Do you do rounds underway?

[luckydave215]

I do deck and ER checks every hour or less, for the bilges I keep my eyes on the instruments/alarms/bilge pump indicator lights. As a pilot and long time motor racer I've had "the instrument scan"' drilled into my brain, and do it without thinking about it.
Fortunately for my old knees my engine room is easy to access and stand up in, and I leave all the AC (flourescent) lights on under way. Sometimes when I have my professional-deck-hand son on board to drive, I just hang out in the ER for a while and "fiddle around". There's nothing like actually being up close to your engines/gears/shaft seals/generators/strainers/watermaker/battery chargers/etc while they're under load to get a feel for how they're doing.

[krush]

Sounds like a great idea for a new product. Set up a temp gun on a computer controlled tripod that has three axix movement. CCTV pointing at the read out and when you want you can just run the program and have it shoot at the parts that were preprogrammed. Have video play back on the bridge with tivo and you can watch it on the hour when you got a minute or two.

Hey Krush, there you go, your first product a chance to jump into the big pond. I know you would rather work for someone else and bitch about their non-compete. LOL Can't wait till your the employer and some snot nose punk out of college says "I don't like it sniffle sniffle". LOL

Somebody already beat me to it--it's called an infrared camera.

LOL about the non-compete...i told them to shuv it (nicely of course) and they removed the clause. I'd say I was pretty effective!

[nyrussell]

I usually do a check every 2 hours or so... Depends on the kid to a degree as the Admiral has to man the helm. But i watch the gauges and the bilge pump lights. I stick my head into the engine room and then check the rest of the boat as well.

Learned my lesson awhile ago and i do check the vacuum gauges on the filters too. But thanks to AJX that problem seems to have gone bye bye.

Noel

[Fanfare]

I check, on average, every hour, but more often at the beginning of a trip. That's when things seem to go wrong. Couple years ago, an hour after startup we hit the ocean and came up to cruise. On ER check a hose clamp was failing and water from the showerhead was coming into the ER. Had time to replace the clamp (10") even before bilge alarm.

Last year, after two months use, did ER check, (same ER), smelled diesel. Fuel pressure switch had failed and started leaking. Even with my fore-and-aft engine flashlight check I would probably not have seen this as it was on the far side of the engine. We were at sea and there was too much rolling for me to routinely go into the ER. Engine too hot to hold on to. Shut down engine until port. Later I was trying to separate fuel from bilge water by using every empty soda bottle we had (lots, we recycle by bringing all back from Bahamas) when wife suggested to just use those sausage-shaped absorbent pads we carry around. Worked great. Why didn't I think of that?

I go through whole boat on my checks, ER first. I keep my shooterphone ear protection on the galley seat with my three-cell Magnalight. Check my direct-reading gauges at ER door, (coolant temp., oil pressure, fuel pressure after secondaries), flashlight engine front, side, go to rear ER door, back of engine and transmission, shaft packing seal, Racor vacuum gauge, flashlight Racor bowl for water/dirt) visual all aft compartments, back to galley and lift gen hatch, flashlight and listen. I have the original bilge alarm system and a second, independent alarm in each bilge, so don't normally check these.

[(Nobody You Know)]

Then I use my trusty IR thermometer to shoot the thermostat housing, the oil filter and sometimes a run down of the inboard exhaust port temps. Then close the door and move to the aft ER door for a good look listen and smell then I use the IR gun again to shoot the tranny oil filter, both showerheads and the shaft log/packing gland. Close the aft ER door and do the same on the stbd side and I'm back at the helm in less than a minute (usually).

I presume that you are using a laser gun type thermometer? A very handy instrument! Ear protection of the type used in indoor shooting ranges can be purchased at any home improvement store (Lowes) are great for crawling around in the ER when underway.