From the engineering correspondent

Good run today? - hrmmph; see amazing sea cliffs and islands? - hrmmmph; first sighting of puffins skimming the sea? - hrmmmph; dolphins playing around the bows - hrmmph! Excellent bacon sandwiches and coffee - I had to make them my b*****y self! Ok - so what were you doing? I was upside down under the cabin decking trying to work out where all the bloody water was coming from! Such is the lot of the ship’s engineer.

But enough moans and on to something about the mechanicals of Belle Colombe for those of an inquiring mind and mechanical bent (I will cover electrics and electronics in a later blog). We have three core components - the main engine, the generator and the desalinator.

The engine

Built in 2006 Belle Colombe was originally equipped with a 120HP VW engine but the first owner, a trawler fleet owner, decided the engine was not powerful enough for his requirements (and possibly something to do with the availability of engineers and spare parts) installed a 170HP Iveco FPT N40 ENT M25 turbocharged marine engine commonly found in his trawler fleet. It is 4 cylinder common rail diesel injection 250HP model derated to 170HP - in effect a marinised truck engine. Whilst this provides more power, reliability and good torque at cruising speeds it does present the problem of access for maintenance - the Iveco being wider than the VW. Hence the need for an engineer with the strength, reach and flexibility of an orangutan.

A reliable engine, the only weakness in high latitudes, as with many other engines of its type, is the impeller which circulates the cooling water through the heat exchangers. Replacing one of these is a challenge - we went and looked at a demounted engine in Southampton to look at how it was done and then I came out to Caen when the engine was being serviced to see the impeller being changed.

We hold 1300 litres of diesel in a series of tanks in the starboard side of the hull. We also have a 70L auxiliary tank in the stern lockers - providing an emergency reserve and fuel for our diesel heating system. This gives us a range of about 1000 miles at 6 knots with a 20% reserve.

Generator

We have a 9 kW 3 cylinder Kohler generator mounted in the aft of the engine compartment. Completely enclosed it runs quietly and allows us to charge our batteries, run the desalinator, power our hot water system (in addition to engine generated hot water) and provide 240V power through the sockets around the boat when required.

Desalinator

Mounted above the engine is a SilentWhisper Sea Recovery desalinator. This uses a powerful pump to pass salt water through a permeable membrane which extracts the brine and passes fresh water to the fresh water tanks. We hold 1300 litres of fresh water in a series of tanks in the port side of the hull. We will keep the fresh water topped up at every port of call but the desalinator gives us the ability keep up if we use water carefully.

and that water ingress issue:

And as a follow up to the first paragraph intriguingly it was only alongside in Dingle when we solved part of the the issue and entirely accidentally. Charles had shoved a hose up the cockpit drain to see if there were any leaks further back and I was inspecting the hull amidships when water started pouring out of a midships’ cleat. Investigating this surprising happening (by removing cupboard panelling it turned out that the cleat (which was retractable) had a drain built into its base - presumably to avoid water in the base freezing and damaging the cleat. The cleat housing was badly cracked and in heavy rain or hard over water was entering the hull, running along a rib and pooling in a hull compartment by the chart table. So we have applied a large amount of mastic as a temporary fix. In Iceland we will try and remove the cleat and get the cracks welded up or apply a generous amount of liquid metal sealant. The challenge always being getting the thing back in.

View of main engine from companionway access

View of rear of engine and desalinator

Looking aft to generator