To start with, This isn’t click bait…..
This post pertains to owners who have FP gensets with water / gas separators
This will include 49 / 50 owners, and possibly others .
I started my yearly spring cleaning, which entails going into every locker, sub- floor space, etc., and making it clean enough to perform a kidney replacement surgery. I like to get the boat starting as fresh as possible, and this is almost a week of wringing out rags as I scrub every square inch.
One of my absolutely most OCD traits is that every drop of water in the boat must have a known source. My bilge is bone dry, owing to a complicated whale IC sump system. I learned a long time ago that every day on the water includes a bilge check.
I was cleaning the area under my prop shaft and coupling, which is always absolutely clean and dry. There was some water puddled underneath the shaft, which I attributed to getting my FW system reconnected. No worries, dried it up, and didn’t think about it.
Until the next day, when (of course ) I re-checked it.
Water again
I brought out the searchlights, and dove into the cupboard.
The area that seemed to be leaking was the through hull fitting for the Fischer Panda water/gas separator underwater discharge.
Not a lot of water,,,just literally a drop running down the hull every minute or 2.
The through hull fitting for the water discharge is quite large. And Hunter used a plywood backup ring under the nut. It appeared as though the water was weeping through the wood, which appeared saturated .
My analysis was that over the winter the wood had cracked a bit from existing moisture in t
My thoughts were that this wasn’t worth a haulout. I’d scrub the area with Methyl Hydate, and then flood the ring with 4200. This would seal it up for the season.
Decided to give it a day to think about.
Went back into the locker today.
And this is where the story gets bad.
I started feeling the hose leading down to the through hull, and it just seemed wet.
Looked above it for leaks . Nothing
So brought in more lights
And here’s what I found ;
The hose had cracks all around it. (See photos)
I tenderly moved it a bit, and the damned thing just split.
The only thing holding the hose together was the single reinforcement wire
And now I’ve got a serious problem
The through hull fitting this hose attaches to has never been exercised. Simply left open in the winter to drain.
And I was really concerned about snapping the handle, etc.
So, squirted some WD on the actuator, and waited about 5 minutes, listening to my bilge pump cycle.
I carefully tapped the handle with a small plastic mallet to get it moving, and then breathed a sigh of relief when it closed.
So,,,
How on earth did I manage to split a rubber exhaust hose from a genset with only 197 hours on it??
Here is my theory on why this happened, and how it is likely lurking on other similar installations :
The water exhaust is fairly high temperature.
But, this is exhaust hose, and it’s rated for it… no problem.
But, the hose on this install has a bend radius just above the through hull. A point of stress, but still within the ratings.
You then have to think about what happens after you shut down your genset.
As the through hull is well below water line (actually under the hull), cold water will immediately surge up after shutdown.
So, you are temperature cycling the bent section of hose between Lake Ontario frigid, and hot exhsust while flexing it very close to the through hull.
I strongly suggest that any owners of these genset installs with water gas separators take a very close look at the hose area near the through hull fitting. I fully expect had I not caught this pre-emptively that this would have been a very bad situation indeed.
This post pertains to owners who have FP gensets with water / gas separators
This will include 49 / 50 owners, and possibly others .
I started my yearly spring cleaning, which entails going into every locker, sub- floor space, etc., and making it clean enough to perform a kidney replacement surgery. I like to get the boat starting as fresh as possible, and this is almost a week of wringing out rags as I scrub every square inch.
One of my absolutely most OCD traits is that every drop of water in the boat must have a known source. My bilge is bone dry, owing to a complicated whale IC sump system. I learned a long time ago that every day on the water includes a bilge check.
I was cleaning the area under my prop shaft and coupling, which is always absolutely clean and dry. There was some water puddled underneath the shaft, which I attributed to getting my FW system reconnected. No worries, dried it up, and didn’t think about it.
Until the next day, when (of course ) I re-checked it.
Water again
I brought out the searchlights, and dove into the cupboard.
The area that seemed to be leaking was the through hull fitting for the Fischer Panda water/gas separator underwater discharge.
Not a lot of water,,,just literally a drop running down the hull every minute or 2.
The through hull fitting for the water discharge is quite large. And Hunter used a plywood backup ring under the nut. It appeared as though the water was weeping through the wood, which appeared saturated .
My analysis was that over the winter the wood had cracked a bit from existing moisture in t
My thoughts were that this wasn’t worth a haulout. I’d scrub the area with Methyl Hydate, and then flood the ring with 4200. This would seal it up for the season.
Decided to give it a day to think about.
Went back into the locker today.
And this is where the story gets bad.
I started feeling the hose leading down to the through hull, and it just seemed wet.
Looked above it for leaks . Nothing
So brought in more lights
And here’s what I found ;
The hose had cracks all around it. (See photos)
I tenderly moved it a bit, and the damned thing just split.
The only thing holding the hose together was the single reinforcement wire
And now I’ve got a serious problem
The through hull fitting this hose attaches to has never been exercised. Simply left open in the winter to drain.
And I was really concerned about snapping the handle, etc.
So, squirted some WD on the actuator, and waited about 5 minutes, listening to my bilge pump cycle.
I carefully tapped the handle with a small plastic mallet to get it moving, and then breathed a sigh of relief when it closed.
So,,,
How on earth did I manage to split a rubber exhaust hose from a genset with only 197 hours on it??
Here is my theory on why this happened, and how it is likely lurking on other similar installations :
The water exhaust is fairly high temperature.
But, this is exhaust hose, and it’s rated for it… no problem.
But, the hose on this install has a bend radius just above the through hull. A point of stress, but still within the ratings.
You then have to think about what happens after you shut down your genset.
As the through hull is well below water line (actually under the hull), cold water will immediately surge up after shutdown.
So, you are temperature cycling the bent section of hose between Lake Ontario frigid, and hot exhsust while flexing it very close to the through hull.
I strongly suggest that any owners of these genset installs with water gas separators take a very close look at the hose area near the through hull fitting. I fully expect had I not caught this pre-emptively that this would have been a very bad situation indeed.
![IMG_2876[1].JPG](/data/attachments/193/193609-c9f4c6cd57dcd604d82f1a1883e4f684.jpg)
