The Tweed River long weekend, April/May 2011
A special report from David Taylor - Shiraz
Just to let you know what happened over the weekend, please feel free to pass on to others in the club as it was very entertaining and challenging for a novice like me.
On Saturday morning left Toowoomba at about 6:30 am, about 5 minutes later I notice smoke billowing out of my Right-hand rear trailer wheel (a brake fire), so I pulled up waited for smoke to clear, checked tyres, brakes and wheel bearings. Then I realised that I had my Hydraulic brake boost set to high and was consequently locking up and overheating the brakes. I actually turned it off totally for the remainder of the trip to prevent any issues arising from the brakes system. I had no further problems with the trailer.
Picked up my eldest son Matt and his girlfriend Kate from the Yatla Service centre, an hour and a half late due to the hot brake saga.
Arrived at the Boat ramp at about 11:00am greeted by Keith and other members. I was then told about the unfortunate Whittley member whose boat filled up with water and finished his weekend early. I hope everything works out for them.
Let the trailer bearings cool, set up the inflatable, made sure the V6 fired, and then proceeded down the boat to launch ‘Shiraz’. As I drove off the trailer the propeller momentarily hit the bottom, gave it a rev no vibrations, so continued on. Followed ‘Houston’ down to the pickup point for the trailer storage, Shiraz needed a little extra to get up to the plane… thought nothing of it as we planed with no vibe? ‘Houston’ hit a sand bank which stopped him dead in the water, I offered my assistance, but Keith with ‘Ande’ got him going again. This took about an hour so I anchored ‘Shiraz’ near the RV storage area and had some lunch.
A Whittley Club member “Oriene?’ offered to guide me down to the Tumbulgum pub. Hit the throttle up on the plane, started to plane… Revs a bit too high.. so I adjusted some trim.. then burble followed by a pop and the engine died. ‘Oriene’ came back and offered assistance, I said I would wait for the engine to cool (thinking it may have overheated) and make repairs, they continued on their way to the Pub. Meanwhile I Was drifting towards a dredge boom, but managed to get the anchor out 4 ft before hitting it and going under it due to tidal drag which would have put ‘Shiraz’ at the bottom of the Tweed!!!.
After allowing things to cool for about an hour and a spot of fishing (I was also temped to drown my sorrows and take advantage of the situation with a couple of ice cold beers) I checked the oil, it was still nice and honey coloured, check the water, none lost no leaks and reservoir was at the correct level (fresh water cooling system), check leads, wires etc… no issues? Started the motor, it started but black smoke was pumping out of the carby (no fuel injection..LOL). Wouldn’t idle well but managed to get it in gear and started heading back.
I stayed the night anchored near the RV park and fished etc dragged the anchor about 10ft, so that kept me awake all night and returned to the boat ramp in the morning. When my son drove the Discovery off the ramp and looked at the propeller, it was missing at least 1.5 to 2 inches off each blade (photos attached).
So to summarise, I over revved the motor due to lack of a propeller (17’ now 14’ pitch), stuck an inlet valve that filled the engine cover with fumes that starved the engine of oxygen and that cut the motor. When I returned home and flushed the motor it was running almost normally, it now idles, but I will have to pull the heads off as I suspect that at least one valve is sticking.
But the VHF radio worked quite well, I think I was talking to ‘Sonata’ at Tumbulgum when I was back at the boat ramp.
Lessons leant
- Always check you prop after any incidence no matter how minor they seem
- Always watch the revs
- And get the anchor out ASAP when in trouble.
To top it all off I over heated the Discovery coming up the Toowoomba Range…
What the saying… ‘a STEEP learning curve’ or ‘Baptism of fire’ or
“Shiraz” OUT
