GnrlPatton
Well-Known Member
- Jul 12, 2010
- 724
- Boat Info
- Current: 1998 370 Express Cruiser
Sold:1988 230 Weekender
- Engines
- Twin Cat 3116T
First off, I will say that I'm not sure it's even a problem - let me explain.
I was in a popular bay last weekend along with dozens (hundreds?) of boats, and my yacht club was doing it's annual raft up so we had 2 strings of 15 boats stern to stern. It was a hot weekend, and my wife wasn't feeling well, so I ran the generator a lot to keep the cabin cool for her. Others around me, as well as in the whole bay, were also running generators quite a bit through the weekend.
On Sunday when I started packing up to leave, I pulled the dinghy out of the water and noticed that there was a black ring around it right at the waterline. It was tied up behind my boat except for the 30-60 minutes we used it to dinghy around the bay and see friends. At first I thought it was from other boats (we had seen a sheen come through our anchor lines earlier in the weekend, we assumed from boats ahead of us in the bay, but definitely not from any of us the way it was flowing), but then I noticed it was mostly on the starboard side of the dinghy, which aligns with my generator exhaust port. We had dozens of people swimming in the lake, including behind my boat, and nobody came away with black face from it, only my dinghy.
I went yesterday to do an oil change on it, and just check things out, and the oil level looked normal and I saw no obvious signs of problems. There's no sooting around the exhaust port or leaks in the ER around the generator, and when running I don't see any obvious sheen in the water. I'm going out this weekend for Seafair for 4 days, and I'm sure I'll be running the generator a bit over that 4 days.
What would any of you do to check things on it to make sure she's healthy? Just watch for sheen or exhaust sooting? Again, I'm not sure if there's even a problem, but the amount of oily mess on the dinghy was a bit troubling to me, and I am suspecting there's something up with my generator, just not sure how to start troubleshooting on it.
Sorry for the long post, but wanted to get the entire scenario out there for advice.
I was in a popular bay last weekend along with dozens (hundreds?) of boats, and my yacht club was doing it's annual raft up so we had 2 strings of 15 boats stern to stern. It was a hot weekend, and my wife wasn't feeling well, so I ran the generator a lot to keep the cabin cool for her. Others around me, as well as in the whole bay, were also running generators quite a bit through the weekend.
On Sunday when I started packing up to leave, I pulled the dinghy out of the water and noticed that there was a black ring around it right at the waterline. It was tied up behind my boat except for the 30-60 minutes we used it to dinghy around the bay and see friends. At first I thought it was from other boats (we had seen a sheen come through our anchor lines earlier in the weekend, we assumed from boats ahead of us in the bay, but definitely not from any of us the way it was flowing), but then I noticed it was mostly on the starboard side of the dinghy, which aligns with my generator exhaust port. We had dozens of people swimming in the lake, including behind my boat, and nobody came away with black face from it, only my dinghy.
I went yesterday to do an oil change on it, and just check things out, and the oil level looked normal and I saw no obvious signs of problems. There's no sooting around the exhaust port or leaks in the ER around the generator, and when running I don't see any obvious sheen in the water. I'm going out this weekend for Seafair for 4 days, and I'm sure I'll be running the generator a bit over that 4 days.
What would any of you do to check things on it to make sure she's healthy? Just watch for sheen or exhaust sooting? Again, I'm not sure if there's even a problem, but the amount of oily mess on the dinghy was a bit troubling to me, and I am suspecting there's something up with my generator, just not sure how to start troubleshooting on it.
Sorry for the long post, but wanted to get the entire scenario out there for advice.