Or how one maiden set out to 'Tame the Iron Maiden,' who she now shares quarters with.
The author, Julie Dean, very novice yachtswomen, live aboard... and now "qualified (Cruising Yacht Association Victoria) diesel maintenance guru," sets out to become a meaningful member of the crew of two aboard the motorsailer ketch, Amazing Grace

I am now 12 months into a relationship, with my long term business partner, best friend and soon, husband to be, Gary Plumley, who has the hindsight and benefit of more than 30 years of continuous boat and yacht ownership.
We are both attempting to bring the same balance and equality into our cruising life as we have enjoyed in business. In our Cosmetic Surgery and medical business, I design, construct and write our medical policy manuals and hope that our boat manual and operating instruction guide, I am in the process of writing, can provide the same benefit to Amazing Grace, her regular crew (us) and guests.

Amazing Grace in her pen at Yaringa Marina, Westernport Bay, Victoria. 

We recently participated in the excellent CYAV Diesel Maintenance Course run by Hugh Pilsworth and I really needed to reinforce the technical and practical knowledge gained. The next day after breakfast, onboard Amazing Grace, I went down into the engine room, with serious mechanical thoughts on my mind.
In the past, my visits there, were to collect tools, paint and brushes or other maintenance items, or to simply pass through on my way to the aft cabin.
Looking at our engine with new found intent, it dawned on me that this 'Big Bertha' of an engine, a Mercedes Benz OM352, 6.5 litres and 135hp, paled Hugh's little workshop 3 cylinder Yanmar into insignificance. In fact, I must confess, I was very daunted by her size. Everything was bigger, more of them and in different places to the Yanmar. I decided then and there, that if we were going to have a relationship, we needed to be on first name terms.

Coming out of the engine room, I asked Gary, the origins of the name Bertha, after a quick Google search we established not only was 'Bertha' Germanic in origin, another Bertha, Bertha Benz was the wife of Karl Benz, the forefather of Mercedes Benz. Bertha an inventor in her own right had also funded the investment that allowed them to develop the world's first patented automobile. In 1888, Bertha Benz was also the first person to drive an automobile over long distance, proving the reliability and efficiency of this new mode of mechanical transport.

So 'Bertha' it was, my instinctive choice of name seemed very fitting, she should also have lots in common with our other reliable crew member 'Otto' our ever trusty autopilot.

Had the skipper, been thinking ahead ? or did he have a devious plan to remove himself from engine room duty…

He produced a complete set of drive belts, filters and oil, with the simple comment that, ' it was time to jump in, off the deep end'. Back down in the engine room, it was time for Bertha and I to start our long term friendship. I began by identifying and checking the flow and interconnectivity of Bertha's plumbing. I then identified, which of the four V-belts went where, by overlaying the belts over the originals. I then began to loosen her small 12 volt auxiliary alternator and the main drive belt that also operated the raw water impeller. Shock and horror there were another two same size belts, that were not anything like I had trained on the day before. They were connected to a very large 24volt alternator, connected to a solid post mounted beside Bertha.

Out of the engine room again, I consulted our ancient Mercedes Workshop manual. This alternator did not exist, nor did the 12 volt alternator. In fact the filters were mounted in different places and there was no heat exchange system. Gary explained that in her previous life Bertha had been a long distance Truckie, before her marine conversion in 1978 to 'Bertha the Boatie.' The marine adaptations now made sense, as did his explanation that 'big boned girls' like Bertha could enjoy approximately 13,000 hours of operating life, between rebuilds and that our Bertha was only 300 hours old in her current guise.

Bertha Benz driving the Benz Patent-Motorwagen c. 1886. Inset the very beautiful Bertha makes our OM352 Bertha, the ubiquitos Mercedes work horse look very pedestrian.

This was turning into a very informative get to know each other session. After another cup of tea, I returned to tackle those tricky double belts and found an adjustment pulley that allowed me to loosen the tension, however there was a lot of fine black dust, almost oily looking, that had spread or sprayed off the outer belt onto the alternator and nearby battery box.
Whilst Gary had the answer, I jumped on the internet and found a number of possible causes… ( more on that later). With the help of a very large screwdriver shank, and the right socket spanners, I refitted the belts and tensioned them to about the same tightness as the originals.

With Gary's help, I replaced the main canister oil filter, after we had pumped nearly 17 litres of oil out of Bertha's dipstick aperture. With a new load of essential body fluids and coolant topped up, it was time to fire up my new best friend and take her for a run to clean her bottom.

To my amazement, everything worked.

After a run against tide and wind to a point past Hastings, on Westernport Bay, we hove to and re adjusted some belt tension. So far so good, this was truly a new friendship of great proportions. Back at port at Yaringa Marina, on Watson's Inlet, it was time for me to top up my own fluids with a few quick red wines.

This weekend had proved to be the beginning, I believe of the next phase of the rest of my life. We had now grown from imbalanced beginnings, into the start of a real team, a team of two supported by our two very reliable and now better understood crew Bertha and Otto. "We have made a pact with them, to never mention the war."

So here are the maintenance points I learnt in theory and have now performed in a real life engine room.

The belts that drive Bertha's accessories, include the raw-water pump, circulator pump, and alternator, will usually provide reliable trouble-free service, provided they are properly maintained and replaced when approaching the end of their useful lives.

The author Julie Dean, comes from a family of electrical engineers and has now begun her own career in diesel mechanical maintenance.

 
Like many issues in male health, most cruising yachtsmen neglect these, simple, yet all-too-important components until disaster strikes. Once a belt breaks, all of these vital on board mechanical systems grind to a halt. The raw water and water pump stops pumping sea water, the circulator pump stops circulating coolant, and the alternator no longer produces electricity. While it may not become immediately apparent that you have lost the alternator, rest assured, you will quickly become aware of the loss of sea water and coolant as the temperature gauge climbs into the danger zone and your motor overheat alarm sounds. ( We hope your engine is equipped with operating versions of both of these instruments, in our case our overheat alarm is faulty, and is the next little women's (not men's) health issue to be overcome on Bertha).

Like all good accessories there are different types of belts, Serpentine and V-Belts

The belts used to power the accessories on Bertha and most middle aged diesels are usually of the “V" variety, although the ribbon-shaped flat serpentine belts have now become the norm for many of the younger generation marine engines. Often, one V-belt may multi-task and perform double duty, providing rotary power from the crankshaft pulley to both the alternator and circulator pump, while another belt will help the raw-water pump do its thing.

One serpentine belt, on the other hand, will typically operate all accessories. I have recently seen a friend working on his, serpentine belt-equipped diesel engine; Not only were three or four belts replaced by one, tensioning is nearly always automatic so there’s little worry about slipping or damage caused by a belt that’s too tight. Ordinary V- Belts and serpentine belts are, with a little knowledge, easily serviced, adjusted (where necessary), and replaced. Just to give you an idea of the energy that a belt may be called upon to transmit, a high-output alternator, like our Leece Neville 125 amps unit, will require, after allowances for friction and electrical inefficiencies, roughly 5 or 6hp, all of which is carried by the belt or belts. So, for V-belt systems, like Bertha it is prudent to carry double belts when amperage exceeds 100 amps. See, I did pay attention…Hugh.

How tight should a girl, adjust her belts and bustles ?

Tight, but not too Tight.
One or your first checks should be to inspect your engine’s belts. A common question for marine mechanics is, how tight should my belt be? Without a tool for measuring this, that’s a very subjective question, however, the answer simply is, tight enough so they don’t slip, but no tighter.

If a V- Belt is slipping it won’t turn its related accessory properly and it will wear out and often suffer early breakage. If it’s too tight, it will speed up wear on bearings and seals. If you see any evidence of belt dust on the front of the engine or the alternator casing and fan, it’s so fine and “oily” that it’s often mistaken for an oil leak, then the belt is either slipping or misaligned. If the belt and/or pulley show signs of glazing, a particularly smooth, shiny appearance, it means the belt is slipping. A glazed belt must be replaced, but the glaze on a pulley can be broken or “dressed” using 220-grit sandpaper. ( On Bertha, this problem was caused by mismatched V-Belts, with the outer belt a different brand with slightly smaller shoulder width. It is critical to ensure perfectly matched double belts).

Belt slippage is an insidious problem, as they don’t always provide an outward indication that the problem is occurring. Because of the load they impart on belts, alternators are among the most notorious culprits when it comes to belt slippage. Slipping belts create friction and heat. In some cases, a chronically slipping belt can cause an alternator pulley to become so hot it will turn purple. The heat created at the pulley may travel into the alternator’s shaft and onto
its windings, where it will upset the magnetic field, which in turn will reduce or eliminate the output altogether.
Sometimes, when you start your marine diesel engine you may momentarily hear the familiar belt squeal, at this time, the belts should be inspected and the cause for slippage, corrected. It’s likely that the belt is slipping even when it’s not broadcasting its high pitched squeal.

To tension a conventional V-alternator or waterpump belt, use the handle of a hammer as a lever to pry the accessory away from the crankshaft pulley, then tighten the fixing bolt. Threaded “spreader" tools are available to make this task easier and some aftermarket high-output alternator installations incorporate this into their design. Finally, ensure that each belt’s profile properly matches every pulley over which it turns. The belt should be even with or stand slightly proud (no more than 2 millimetres) of the top of the pulley walls. V-belts that ride deep within and below the rim of the pulley are of an undersized cross section and are likely to slip as a result of reduced surface area contact. Such mismatched belts often occur on alternators because they are likely to have been replaced, away from regular purchase outlets, at some point in a cruising diesel engine’s life. ( Always carry a complete set of spare belts, we now carry two complete sets on Amazing Grace).

Serpentine belts have no such issues; however, they can suffer from their own shortcomings. Perhaps the most common serpentine belt failure mode involves misalignment with an idler or accessory pulley, which will result in the belt wearing out prematurely, often along one side. The wear is characterised by exposed belt filament. The cause for this misalignment is nearly always an improperly installed aftermarket accessory such as an alternator or a worn-out tensioner pulley. In
either case, the problem should be corrected immediately.

Like all personal health issues regular check ups are the key, inspect your belts and bits regularly. V-Belts are inexpensive in the great scheme of things, so it’s cheap insurance to replace them every two years or 400 hours, whichever comes first. Remember, a new belt may require adjustment and re-tensioning several times in the first 50–100 hours of use. There after, you should inspect belts closely once a month and a more than cursory inspection, every time you are in the engine room, I have now written into our boat manual a complete inspection prior to every start up and after every shut down. Also remember that if your engine is tucked away, under a cabin sole, or behind a companionway, you must make the time to regularly give her the once over.

To ensure this happens, we now hang our engine ignition keys on the open and close handle on our main raw water seacock into the engine, this ensures we check our sea cock and can inspect our stern gland and prop shaft in immediate proximity. This task requires us to lift the rear engine access port to the bilge. whilst I am on my knees down there, this is the perfect time and position to inspect all seals and belts.
The over riding thing I have learnt during this process, is to look at the simple issues first, when attempting to problem solve in an engine room, or anywhere on board for that matter. Usually a breakdown or strange noise is something really simple. Immediately something untoward happens, carry out all the simple checks outlined above, before you take spanners in hand and start pulling things apart.

So there it is… not so much a short story of the 'Taming of the Iron Maiden,'

More a story of developing ongoing trust and ensuring that two very different maidens, learn how to live together harmoniously in confined space, with each
respecting the others needs, and sustenance requirements and bodily functions.
Not that different to my first year living on a boat, with Gary really.

Julie Dean
S/V Amazing Grace