My Drammer yacht's engine died on one of the busiest rivers in Europe

I used a PAN PAN call and not a Mayday. Mayday is used only in case of immediate concern for fatalities. We were still floating, so a PAN PAN is the appropriate procedure.

BHPian Jeroen recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Trust me, you never ever want to hear the RPMs of your ship engine dropping whilst not moving the throttle!!

So I ran back into the cabin, by then the engine had died!!. I immediately pulled out the throttle into the clutch-release position and restarted the engine. My first thought was, that maybe the propellor got caught into something. Let's see what the engine does with the clutch out. Sure enough, she fired up, but would not rev, even without load, and died within ten seconds.

Must be fuel-related was my next thought. But first things first. Sirion was without propulsion on one of the busiest rivers in Europe. I explained about the radio procedures on these rivers earlier on. So my radio was tuned into the correct sector station, in this case, sector Maasbruggen

I grabbed the mike:

PAN PAN, PAN PAN, PAN PAN,

This is motoryacht Sirion

We are in front of a hotel in New York and have just lost propulsion and steerage. We need immediate assistance.

Sector replied immediately and put out a caution again. Whereas most ships near Sirion with their radio on, would have heard my PAN PAN, my antenna sits relatively low and I broadcast at a relatively low power. The sector's antenna sits at 100 meters and has much more power. So now all ships in the sector would be aware of a yacht with no propulsion and steerage just of Hotel New York location.

I used a PAN PAN call and not a Mayday. Mayday is used only in case of immediate concern for fatalities. We were still floating, so a PAN PAN is the appropriate procedure.

I started opening the engine room deck and I could hear Sector talking to some nearby Police boats. Within two minutes there were 2 Police RIBs next to Sirion. I told them I was going to try and change over the fuel filters. By then I had seen the operational filter was very dirty and drew a lot of vacuum, which indicates a dirty filter. Switching to the (clean) standby filter made no difference. I could start the engine, but it would not rev and would die again!

So the cops towed me to the nearest safe spot. Which happened to be the Veerhaven (ferry harbour). The Veerhaven these days is a small, but popular marina. All the spaces were occupied, in fact, some yachts were double and triple moored already.

One of the historical yacht owners called out to us, he had seen and heard what happened and told us we could go alongside one of the historical sailing barges. It belonged to a friend of his who was away on holiday. So we would not be bothering anybody.

Notice how the cops towed Sirion by tying her up alongside. This is the best way if you need to bring a yacht into a marine. Just towing is a pain when you get to the marina. You have no propulsion, no steering, wind and currents have free reign over your movements. With the stricken vessel alongside, a simple bow and stern lines, you can manoeuvre it easily and get it docked where you want.

So here we are:

Once Sirion was tied down safely, I had a little chat with the cops. These "water cops" are always very pleasant and accommodating.

After they left I started to do some investigation. One thing I found out, I did not have the correct fuel filters on board.

Sirion has one filter installed on the engine. (top right corner) It's an original Yanmar filter and comes standard with this engine.

Separately installed is a so-called duplex water separator and 10-micron filter. The idea is that you have one side in operation and when that gets dirty or too much water starts showing you can seamlessly transfer to the new/clean filter side. It also has a vacuum gauge fitted to the suction line. Notice how dark the sight glass is on that left filter!

I checked and rummaged all over Sirion, but could not find those spare Duplex filters. I checked the inventory list I made when I got Sirion. Sure enough, two spare sets were mentioned.

With no spare filters, I needed some help. But also, I was pretty much convinced it was not just the filter. Otherwise, the engine would have run when I switched to the standby side. With limited tools and limited parts, I decided to call the "botenwacht". They are to recreational boats as what the AA is to cars.

They will come out to you and help, fix whatever the problem is, and get you on your way.

I called them around 1600 hours. You get through to some sort of operational centre. They take your details. Next, they figure out the nearest engineer who might be able to help you. They promised somebody would get back to me in the next two hours.

Sure enough, my phone rang about an hour and a half later. Nice guy, Jip. He asked what had happened. So I explained to him what happened, and what I had done and I also shared my concerns with him, this might not just be the filters. He agreed with me. Most likely the filters and fuel lines were blocked by dirt from the diesel tank.

So far, I have been sailing Sirion a lot, about 180 hours on the engine, but always on relatively calm water. During the last two days, we had been out constantly on pretty rough water. Constant pretty heavy rolling and pitching. This means that any sediment sticking to the bottom of the diesel tank eventually starts to loosen up, starts floating, and is sucked up. It ends up in your filters and logging up the suction lines too.

I texted him all the images and part numbers of the filters. He would start calling immediately the next (Monday) morning to get the parts.

So I would have to overnight on Sirion in the Veerhaven. Which was not a problem as my intended marina overnight was only about 1,5 kilometres further up the river.

So I checked the moorings of Sirion once again and walked over to the office of the harbourmaster. I told him, the Botenwacht could not come till the next day and was he ok with me staying where I was. He was fine with it.

The next day around 09.15 Jip contacted me. He had been in contact with Vetus, the manufacturer of the filters (a Dutch company with HQ and massive warehouse in Schiedam). They would let him know if they had the filters in stock. About an hour later that was confirmed. Well, it wasn't the exact same filter, they had slightly larger, but they would fit. However, it appears when you order something at Vetus, and it is in stock, you will still need to wait several hours for them to pick it up and get it ready for you to collect. Jip had a few other jobs to do as well. Eventually, he showed up around 15.00 hours.

I must admit I was a bit on edge. I could not concentrate on anything else. I did manage to fill up Sirion's freshwater tank though!

Apart from the worry about this problem I also had some practical issues. I absolutely had to be home the next day. I had promised my best friend Peter to help him out with a video production that was going to be shot near his home on Tuesday afternoon. I also wasn't too happy with Sirion's mooring. The Veerhaven is well known for being quite "choppy". It would be as it right onto the river Maas. A barge passes and you would be rocking for several minutes. Not a big thing if you are properly moored to the appropriate jetty. But I did not want to leave Sirion overnight with me being away.

Given the fact that sailing home would most likely take 4-5 hours to the main lock in Gorinchem. It would also be getting dark at 22.00 and the lock doesn't operate after 22.00 pm. So I was on edge, to put it mildly!

Very happy when Jip showed up. In real life even more professional and amicable than on the phone. We quickly replace both the elements on the Duplex filter. Look how dirty that fuel is that drains from the filter!

Jip had brought a wide range of various cannisters to put dirty filters in, pour out diesel oil, and so on. I made a note to get some of these arranged for the Sirion tool kit as well. Here you see some of the sediment that came out of one of the filters.

Jip did not think any dirt would have made it to the engine filter but we replaced it just in case. We also took off the fuel line at the filter and tried to suck in the fuel with a vacuum pump. No dice.So, what we suspect was true, we had a fuel suction line blockage somewhere as well.

So we opened up the floorboards in the cabin to get access to the fuel tank.

We managed to clear the lines, just loosen them up and blow back towards the tank.

By 16.15 we started the engine. The filters looked good, vacuum looked good! I settled the necessary admin with Jip and the harbour master and by 16.30 Siron slipped its mooring from the Veerhaven.

I decided to see how far I would get. Dordrecht is about halfway and it has excellent marinas and an excellent direct train running to Gorinche. So if the current would be too strong I would stop over in Dordrecht, leave Sirion tied properly in a Marina, and take the train home.

As it turned out I managed the 40 km to the Gorinchem lock in exactly 4 hours, average current around 3-3.k km/h against us.

The engine did cough a bit once. I immediately opened up the floorboards again and pulled up the suction pipe about 5-6 centimetres. That would hopefully ensure it draws less debris.

Could not replace that floorboard with the suction pipe sticking out. I also kept checking the vacuum gauge on the filter. Very quickly it rose into the yellow and border with the red. But it stayed there, so I pushed on.

It was a very beautiful evening to be out on the water;

I was very relieved when I made it to the Merwedebrug at Gorinchem;

The lock is about 800 meters further upstream. I arrived at the lock at exactly 21.30. I was in luck, another yacht had just gone in and they had not closed the doors yet. At exactly 22.00 I powered down the engine and instruments of Sirion. Safely moored at her home marina.

I must admit I was pretty shattered. But satisfied as well for making it all the way home with no further problems.

The tanks do need proper cleaning. I have engaged a specialised company that does this. Stay tuned, because in two days Sirions diesel tank is going to get cleaned!!

They will pump out the diesel, filter, and clean the diesel, they will clean out the tank and remove all debris, water whatever, and put the cleaned diesel back in again!

Jeroen

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