"The First week in the Field"

Over this last week I began a summer internship at Bellingham Yacht Sales and Charters as an assistant service technician. The company buys, sells and trades 20 to 50 foot yachts. They are dealers for Back Cove Yachts, Sabre Yachts and CutWater another company that makes yachts. Since the day I began I thrown right into having to use the skills I have learned since I began the diesel program at BTC. I already have had to deal with several electronic issues; hydraulic issues; preform engine services and lots of other general maintenance and installations. Here are several of things I have done over the last week.

This was one of my first tasks, I was asked to figure out why the fresh water pump aboard this 21' Ranger Tug boat wasn't working and fix or replace it. I was also asked to service the engine and detail it since this boat was just brought to us the day before and had been sitting in the owners back yard for the last year.

Below are a few pictures of me replacing the old fresh water pump which turned out to be nonfunctional with a new.  Believe me it wasn't easy squeezing back in their.

 Here are some pictures of the engine service and detail which included a oil change, oil filter change, sea water filter change, fuel filter change, battery replacement, zinc replacement and the detailing of the whole engine and compartment. The engine I was servicing was a Yanmar 6 L. 24 valve diesel engine. This was my first time ever performing this to this engine and their was no service manual, however I was able to find a PDF file with the service manual on Google which made it much easier.

Another work order I was given that very same day was to find out why the CD player, forward bilge pump weren't working and service another engine on a 26' foot Albin yacht. I was able to perform all these tasks in a decent amount of time. The CD player was easy, as you will see below I hooked the leads of my multi meter up to the battery tested it, it was fine. I then went from the battery and post 1 and post 2 at the CD player and found that every thing was in order, there was no open circuit and plenty of voltage. I got a new CD player and used it when I did my oil change.

 Below are some pictures of the zinc replacement I did while servicing the engine on the same yacht.

One thing I really learned and had no clue about was how easily the zincs could fall off if you waited to long to change them. I ended up getting lucky on this one because I was able to fish out the rest of the zincs that had fallen off one of the plugs. If not I would have been taking off the end cap on the heat ex-changer, not that much fun.

 Here are some pictures of another job I had later in the week that had to do with the hydraulic ram used to open the hatch to the engine room wouldn't retract. I ended up filling up the pump reservoir to the proper level cause it was not their. It still didn't work so I had to take off the line that went from the pump to the cylinder, push out the remaining fluid and hook it back up. The system worked great after that.


It was absolutely awesome to be able to perform the tasks sent my way. On my second day the service manager went on vacation and I was left to my own skills. I successfully completed many things in several types of systems. At the end of the week both owners shook my hand and let me know they were very happy to have as a part of there team. It is a great feeling to be able to provide this type of service and to learn everyday that I do it. The thing that I can definitely reflect on over this last week is what I was taught and learned in several courses during my time at BTC. Also like always going back to the basics, I had to do this along with use the internet to complete some of the tasks, but it all started there at the understanding of the system. So yeah if you don't understand the system it is a whole lot harder to even figure out where to begin and you will save a lot of money and time if you do.

Week 1
Hours 38

Happy Late 4th of July!!!!!!!