All records broken on May bank holiday weekend
26 May 2020: At last lockdown has been partially relaxed and sailors who have been dreaming of being out on the water once more have at last been able to head away from their berths, most of them for the first time this year. In their desperate rush…
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Sea Start orders new Island RIBs to bolster busy breakdown service fleets
Marine breakdown service company Sea Start has placed an order for a number of new RIBs from Cowes-based Island RIBs to add to their south coast-based fleet. Sea Start’s Managing Director Nick Eales explains: “2019 was a very busy year for Sea Start…
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A new face at Sea Start: Grant Freeman joins us as an additional breakdown engineer
We are really pleased to welcome Grant Freeman as an additional breakdown engineer to our team here at Sea Start. Grant will help us to meet the needs of our increasing membership of boat owners with engine breakdowns as well as helping to provide ou…
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Getting ready for the 2020 season !
With our winter maintenance programme complete, all our boats are ready for the 2020 season. With Easter not far away now – remember – “Don’t cast off without us”
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Round The Island – SS Varvassi boilers
The Round the Island Race is one of the big racing events of the year here in the Solent. If you are thinking of taking part this coming June, you ma be interested in these pictures of the Varvassi boilers, the last part of the wreck that can do dam…
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Winterisation Tips
Winterising If you are planning to take your boat out of commission over the winter, then it important that you winterise the engine otherwise come the spring you may start to incur problems before you launch. Winterisation is very similar and incorp…
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Winter is coming…
With the cold weather already starting to appear we should start to prepare our boats for winter. The obvious thing, once when we have decided that we are not going to use the boat, is to fully winterise the engine but if you intend to keep her in th…
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WOW – We Are Busy!
What with the fantastic weather it’s good to see members using their boats. However for us it is hard work and relentless, with breakdowns coming in thick and fast from all over the country and France. Our RIBS based in Hamble are doing enormous dist…
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That’s a Whopper !!!!
In idyllic Channel crossing weather, this poor member came a cropper mid-channel! A boat he was in company with stayed with him while he continued on one engine. Because of the lovely weather we were able to take a diving team to him about five miles…
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Battery Maintenance Tips
Especially this time of year it is important to look after your batteries, our main call outs at the start of the season and over the winter months are mostly battery related problems and mainly because they have gone ‘flat’ through lack of use, your…
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Towing a 40 Foot Yacht
Sea Start towing a brand new 40 foot yacht to safety in Southampton. It had broken down on the Round Island Race.
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Pre-Start Engine Checks 2
https://www.youtube.com/embed/iKHZVrg8trE This is the second video showing more engine related checks to carry out.
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Pre-Start Checks 1
https://www.youtube.com/embed/WQ3qhnN30fg This is one of two videos of basic checks to carry out before starting your boat engine.
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Gearbox oil level check.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGPXGOoTYYE A short video of how to check your gearbox oil level. The video is a Volvo penta gearbox on a shaft drive, the check is also carried out in the same way on a saildrive gearbox and on Yanmar engines.
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De-Wintersing Your Diesel Engine
As you can imagine we get numerous call outs for people in the early season, who have headed out for their first sail to find they have forgotten vital checks on their engine. Something that we do come across a great deal is Seacocks not being opened…
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Propeller maintenance
Remember, your Sea Start membership includes first-aid assistance should your propeller become fouled. One of the types of breakdowns that is on the increase is fouled propellers. This is mostly likely caused by the amount of debris in the sea. We ha…
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Alternator Belt Tension.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/mVmmYZn42oA A short video of how to check that your alternator belt tension is correct.
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Don’t Bug Me!
Sea Start can confidently recommend Marine 16’s products – Diesel Fuel Maintenance and Diesel Bug Treatment. Sea Start has been successfully using and recommending Marine 16’s products for several years. We have received excellent feedback both from…
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No Power To The Engine Control Panel
https://www.youtube.com/embed/oxrkDCbZt-c Basic checks to carry out if you find you have no power getting to the Engine Control Panel.
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Replacing the CAV Type Fuel Filter.
https://youtu.be/1ZZm1_FVKLA This procedure was carried out on a yacht with a Volvo Penta engine and also shows the bleeding procedure.
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Volvo Penta KAMD32 Engine Bleeding Procedure
https://youtu.be/8y439to1_Ns Click on the picture to view the video.
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Racor 500FG Fuel Filter Replacement Procedure
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoepJbqXW_0 Click play to find out how to change a Racor 500FG Fuel Filter.
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Sea Start in Action
Sea Start is a Marine Breakdown Service based in the UK. We are using our YouTube channel to provide you with instructional videos and demonstrations on boat maintenance as well as interesting movies.
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