Replacement engine to be ordered

Extensive review of the engine installation on Astraea determined that the wet exhaust system was improperly designed.  In the installation of the new engine on Astraea the design of the wet exhaust system had been done such that each time the engine was shut off the volume of water spilling down from the high point in the exhaust system was significantly greater than the vertical water lift muffler could handle.  This resulted in salt water from the wet exhaust backing up into the muffler system and then into the cylinders.  This process had apparently been going on since the engine was installed and the damage was cumulative, culminating in a point where the damage was so extensive that I could hear the knocking from the badly damaged cylinders.  It is actually quite amazing that the engine ran at all with such extensive damage.  It is apparent that it would NOT have run much longer as the corrossion was moving further into the engine with time.  Also, the height of the exhaust system loop had caused excessive back pressure, resulting in incomplete combustion and heavy carbonization and "gunking" of the engine with gooey black carbon in the culinders and valves. 

It is really inconceivable that Svendsen's Boat Works could have made such a major mistake in the design of the wet exhaust system.  I had trusted them with my boat, my life, and the life of my crew, and paid a premium price of about $36,000 for the repowering.  And they screwed it up.  Inconceivable.  Goes to show that paying premium price does not always assure premium quality.  I doubt I will ever trust a boat yard again. 

Hopefully we will soon be installing the new engine.  Perhaps some of the Winter cruising season in Mexico can be salvaged and the dream of cruising will become real, at last.  Better late than never.