The Critical $30 Safety Device Most Boats are Missing!!!

My heart always sinks when I see a sailing yacht on the beach, because it not only means the end of somebody’s dream, but maybe the end of their home as well.

And yet many of these losses are completely preventable with just a $30 part, which for the sake of manufacturer’s profits most boats happen to be missing.

Fortunately it’s an easy retrofit that I installed on my boat after a close call with a freighter at night and that’s exactly what we’re going to talk about in this video

Although the sails provide power for many conditions, most sailing yachts have auxiliary diesel engines like this one for maneuvering in marinas and docking, and for staying off the rocks when there is not enough wind to sail like this boat, or if somebody falls overboard and you need to rescue them in these conditions.

While auxiliary diesel engines are extremely reliable most of the time, there is an unfortunate combination of physics, biology, and poor design which causes them to stop working when you are likely to need them most in an emergency – like in very rough sea conditions when you’re being blown onto the shore.

And although we weren’t in rough sea conditions when our engine died in a shipping lane at night with a freighter coming straight at us, we had been earlier in the day, which definitely contributed to the problem.

In a standard marine diesel system the fuel flows in a loop starting in the tank, then through a fuel/water separator to remove water and big particles, then to a fuel lift pump that actually sucks the fuel out of the tank, then to another fuel filter for very fine particles, and finally the injection pump and injectors into the engine. The unused fuel flows back to the tank and the cycle repeats.

If you give a marine diesel engine clean fuel it will happily run like this for thousands of hours, and keep you safe and moving when you’re not sailing.

But when it’s rough there’s another problem. Being in a damp marine environment moisture always finds its way into the tank. And it’s not the water itself that’s so much of a problem, because there’s a fuel/water separator, but the microbes that like to grow between the fuel and the water.

These microbes form a sludge that stays harmlessly at the bottom of the tank, with clean fuel above it, until you encounter rough conditions and it gets stirred up and sucked into the fuel/water separator, completely blocking it.

One minute your trusty marine diesel is purring like a kitten, and the next minute it’s not, and there’s nothing you can do to restart it with that blocked fuel/water separator, which is at least a 20 minute job to fix under ideal conditions. You had better hope you have lots of sea room and a strong stomach!

But what if you had two fuel/water separators, with a clean one already installed that you could use in seconds with the flick of a $30 switch? Most smart boaters already carry spare fuel/water separator elements so worst case you need to spend a few extra dollars on another housing.
If your tank is really dirty the second one will probably plug soon too, but it will likely be enough to get you away from that lee shore and out of immediate danger.

Clearly it’s a good idea to keep your tank clean, but if you can’t get around to that before motoring in rough conditions, just fill the tank as full as possible before heading out to reduce the amount of sloshing, as you’re most likely to have problems when your tank is less than half full.
If it’s too hard to keep your tank clean then install an access hatch, which is just a piece of metal with some screws and a gasket.

It really blows my mind that it’s legal to make and sell a boat without redundant fuel/water separators, because it’s such a common problem and such an inexpensive way to make sure your engine is available to get you out of trouble.

But then again, maybe the manufacturers don’t mind it if a yacht or two washes up on the shore, because then they get to sell you another one paid for by the insurance company.

Disclaimer:
- This content is offered solely for your education and entertainment.
- There are no warranties, expressed or implicit, about any content or its fitness for a particular purpose.
- There are risks of injury, death, drunkenness, and financial hardship involved in sailing.
- The skipper is always responsible for the safety of their vessel and crew.
- Sailing Tips is not responsible or liable in any way for anything that happens on or anywhere near your boat or any boat that we are not in command of.

#sailing #howtosail #learntosail #sailingtips

[SailingTipsCa]

I didn't provide any boat-specific recommendations for adding a redundant fuel/water separator because there are just too many factors, such as what kind of boat it is, what kind of fuel/water separator you already have, how much space you have, what is locally available, and whether you want a genuine "twin" of your existing unit or a cheap knock-off.

The $30 solution variant is a simple straight bypass of the fuel/water separator and allowing the fuel filter on the engine to do all the work. This will run your engine for a while and get you out of trouble but I strongly prefer spending a bit more for the second fuel/water separator.

The $30 three-way fuel valve in the video is also not a specific product recommendation, but the cheapest three-way fuel valve I could find on Amazon. I would recommend spending slightly more for a higher quality unit. I simply bought what they had at my local chandlery which was slightly more expensive, but not much more.

You can also replace your existing fuel/water separator with a pre-built unit with two filters and a switch between them, but again that depends on the above factors, and they are much more expensive than just "twinning" your existing unit with a three way fuel switch.

I really just wanted to motivate sailing yacht owners to explore relatively inexpensive ways to add resiliency to their fuel systems, like adding redundant fuel/water separators and tank inspection hatches, both of which are straightforward retrofits and one of the best bang-for-buck investments you can make for the safety of your boat.

[DatawaveMarineSolutions]

Excellent suggestion. And to lend even more validity: this is standard practice on all commercial ships. We install dual fuel filters with a valve to switch between them. The whole thing comes as one unit. And as an added bonus, it allows you to change one fuel filter while still running the engine through the second filter. For anyone that wants the prebuilt dual units, search for duplex fuel filter.

[SailingYachtSaltyLass]

Add a diesel bug killer with every fill. Stop the bug from ever getting hold.

[blackwell]

Isolated each filter with 2 valves instead. If you clog one filter, you are likely to clog a second one. With each filter having isolation valves, you can change filters with the engine running.

[gp]

The other tip I saw, which would work well with your idea, is to keep a separate canister of diesel on bored that you know is clean. If your engine stops due to dirty diesel then detach the fuel pipe and insert it into the canister of clean diesel. Even better if you can do that through a separate clean fuel separator.

[Gunny_]

Wouldn't you want a second valve on the outputs of the filters where they re-combine back into the line that runs to the pump? That way you can fully isolate one filter or the other while the engine is running?

[michaellippmann]

Yep...did that to our current boat about 20 years ago. Went a step further. 2 Racor 500 filters and 2 electric fuel pumps in parallel. Easy switch over if needed.
Just bought a new boat that does not use an electric pump pump but will be adding a 2nd filter unit. But one of the first jobs will be pulling the tank out, cleaning it thoroughly and adding an access panel!
Cheers and really great tip.
Mike

[todddunn]

If you spend a bit more and put in a 500 series Racor fuel water separator you can change the filter in 5 minutes of less or just break down and buy a Racor duplex separator unit which combines a valve and two filter/separator units. It isn't going to cost $30 though. What I would never have on my boat is one of those filters with a screw on element on the bottom.

Better yet is a day tank that only has filtered fuel in it. That tank, of course, needs its own fuel filters.

[williambunting]

Good one. Another equally cheap safety fix is to have 2 other hoses with a pair of 3 way valves, connected into the system so that you can drop the ends of these hoses into a reserve fuel bottle or tank. It is far easier to keep a 20 liter drum of fuel clean ready for that storm emergency.

[adamwinnett]

All you need is this $30 part plus another one in excess of $200 plus all the plumbing for installation. But that’s not a catchy YouTube title.

[garrettclark]

On one of the boats I ran we had vacuum gauges to show if we had a slowing down of fuel. I could change the filters in less than five minutes. Just turn the valve to a new one and didn't lose an engine. Then underway I would changer the old filter out and have it ready. Gman

[NotExpatJoe]

I have a 4 gallon day tank installed on my 30hp Yanmar. It solves a lot of these problems and gives me about four hours of clean fuel to burn. If I can't fix a fuel problem in four hours, I'm better off staying home. 😂

[philhardwick]

I rebuilt my iron fuel tanks out of epoxy and added a drainable sump that is plumbed with a three way valve to the oil change pump. This works exceptionally well since my tanks are three sided saddle style and slant to the sump. I also angled the return tube towards the sump to wash the gunk towards it. My pick-up is mounted on the top of the sump about three inches from the bottom. Because of the shape, this only leaves a couple of gallons of unreachable fuel.

[clintstinkeye]

I worked with high level shipwrights for a lot of years on some sporky projects.
I never learned how to sail, but I can build, thanks to the freaks that allowed me to apprentice under them.
Old school technology made many Cape Horners mostly safe under a good skipper.
I did a repair on a maybe 1920's Fife that got T-boned by a larger Mexican fishing boat.
Demasted it and gave it a ribshot, but she didn't sink.
The owner of the Fife was off the charts creepy and a lot of people said he had it coming.
He had a solid boat.

[sw]

I learned from running my own semi truck that algae would grow in the fuel tanks and start clogging up the fuel system. I started using Power Service, a product that killed the algae and I never had that issue again.

[danpease]

A good idea, but.musrepresented as a $30 part. You need to include the several hundred dollar filter system.

[Siblo]

I live in the tropics so it's also best to have your tank full as often as possible. The air in the tank condensed into water as it cools nightly and taints the fuel.

[ismzaxxon]

I suck as a mechanic..So i fitted one of those soon after yacht purchase. I also fitted a day tank, to which only clean fuel goes onto. I don't really care much about the main tanks as i filter all fuel into days tank.

[danielboughton]

I have a day tank and 2 bunk tanks and 2 filters. The advantage of a day tank is you can filter clean fuel in and run the engine from that. The issue with using the main tank is getting crud stirred up from the bottom in rough seas. My day tank is gravity fed from the bottom of the tank so crud does not accumulate. In addition I can also loop in a fuel pump with a valve to polish it if I think there is crud in there e.g. at the beginning of the season. I also have an old perkins diesel with zero electronics. If it starts it will stay running unless you blow it up or run it out of fuel.

[GrgRat]

Clean the tank annually, keep the tank full, and then always fill the boat using a racor fuel filter funnel, no more problems