sailboat overheating

[perlasowner]

Hello I am new to boat ownership. I have an 86 Catalina 30. The boat is at a marina slip. The other night I started the boat for a 15 minutes or so to charge the batteries. I noticed that the boat overheats, I shut it down. It tried it the next night, and the same thing. I usually give it a bit of throttle to make sure raw water runs through the system. Am I not supposed to run the diesel while at the slip?

The boat has never overheated when the boat is out cruising, but frankly I have not taken it out since then.

 

[Stu Jackson]

The engine is overheating, not the boat, so what engine do you have?

If you have an M25, you might be interested in reading some of this material: http://www.c34.org/wiki/index.php?title=Diesel_Engine

Issues:

1. seacock open?
2. raw water impeller condition and age, when last changed
3. heat exchanger serviced? the inlet port gets clogged up, too
4. blocked inlet to thru hull - use a dinghy foot pump on the raw water pump inlet to blow it out
5. air bubble in line to hot water heater - need to burp the engine

 

[dan nahant]

Get Book

Nigels Caulders, Boat Owners Mech and Elect Manual is a tremendous resource. Perfect winter reading. Worth the cost. I think our site host offers it Although Stu's checklist is spot on.