A sticky problem

I read with interest the your December 2021 article about diesel bug – it resonated with me as I’d suffered from the dreaded bug in August 2020.

We were heading North to Corfu from Kefalonia on a Bavaria 44. It had been a hard beat into the wind with choppy seas. The sea state was rough and windy, pushing us directly into the bay. Once through the entrance of the bay I realised it was smaller, narrower and shallower than I expected and with the onshore wind decided the safest thing was to get out. With a fair number of revs, I turned the boat and headed out into open water, slightly relieved!

As we exited the bay the engine slowed, its tone changed and it eventually spluttered to a stop.

I removed the primary filter which was full of jelly-like diesel bug. Having spent the next 20 minutes going through the boat looking for a spare filter I gave up, washed the existing one with petrol then replaced it.

Once anchored the search began on Paxos for a spare filter which we fortunately found. The next day we set off for Corfu, however, in the channel between Paxos and Corfu the engine packed up again. No problem, I thought, just change the filter. No, the engine refused to start.

I blew through the lines, bled the engine repeatedly, the filter was clean but it still refused to start. What now?

After a couple of hours, the wind got up and we could sail on our way north. I managed to contact a yacht service company in Gouvia that, once I was close, came out in a RIB to help get the engine running. It turned out that a particle of bug residue had got past the primary and secondary filters and had blocked the fuel pipe to the injector pump – more than I could have dealt with at sea with the tools I had to hand.

Since then, I have taken a lot more interest in the fuel and tank. The boat had been on the hard for eight months because of the pandemic with a full tank of fuel. We had treated the tank with fuel additive but apparently that turned the existing bug into the jelly that blocked the filter.

It was good to read your article which may help others avoid what can be a serious situation.

YW: We’re glad Graham and his crew were safe. Now we’re off to check our fuel tanks and filters...

On the hunt

I’d be very grateful for any assistance readers might be able to provide with respect to the whereabouts and/or fate of yacht Riva, once owned and raced from Hull by my grandfather, Mr Harrison Bulman, before World War I.

Her last known location was Cobb’s Quay, Hamworthy, Poole and we had correspondence in 1971 with her then owner Mr D M Adkins. He records that he