to an Atomic 4. So if anyone has any suggestions abou twhere I might
find the pump, has any suggestions or tips about Universal diesels, or nows of
any good books that will help to guide me through installing a diesel, I could
surely use the help.
Thanks to all who reply,
Dan
S/v Smiling Skull
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