Fuel Fail Is 'Valuable Lesson Relearned,' Trawler Designer Says

Father of Cape Horn Brand Responds to Recent LC Story

Eden Bound in her prime. She was the first Cape Horn, built in 1997. (Photo courtesy of Peter Sever)

Earlier this week, Loose Cannon published a story about Eden Bound, a Cape Horn 58, which had to be towed the last 230 nautical miles to its destination in Hawaii. While some readers chose to believe that had to have been a fuel calculation error, the most likely explanation—and the one articulated by her owners—was contaminated fuel. Which raised another question: How can an ocean-going motor yacht, built around a “near perfect” fuel system fail this way? The designer and Eden Bound’s first owner, Peter Sever responds.

By PETER SEVER

Bad fuel (evidently) got on board my personal former boat! Outrageous! A valuable lesson re-learned. I'm dying to hear the gory details. 

• Which tank? Photos?

• How did dirty fuel physically get in there? 

• Filters were by-passed maybe?

• Or, why did filters not prevent that from happening?

  ¹

It's pretty bad optics but serves as a valuable lesson to other owners: Please don't try “cheat” or speed up the often-slow fuel-filling system.

Forgive me, but wonderful skipper-owner Uli Kuhl bought Eden Bound from me so long ago, details are quite sketchy. Uli made a lot of substantial changes, then somehow got her from Florida to Asia. I assume on her own bottom; hence his new (?) fuel system worked on the world's biggest ocean crossing. Uli lengthened her, added a third-level enclosed wheelhouse, did some engine room work. Therefore, the fuel system is a detail I can no longer attest to.

One detail re: tankage, this may be related to the dirty fuel? There was definitely a tank mistake on that one hull designed in from day one by the late Bob Johnston.

²

Big mistake, one which I was too inexperienced to notice until launch.

The starboard (?) midships tank, near the stairs I believe, he had some space so put a spare water tank—on one side of the boat! Huge no-no I later learned. That’s just thoughtless because, as the water tank empties, the boat will list, as it actually did. Was livid with Bob for that error and still am.

Peter Sever (at right) aboard Eden Bound. His friend holds a frozen line.

Told Uli about it however and suggested he convert the water tank to a fuel tank. I hope he did so and did it properly pre-filtered. For the rest of you: I intentionally did not use centrifugal fuel filters.

Why not? 

To avoid more non-essential moving parts. Something else to eventually fail. On a most-crucial system. With our paper filter system, nothing can fail. Fuel transfer pumps? We built in a spare. Plus, they're available in any marina and an easy fix.

Centrifugal filters typically went to 6 microns, I wanted 1 micron. Why 1 micron?

There's evidence this will actually increase your engine life markedly. I've seen ads claiming double engine life, but I don't brag about this unproven item at all. Plus, your tanks will be ultra-clean if nothing dirty or water-containing can even reach them.

Our fuel system is 304 stainless piping. It shows off how fastidious we are and doesn't rust. The fuel tanks have settling basins at the low points and clean-outs. Please use them! Fuel polishing is highly recommended and helps keep your fuel tanks spotlessly clean. "Clean fuel" is as 101-basic to a Cape Horn's underlying philosophy as is "no holes in the bottom".

I took this stuff extremely seriously, to the point of boring. It was the entire basis of the boats' existence in fact. Even Feadships do not have active fine watertight compartments and robust fin protectors outside. And guess what? One Cape Horn has already been saved by them mid-Atlantic. Literally, saved from sinking.

Feadships also use centrifugal filters because their owners like whirring spinning toys. Pardon my unveiled sarcasm. But ours are silent.

Relevant memory: One day in Meteghan, Nova Scotia Dr Earl Weener VP Safety at Boeing was crunching numbers in his notebook. I asked if that's probability theory. It was! His conclusion (as a Boeing vice-president for engineering yet!) was that we had it down to fuel, and we had that 99 percent beat.

He had calculated all key failure points. Wow! I was so impressed. Yup Dr Earl Weener VP for Boeing bought a Cape Horn. That very day. Because we had figured out fuel. One of the world's top transportation machine geniuses didn't change a single thing of importance.

The Big Negative

The big negative of our fuel system: It's painfully slow to fuel up. We pump fuel into an intermediate day tank that comes before the paper filters. That slows down the fuel-fill process badly, I openly confess. To double the fill speed we would have the double the system which was too bulky. So here is what I used to do: 

1. Fill up from a fuel truck.

2. Send the driver away with $200 for a long lunch break while I filled up with fuel.

It was almost a full-day pain, but I had pristine fuel aboard. At what price is failure tolerable? There is almost no price too high. That's my best advice and suggestions from old memories. Miriam and Joseph, I'd love to hear details and see any photos.

I do not recall your specific fuel system. How did gunky fuel bypass it? Thanks for being such good sports!

Powercraft Conversion: “Not all of our 15 children were born drop-dead gorgeous, but our first tri-decker was. The trio has proven highly seaworthy, with maybe six world circumnavigations under the three 75-82' hulls. She was originally named Lords Warrior by the born-again [censored] that we built her for. The next owner was a wonderful humorous Euro who re-registered her as Devil's Advocate,” writes Peter Sever.

1. Description of the fuel systems from a Cape Horn brochure:

As with all other key safety matters, we go further than any other manufacturer. Our fuel is filtered, at minimum, four times before it reaches the engines—to one micron, meaning neither bacteria nor water can get through.

The principle and execution are simple: Whenever fuel is moved aboard a Cape Horn it must pass through a bank of 3’ high, all stainless steel, twin 1-micron filters which remove literally everything which could be harmful. The filter is a commercial one, used mainly for hospitals, factories and big ships – those who store large quantities of fuel for long periods and cannot afford to take chances.

Whenever fuel is moved on a Cape Horn, all contaminants and water are removed, period. When filling up, it passes through these filters to prevent taking on bad fuel. When fuel is transferred between the bunker tanks for trim, it is filtered. When fuel is transferred from the bunker tanks to the day tank, it is filtered again.

This even serves as an ideal built-in fuel polishing system – you can pump fuel from say, Tank A back into Tank A; Tank B to Tank B; and so on, in order to pass it through the filters – which is strongly advised if the fuel has been there a while. We recommend that you polish your fuel on a regular sched- ule after six months of storage. It is easy to do, does not need to be attended. Just open two clearly labeled ball valves and turn on the transfer pump, let it run for a few hours. Done. Perfectly clean fuel and fuel tanks. The crucial day tank in the engine room will have only the purest of fuel in it—everything is removed before reaching it.

But then we even go further. Between the day tank and engines are two more 20-micron Racor filters. They are duplex, meaning if one plugs up you turn two ball valvesand the second one works while you clean the first one, without shutting down the engine. Vacuum gauges are attached to the filters so you can tell if ever the filters are starting to plug up. There is a water sensor built in, which sounds in the wheelhouse. We cannot imagine how contaminated fuel could reach these filters, after much 1 micron polishing, but they are there just in case.

All fuel plumbing components, including the piping and transfer pumps, are stainless steel, even though with diesel oil we could easily use mild steel or hose. Why? Primarily because it looks better, won’t rust—and we want you to be proud of even your bilges in a Cape Horn.

We include a second all-stainless steel 1,320 GPH fuel transfer pump as a back-up, pre-plumbed. To be without a fuel transfer pump for even a few minutes at the wrong time, could be dangerous. The two pumps can even be used in tandem to double fuel transfer rates to 44 GPM if we also double the filter bank (standard on CH95.)

All these components are contained in the engine room at eye level, including the 2 stainless steel fuel transfer manifolds, stainless steel ball valves to control the “From–To” arrangement, the 2-4 stainless bunker filters, and the 2 large transfer pumps.

In the midships bilges (via quick access Freeman hatches,) you can even turn a tap for each tank and drain any sludge or water which may have settled at the ‘settling basin’ at the bottom of the tank – which is what they do on airplanes as part of every pre-flight check. Sight gauges for each tank are also standard on new models.

We have covered every possible contingency in the all-important fuel integrity issue. We do not see how the fuel system could be any better. A fuel centrifuge like Alfa-Laval’s of comparable physical size to our system, filters fuel at about 7-14 perent the rate, has high-speed moving parts and is three times more costly. No contest. 

2. The late Bob Johnson was a Canadian naval architect who partnered with Sever to design the Cape Horn line.