Mel Good

Happy to report back that everything is good with the boat. No change in oil levels and the engine is running well.

Very briefly - we are going to do that when we are down. We'll be there for the full weekend so can really check it out. I think my FIL doesn't really want to touch in - he felt very guilty that the 'problem' happened on his watch....we've told him a million times that it had nothing to do with him but he's more nervous about it now.

No change in the oil level this morning thankfully. We are heading down tomorrow so can finally take a look ourselves.

I think the main thing is that there was good intent of everyone involved with the added complexity of our distance and lack of knowledge. That includes everyone here - thanks for the support, it has allowed me to ask more questions and dig more. I very much appreciate it

Our heads were spinning with all the new terminology- not to mention the first quote we got which was €4000!!! I felt we hadn’t quite the right people involved and am thankful I went with my gut here. Fingers crossed this is the fix he checked the compression and mentioned one area was high and that maybe oil was dripping on to one of the pistons….(that’s where pistons came into play)

Sorry that’s what they were talking about earlier- my excitement got the better of me. It was a broken injector!!!

Well I finally have good news and a ton of lessons learned. So it turns out that one of the pistons physically broke! Oil/diesel might be a red herring as he was unable to verify a mix - in fact he said there was too much oil and he felt it was thin so possibly just bad cheap oil. He took out all oil and put good oil in and replaced the piston. We now have to keep an eye on the oil level - I have everything crossed.

I believe this mechanic is knowledgeable about the engine, however what he really struggles with is working and manoeuvring in a boat. He struggled to get the right position, and his solution is to take it out of the boat, as that is what he is used to. I'm hoping (perhaps unrealistically) that someone more accustomed to working on boats will be able to repair it on the spot - does that sound unlikely?

Yeah it's honestly hard not to think the worst but I am moving away from my normal sceptical self and trying to focus on the positives. We knew about the heating at the start and reduced our offer with the idea that it would need to be replaced. The windows are going to 'get it' in terms of a good clean and review this weekend. The cooker has been looked at and can be salvaged thankfully - the problem was more with the way it had been installed and secured so that we can fix. And now the engine....as you said @Alan de Enfield there will be nothing left to fail... ;o)) I work in technical emergency management so at least I am not overly surprised but outages and degradations - the only thing here is that I do not yet have the knowledge to assess these myself....clearly that will come and possibly quickly than I expected. Second mechanic is going to look at the boat either today or tomorrow and then we should know where we stand. The first guy as I mentioned knows his tractor engines and is used to fixing things on land - I will feel more comfortable with a boat person investigating it. I don't think I will like the bill but I guess the saying "Having a boat will make you a millionaire....but only if you're a billionaire when you buy it" is true

He could have misspoken about the gear oil as engine oil sounds much more viable. We are not near the boat which isn't helpful - heading to it this weekend so will take photos then. It's a 4108. The engine sounded good when we used it but now apparently there is a crackle (whatever that means) and my husband did say that the revs were jumping up and down randomly. We reached out to the previous owner who was less than helpful so not sure what's going on there.

just spoke to my father in law and got more details albeit somewhat vague: first injector not connected, he said no gear oil although I think he meant that it is now a mix of oil and diesel as there is a leak.... this is not a good day

Now I don't want to panic myself too much but we recently bought a Broom Commander 35 (ca 1979) - took it on it's first journey as our boat and everything seemed to go smoothly. My husband did the first leg and myself and the kids joined him for the second part. Boat seems to be running perfectly although he did mention there was a bit of smoke when he started it 2 or 3 times throughout the day. But he said it passed quickly.... Two day after the trip my father in law went to move the boat for us and said there was a lot of smoke so turned it off immediately. We had a mechanic take a quick look - he is know to the family and actually deals with tractors not boats however as this is a perkins engine he said he'd take a quick look in case it was something obvious. After looking he said that somehow the diesel has mixed with the oil???? How does that even happen? We have a mechanic coming to look at it tomorrow or the next day but I thought I'd ask here if this is something that happens to boats? is it typical? has anyone any experience with it? I understand that nobody on the group can look at our boat and actually diagnose it - really just putting it out there so I can get an idea of what I might be dealing with or at least come up to speed on terminology

what I am learning quickly is that there is a lot to learn about boats and little is ever straight forward. Thanks all for the replies I am a little wiser - going to lean heavily on our mechanic who will hopefully guide us in the right direction

Hi All, so the gas oven in our boat needs to be replaced - apparently it failed the safety inspection in 2013 but was never addressed. I have looked at some very fancy boat cookers but they also have very fancy price tags. The information about what you can and can not use is somewhat confusing - is there a dummy's guide to buying a gas cooker for a boat?

thanks all - just circling back to say they are definitely being removed as they are deemed not safe.