Was this video for real or just click bait?

dlochner · Mar 5, 2026

rpwillia said:
I know the last presidential regime was a bit nuts and our government here in Virginia is off the rails as well, but this seems a bit much. The video in the link below was essentially saying if you have a diesel on your boat and need to do major repairs that the EPA is going to force you to swap out the engine for new diesel technology with major electronic controls, DEF tanks, catalytic converter on the exhaust, etc. Seems really extreme, but you never know.

There are a couple of YouTube channels that are AI generated and spreading false and misleading information, often with dire warnings, The Sovereign Sailor and Boats & Yachts. These are clickbait channels trying garner income from YouTube and feeding conspiracy theories.

With that said there are some rules about repowering that do need to be followed. The EPA's goal is to reduce the number of heavily polluting diesel engines on the road and waterways. New diesels have an EPA rating and it is usually necessary to use an EPA rated diesel when repowering and there are rules about how and when to dispose of the old diesel. It is my understanding these rules are being enforced at the distributor and installer level.

I ran into this on a project I'm working on. We needed to replace an old 3 cylinder Detroit diesel. Beta had one in the right horsepower range that was not EPA approved but we could not install that diesel because it is a 4 cylinder diesel. Had the Detroit Diesel been 4 cylinders, it would have been allowed. We purchased an EPA approved Nanni that was based on the same Kubota block. Nanni had their diesel rated.

What do the new EPA diesels get you? A quieter, more efficient, less polluting, lighter and smaller engine. The Nanni we bought weighs about 300 lbs less than the Detroit Diesel.

thinwater · Mar 5, 2026

Moderators: This You Tube channel is known for AI generated click bait. I'd delete the thread.

jssailem · Mar 5, 2026

The answer appears to be No.
Here is the EPA code reference that I found. Federal Register :: Request Access

In reading it, my take is that the agency recognizes the practicality of tier 1 & 2 engines. These are the engines used to power our mature (Legacy vessels). There is language identifying the replacement of same type of engine based on the power and performance requirements of these engines. The new Tier 4 engines are a challenge to fit in the boats.

Captain Larry-DH · Mar 5, 2026

thinwater said:
Moderators: This You Tube channel is known for AI generated click bait. I'd delete the thread.

I think it should be left up so people can be aware of disinformation or informed of misleading partial information.

thinwater · Mar 5, 2026

Captain Larry-DH said:
I think it should be left up so people can be aware of disinformation or informed of misleading partial information.

Yes. But the problem, in this age, is that what is fake, repeated enough, becomes real, even if it is debunked. It is part of the "big lie" problem we are living with.

The other question is what has motivated the AI to tell disinformation. I assume a person fed it the idea of making up lies. Scary, as the lies will only get better and bigger.

At least, let's be clear about what is AI disimformation.

dlochner · Mar 5, 2026

The best response to videos like this to report it. There is a report option on each posted video. Also give it a thumbs down. That will affect the algorithm and make it less popular. Another channel, Boats & Yachts had posted a video about banning older sailors from solo sailing. That video is no longer available.

https://forums.sailboatowners.com/threads/solo-sailing-banned.1249943339/

dlochner · Mar 5, 2026

rpwillia said:
So the video while a little hyped is not totally inaccurate. TBH, the government that governs best governs least. For now the Universal on my boat is identical to my Kubota Tractors diesel and both simple and easy to work on.

No one is going to make you change out your current diesel. The EPA rules only come into play if you install a new engine.

The point of videos like the ones from Sovereign Sailor and Boats & Yachts is to create controversy and rile people up. The Boats & Yachts site is hosted in Slovenia and is likely run by an organization with political objectives which are not in the best interests of the US. When videos like this show up it is best to give a thumbs down and report it as misinformation.

Solo-Sailing Banned in 2026? Yup, YouTuber Says So Using British Accent

jssailem · Mar 5, 2026

Keep your engine running. If it dies then repower with a similar Tier1 or Tier2. You’ll be fine.

Dave · Mar 6, 2026

Threads in the SBO Forum have a long tradition of being apolitical and focused on topics sailing related. When overtly political comments are made, they are usually deleted by one of the moderators. Within this thread there are a few political comments that have intentionally not been deleted. Let me be clear this not because I or SBO endorses those comments or disputes those comments, they were left intact because they exemplify the goals of disinformation campaigns. Regardless of one's political orientation, we should all agree that disinformation campaigns by malign actors do not serve our country well. Disinformation campaigns foster division and dissent, they foster mistrust and contribute to political polarization. These are the enemies of a functional democracy.

So, how does the disinformation campaign work and why a sailing forum? Over the past few weeks I've been following some of the videos posted by Sovereign Sailor and Boats & Yachts. The videos were clearly created by AI, no self-respecting legitimate YouTuber would release such technically crappy videos, initially, they were fairly benign and mildly critical of whatever the topic. In recent weeks they have become more controversial and more incorrect. The targets of their criticism became large institutions, government agencies and the insurance industry. The early videos are designed to build viewership and a following, they seduce the viewer into trusting them. In recent weeks topics have included prohibiting sailors over 60 from sailing solo, insurance companies not insuring older boats, and EPA restrictions on diesel engines, topics likely to generate lively discussions with a strong potential to become quite heated. They also plant and nurture the seeds of distrust of the institutions that make our society work.

Why sailing forums? I think the low hanging fruit for disinformation campaigns has been picked. Reddit, Instagram, Facebook, X(Twitter) are filled with disinformation, the campaign purveyors are looking for fertile fields to sow new seeds of discontent.

And that brings us to this thread. The OP asked a legitimate and necessary question, "Is this information accurate?" A question that is being asked in other forums too. See this thread on SailNet.com about older sailors. He also expressed an opinion with strong political overtones which had the potential to start a divisive political argument, to create animosity between members, to disrupt the normal functioning of this community. This is what the disinformation purveyors wanted. To our credit, members of our community avoided the trap, providing real life examples and researching the EPA rules. We beat them.

To our members, thank you for taking the high road, avoiding the chaos and animosity those behind the videos wanted to create.

Fair Winds,
Dave
SBO Forum Admin

degas · Mar 6, 2026

@Dave , thanks for the reasoned, mature take on this. I support it.

Sometimes, I think that taking on disinformation directly is like arguing with 4 year olds. They don't care about the importance of eating their vegetables. In fact, arguing with them about it only strengthens their real intention: exerting control.

capta · Mar 6, 2026

This sounds like click bait. Remember, this administration got rid of the EPA and most of the clean air initiatives. Why would they bother with old, tired pleasure craft this harshly?
No bother, just take the boat to another country to install a new/rebuilt engine. It would probably be a lot cheaper anyway.

Leeward Rail · Mar 6, 2026

thinwater said:
The other question is what has motivated the AI to tell disinformation. I assume a person fed it the idea of making up lies. Scary, as the lies will only get better and bigger.

The channels that @dlochner mentions are likely intentionally incorrect. Click bait revenue.

That said, you don't have to motivate AI to tell disinformation (but you could easily do so)
Typical AI models are usually slightly inaccurate and occasionally downright false on its own.

It's not intelligence, they just play averages and strings words together. Like a predictive keyboard. Lots of AI generated websites in top search results created for click revenue now.

I figure you will get AI learning from AI generated content, increasing the inaccuracies.

Foswick · Mar 6, 2026

The headline here is that some people are gullible enough to be uncertain that this is clearly false.

The discussion about this being AI-generated are misleading. AI doesn't generate and post videos. People use AI to generate content for videos. The distinction is important. This sort of video has nothing to do with AI. Stuff like this was generated before AI became a commonly available tool. AI tools just made them easier to produce.

Leeward Rail · Mar 12, 2026

Foswick said:
The discussion about this being AI-generated are misleading. AI doesn't generate and post videos.

There ARE AI agents that will AUTONOMOUSLY watch online topic trends, then automatically research, generate and post videos with voice overs, AI generated Avatar/person etc.

You can simply tell an AI agent system to watch sailing topic trends in general, and it will automatically create content 24/7.

Many of the automatic video creation agents are a combination of OpenClaw and something like Agent Opus. There are a few options. I hope to test a few once I get another server., just to see what is possible.
Capabilities are improving.

If you were malicious or just wanting to make click bait, you could tell it to be selective and make videos that are intentionally misleading or controversial, but you don't need to.

Due to the AI slop output that we usually see, even if you just told the system to make videos on the topic of sailing, much of it would be vague or inaccurate

The cool part is that once an AI agent is installed/setup,.it can do it's work 24/7. without human input.

I was almost tempted to setup an username here and have a text based agent automatically read, and post in this forum, as an experiment, but decided against it. I once made a fully sarcastic thread here and even though it was way over the top, some users weren't 100% sure if it was a joke.

In a similar vein...
You guys may recall recent discussions online about moltbook - the front page of the agent internet

It's an online discussion forum for Openclaw AI agents "discussing" topics with each other and learning as they go. Has some serious security flaws but interesting stuff. Moltbook was acquired by Meta/Facebook a couple days ago.

Davidasailor26 · Mar 12, 2026

rpwillia said:
For me I am sticking with my Universal M25XPB and if it fails will find a rebuilt. The new electronically controlled diesels run nice and are cleaner, but if they break at sea you appear to need to have a bunch of spare parts and diagnostic equipment to get you home.

These two sites have a lot of good information;
Why Mechanical Diesel Engines Are So Much More Reliable Than Electronic Versions | Big Bear Engine Company
https://www.thehulltruth.com/boating-forum/311799-mechanical-vs-electronic-diesels.html

The first site is a seller of all mechanical engines, so they might not be the most unbiased source. The second site is a 16 year old Internet forum thread - also possibly not the best source. Your boat, your choice as they say, but if it were mine I’d probably look a little beyond those two sites for the best course of action.

dLj · Mar 12, 2026

rpwillia said:
So while the video I quoted does appear to be AI generated, based on the comments here and elsewhere it is accurate. For me I am sticking with my Universal M25XPB and if it fails will find a rebuilt. The new electronically controlled diesels run nice and are cleaner, but if they break at sea you appear to need to have a bunch of spare parts and diagnostic equipment to get you home.

These two sites have a lot of good information;
Why Mechanical Diesel Engines Are So Much More Reliable Than Electronic Versions | Big Bear Engine Company
https://www.thehulltruth.com/boating-forum/311799-mechanical-vs-electronic-diesels.html

Personally, my diesel does not put out a lot of smoke and in the 22 years I have been running it I have never had a fuel problem. The idea of needing DEF and a catalytic converter (think lots of heat) inside my boat is not all that inviting. I prefer to stick with what works. The government that governs least governs best.

My boats diesel is a modern electronically controlled Yanmar. It does not have DEF, it does not have a catalytic converter. I believe those are both used in on-road diesels, not in marine diesels. My engine also does not have a turbocharger.

I looked quickly over the two links you provided and don't really agree with them for the most part when applied to modern marine diesels, I feel they are aimed at over-the-road diesels, especially large truck diesels. Marinized diesels are another category.

With my Yanmar, there is an override that I can use that completely bypasses the electronics, essentially converting the engine back to a fully mechanical engine. Now, if I were to do that, it would not give me the performance I get with the electronics but I'd get back to port. I have to say, I'm pretty impressed with the performance of this engine - depending upon conditions, I have gotten fuel consumption as low as 0.26 gallons per hour running. Now bear in mind, I'm sailing a greater than 20,000 pound sail boat. That is amazing fuel economy! I typically get between 0.56 gallons per hour and about 0.8 gallons per hour which for the size boat I'm running is still quite impressive.

In the first link above, the injector life reduction stated, I feel is complete bull sh!t. I've been running diesels for many decades in many different applications, sailboats, trucks and cars. It's been my experience that injector life is more dependent on injector design. One diesel engine we used to run, the injectors had to be replaced or rebuilt about every 100,000 miles. It was a fully mechanical diesel engine. We used to keep a spare set of injectors for that engine always. We were actually driving across I80 in PA once, and had an injector crap out. We had to pull over and replace it with a spare at a truck stop on the highway. The injector that crapped out only had about 80k miles on it.

I do agree that the added electronics add a degree of complexity and add in the need to maintain additional electronic connections. But there is nothing else in that first link that seems accurate from what I read in the case of marine diesels.

I'm not opposed to fully mechanical diesels, in fact I quite like them. But simply the fact of mechanical vs electronically controlled would not be a deciding factor for me to keep or replace an engine. I would be more concerned with the availability of parts and the condition of the engine itself - like cylinder walls, main bearings etc. Does the engine have cylinder sleeves or not? No cylinder sleeves - I'd look very carefully if I wanted to keep it.

I wouldn't think twice about repowering with a modern diesel just because it had electronic controls - in fact I'd look at that as an improvement.

Your boat, your choice.

dj

Leeward Rail · Mar 12, 2026

Your post nailed it.

dLj said:
I wouldn't think twice about repowering with a modern diesel just because it had electronic controls - in fact I'd look at that as an improvement.

This whole topic reminds of the days when people would say that carburators were better.

Was this video for real or just click bait?

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SBO Weather and Forecasting Forum Jim & John

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SBO Weather and Forecasting Forum Jim & John

Forum Admin, Gen II

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