Author: admin

The damage of the bow roller shown in the photograph above was found during an Insurance Survey of a 1976 Westerly Berwick, a British built, masthead rigged sailing yacht with cast iron bilge keels.

During the inspection of the rigging chain plates it was found that there were a number of well developed cracks in the two vertical plates that support the bow roller. The photographs show the two cracks on the port side plate. This plate also supported the forestay, therefore the security of the entire rig depended on the strength and integrity of this plate. In consideration of the observation that similar cracks were found on each of the vertical plates, it is likely that these cracks were predominantly due to cyclical loading from the vessel’s mooring chain whilst she was on her summer mooring. The cracks on the port side plate may also be due to cyclical athwartships loading from the jib when she is sailing. There was no evidence to suggest that these cracks have occurred as a result of an impact with an object.

The report recommended that the bow roller fabrication was repaired in order to return strength to the two plates. As this repair would have involved welding, the entire fabrication would have to be removed from the foredeck as the heat generated would have damaged the GRP deck.

Thankfully I don’t come across this defect very often. It is probably something that many owners would never notice as everything looks as though it is in good order. Having said this, the hose in this photo of a gas locker drain should be of the reinforced type. Also, two hose clips should be used if the skin fitting allows this.

It isn’t entirely clear from the photograph, but the gas locker drain hose from the boat’s gas locker has a bend in it that can trap water. If water were to enter the locker, it would find its way into the hose where a small amount would be trapped. Similarly, when the boat is healed over on a close-haul, seawater could easily enter this drain. Until the water is able to evaporate, the locker drain will effectively be blocked. This would prevent any leaked gas from escaping harmlessly overboard. Cooking gas or LPG is a very ‘searching’ gas and will seep through gaps that might normally be airtight. On this vessel, it would have entered the aft heads and then into the bilge, with potentially devastating consequences.

This simple but important defect was discovered on a standard Insurance Survey on a 33′ sailing yacht. Owners are usually reluctant to have these surveys done as it is often considered that the report is purely for the benefit of the Insurance Company. The above example clearly shows that the vessel’s owner can gain significantly from having a thorough survey performed on their craft, even if they think that they know their boat inside-out.

Diesel or Petrol fuel filler caps are often located on an exposed area of horizontal deck or cockpit floor, particularly on sailing yachts. I recently performed a pre-purchase survey on a Nauticat Pilothouse Ketch, located at Woolverstone Marina, Ipswich. The image below shows the perished Fuel Filler Cap Seal of the starboard fuel tank of this motor-sailer. Note that the nitrile rubber has aged & hardened, resulting in numerous circumferential cracks in the O-ring, each one allowing moisture into the fuel tank. Additionally, the part of the fitting that was set into the deck was poorly designed, allowing sea water, rain water or dew to collect in the rebate that runs around the opening hole.

Prior to the discovery of the degraded fuel filler cap seal and during the survey of the rest of the vessel’s fuel system, I had carefully inspected the glass-bowled primary fuel filter of each fuel tank. I noted that the colour of the liquid inside the starboard tank filter suggested that there may be water in the tank.

These were the recommendations made in the report:

1. It was found that the primary fuel filter for the starboard fuel tank had a layer of water at the bottom of the glass bowl. It is RECOMMENDED that any water in the bowls is tapped off from the primary filters for both fuel tanks. The fuel tanks should also be drained off and the contents checked for water contamination.

2. The two fuel tanks are refuelled via separate filler caps located on the port and starboard side decks. They were appropriately labelled with the text ‘diesel’. It was found that the O-ring seals that seal the filler caps were heavily perished. It is RECOMMENDED that the filler cap O-ring seals are replaced.

The new owner of the Nauticat was able to drain off two buckets of water from the starboard tank! He was lucky that there was no evidence of diesel fuel fungal growth in the tank as disel fuel with a high moisture content tends to encourage their growth.