Introduction
 

Hello,
We are new to the world of boating. We bought our first boat in March 2009 - a 2007 Mariah SC19. We are on the West Coast of Scotland in Lochgoilhead.
We are learning as we go along. We've been given lots of good advice locally, although one person almost always contradicts the other, so we're always doing something wrong!
We've had a rocky start - damaged the prop on our first outing, then had the engine flooded since the bilge pump died when it was moored on the loch for a few weeks where we hadn't gone out to check it. All repaired now.
We were out this weekend and just cruising around very slowly fishing, and having nice time for couple of hours. We tried to go faster, and got to 20mph when the temp alarm was sounding. We turned off the engine, let it cool down then came home and moored her. We don't know if she just didn't like going slow for so long, or if something else is wrong? Any ideas?

Jayne & John
"Lots to Learn"

Re: Introduction
 

Hello and welcome aboard.

What was your temp gauge reading when the alarm went off?

The usual culprit for overheating is a worn out or damaged sea water impeller. If you don't know the history on the service of your boat, you may want to change it out as a first step.

Re: Introduction
 

Yup. We just bought a used 1994 182 Barchetta, and tho the seller (a dealer) assured us it probably wasn't necessary, we had him change the impeller and outdrive lube. He was right, it turned out, as the old impeller looked brand-new and the old lube looked like had just come out of the bottles, but still: Now we knew just where we stood.

Do the lochs have weeds, like our inland lakes do? Weeds clogging-up the raw water intake can cause what you experienced, as well. One of our close friends that has lived on the lake where we boat warned us to keep a very close eye on engine temp with our new little power-boat, as a friend of his fried an engine on an I/O boat due to weeds clogging-up the raw water intake.

Jim

Re: Introduction
 

Thanks for the useful advice. We were traveling through a particularly weedy part of the loch when the temp increased (to top of the scale 240degrees). We'll try again and avoid the weeds.

Thanks guys!

Jayne

Re: Introduction
 

That's probably what it was, then. Thank heavens for over-temp alarms, eh? :)

Our friend suggested that everytime we leave the creek, going out into the lake, we let the boat drift to a stop and go in reverse for a few seconds to make sure any weeds we might've picked up on the outdrive were off, before putting the pedal to the metal, as it were.

If you suspect weeds, you can try that. Or you can shut 'er down, hit the trailering button for the outdrive to bring it up to its highest position, and hang over the back to check it out.

You're welcome.

Jim