We took the boat out on Boxing Day (December 26) for a quick spin, with me (Liz) practicing at the helm on the flybridge. As I increased speed, we noticed the tachometer didn’t register. Shawn quickly descended to see what the problem was. He found that the tachometer would only register when the engine bank was charging only the start battery. As soon as the charging relay kicked in, the voltage would drop and the tach would quit. We headed back to the dock for further investigation. We haven’t figured out what was going on, but we did discover the water pump was leaking at the same time; perhaps causing the alternator belt to slip with the additional load of the house bank. The engine room and alternator were drenched with antifreeze. We saw this as a sign to lay her up for the winter, so yesterday we changed the oil and winterized her. We will fix the alternator/voltage/tachometer/water pump problem this winter! (And I am hoping we can still grab some of those random warm winter days and cruise).
