"Wayne B" wrote in message
...

On Fri, 31 May 2013 14:38:04 -0400, "Eisboch" wrote:

I'd never trust a single engine for the kind of
cruising that you guys do.

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That was our thinking when we bought the boat and it has paid off.
We've experienced more than a few single engine shut downs and none of
them were more than a minor inconvenience (aside from the problem
resolution). We have two generators also, and that has paid off more
times than I can remember. There are still a few single points of
failure like the anchor windlass and autopilot but we have work
arounds for most contingencies.

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Yeah, the one we had had quite an interesting log book. The
previous owner had taken it everywhere imaginable, even to the west
coast via the Panama Canal. I never ventured more than a few miles
offshore with it because the engine had over 7000 hours on it. It
always ran though and never had a problem with it.

The only problem I ever had with diesels was with the Navigator. It
was the first season I had it and was on the way to Florida. Pulled
into some marina in Delaware somewhere due to a heavy thunderstorm and
after we tied up I couldn't shut one of the engines down. Both the
flybridge control key and the pilothouse control key did nothing.
Engine just sat there idling. After about an hour and a phone call
to the dealer who then had a Volvo rep call me, I learned about the
manual fuel shut off lever mounted on the side of the engine. That
finally stopped it but the troubleshooting began to determine why the
key wouldn't shut it off. Turns out turning and holding the key to
the hard left powers a solenoid in the fuel line that stops fuel flow
and kills the engine. There was a "resettable fuse" on the control
box that had popped. Reset it and never had the problem again in the
9 years we had the boat. Guess that's how you learn.