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By Timothy Langley, June 3, 2024
Trouble-shooting and maintaining a diesel engine on a sailboat is as important as tying the right kind of knot in a given situation.
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A group of TSPS sailors gathered at the well-known sailing port of Hota on Chiba Peninsula to examine a diesel engine in a 45 year old yacht this weekend. Originally intended to be a refresher-course, it turned into a hands-on workshop examining and trouble-shooting the most likely terminal-troubles a sailor might confront while at sea… the most unfortunate time for these issues to arise. So yes: kinda life-or-death.
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Captain Evan Burkowsky, one of the most accomplished sailors within TSPS, held court with a collection of sailors, some captains in their own rights, to examine the fuel-system, electricals, and handy-hacks to address a sudden issue quickly. This was hands-on with participants getting their hands dirty and feeling for themselves the difficulties in access, the tools required, the sounds emitted that signal a problem arising or the echos of success after adjustments. All captains know that the boat talks to you, if you just know how to listen.
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In typical TSPS fashion, the workshop went long and by the time we tidied-up, the fabulous Banya restaurant had closed, the bath was closed, and only nearby Odoya grocery saved the day.
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Everyone ended up munching their own selection of favorite foods, a veritable mishmash, shared beers and red-wine, and called it a night around 10:30.
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All retired to their own respective boats under a sky sprinkled with stars, the echos of paddy-frogs croaking, waves lightly lapping, and in the distance, the reverberating snore of some waterbuffalo.
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Sunrise in a morning ignited by riotous squawking of thousands of sea-hawks (at the Fisherman’s Association processing incoming catches) found the port full of activity. David Lechevalier, grinding fresh coffee from within Bluewind II, was popular on the floating dock. Captain Evan, readying his boat for departure, still providing advice on a vast range of questions that just never stopped: sailing is such a deep and broad pastime, requiring mastery of hundreds of skills. Having a sounding board with such deep experience is so very important and valuable. Having this kind of opportunity and the luxury of time is rare, in fact.
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With the Banya hotsprings 70 meters away opening 7:30am, everyone got freshened-up, some necessarily so after diving into the waters to scrape the bottom of the boat… another essential maintenance issue. It turns out that yes, Punk: between 5:00am and 7:30, you can get a lot done!
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This first workshop was a great success. Follow-up plans to focus on cooling-systems, electricals and trouble-shooting is already in the works. If you are interested, please provide a Comment or voice your preferences at the upcoming Keelhaul.
Finally, in addition to a thank-you to Captain Evan for the instruction (and for the hospitality of his roomy 33’ Peterson sailing yacht), a hearty shout-out to John Kratochvil for originally initiating the Workshop-in-Hota idea in the first place. Thank you to the others who sailed from distant locations to have what turned-out to be a very insightful, instructive workshop, a slapped-together dinner, a lovely sunrise coffee, bookended with two exhilarating days of sailing to and back on Tokyo Bay.
What a great weekend! Let’s do it again.
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Love it!! Would love it more being there though 🙂
Thank you, Svet. We wish you were there, too… maybe then the guys wouldn’t be so slovenly. But then again, maybe not. But the way to keep in-touch is to sign-into the WhatsApp group “Engine Class” where there is an ongoing dialogue. Similarly, there is a very active WhatsApp group on Hayama Sailing and Crew Finding, which is a terrific way to get time under sail. Please attend the follow-up Workshop?
Thanks for the great write up Timothy! It was a great time and I really enjoyed the opportunity to pass on some of the things I learned from my Dad working as a teenager on his fish boat.
For the next session we’ll dive into the cooling system and troubleshoot common overheating issues, how to swap out impellers and rebuild water pumps, replacing thermostats, and the infamous Yanmar mixing elbow, one of the very few weak points on these engines.
A small correction; I noticed Timothy somehow stole 2’ from BWII and added it to Santana 😉. BWII is a Catalina 22, Santana is a Yamaha 26. He’s just jealous cause I have a bigger boat now 😂
Superb reporting in Education field – worthy of a Fred M. Hechinger Grand Prize for Distinguished Education Reporting…..
Looks really interesting. I knew about this event and would have liked to attend but had other commitments that weekend. Thanks for arranging such events – really adds value to being a TSPS member.