So about Monday night... I pulled an uncle @CB with the Hidden in Plain Sight Tags and got you into the Smoke and Mirrors. You didn't honestly think I was going to spoil this reveal with a look up of a '22 BMW S1000R originally designed to throw @AestheticsInMotion a lesser loop than anticipated but successfully found by @VincentMalamute ?! Little did he know the new game was already on.
No No, I know how you operate Oppo, for I spoiled @jminer 's Ranger.

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There are some defining moments in everyone’s life, and early August 2021 would be one of mine.

Like many times before I would walk through the doors of Ducati which incidentally is my gear shop and closest motorcycling dealership to my residence. I don’t get the resounding “Norm!!!” from Cheers but the wonderful people here know me from my “Deadnese” leather suit purchased years ago. Everyone typically throws down on black, I threw down big on red. I’ve never been much of shopper. I liken myself to buyer; well researched. Naturally I walked up the Brand Managers desk “It’s time for a new bike”.

I never grew up with motorcycling, my parents actively discouraged it, and not even my friends in high school could entice me with the cheap speed at the time. As a kid I was obsessed with cars as a hobby, progressing from Hotwheels to PlayStation before the new millennium. The original Gran Turismo, Test Drive 5 and Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit all graced my disc drive by Christmas of 1998. I wasn’t just good at any one, I excelled at all 3 and developed a knack for quickly cracking the physics engines of all succeeding racing games to come into my collection.

I can’t say I ever had a favorite car growing up. It does eat and me for fence sitting on this. Always the gray man in a group of dorks and only ever partially applying myself at grade school it’s easy to see why I was like this. Deep down I always admired that Giallo Diablo SV on the cover of NFS III: HP; a rebellious bright beacon in a caged world. Perhaps this stuck in my subconscious as a kid, as would learning of Ferruccio Lamborghini telling Enzo Ferrari “Vai a farti fottere Enzo, costruirò mia macchina. Con blackjack e prostitute.” [Quote may contain embellishment]

Alas life is a cruel place when the reality of adulthood sets in. Few lucky people would have the excess funds for such a vehicle, deserving or perhaps not. Netflix’s Faster Car would shine a scummy light on the chosen Lamborghini owners being a comically pretentious blowhards, the world class vehicles they own a nearly useless lifestyle accessory. Pure flash; no substance, knowledge or prowess. Not much was really stopping me grinding my teeth to the gums. I’m dead sure Ferruccio is spinning in his grave at some 9000rpm by now.

There was an alternative but skillful and potentially dangerous path with motorcycles. At first it was a tentative venture but became natural. I began to invest both time and money. This was certainly the best way to combat aforementioned showman at a significantly lower price. Even the usable Honda 650 really had no issues dusting with any cage under 450hp from the lights, with the gearing it would struggle to pick up at speed. However, I would get better and I would get fatter. Multiple people would mention to me that the 650 looked small under me and even wearing the noob gear armoured jeans I would suffer from occasional calf cramps.

“Okay so what would you like?”
“Streetfighter”
“In red, obviously”
I nod

“V4 or V4S”
“Let’s go with the S”
“So, Ducati don’t have any in the Province. We have a client that might be looking to offload his, it’s fully decked out though. Or we can order a ’22 for you, you’ll get the first one delivered.”

I know who he’s talking about so and keeping the option open offer my number and consideration for the week. A shake of the hand and head upstairs to see some of my favorite people in the industry, who get immensely excited with the news.

A week later I head back.

“Let’s just order a ‘22”
“Done, ETA says by the end of the year but I’m not sure.”

Fast Forward to the New Year
Yes Oppo, I’ve been a bad influence on many people the last few years it would be uncouth for me not to do something stupid but epic to match those affected. And here it be…

I assume for most people that know cars you’d be somewhat familiar with Ducati, but maybe not fully. Up until a decade ago the manufacture could be likened to “The Ferrari of Motorcycles” incorporating beautiful, high performance, but ultimately temperamental Italian machines. Since mid 2012 it was purchased by Lamborghini which has ushered in a clearly influential direction.

For better or worse Ducati is developing into a similar state of the Sant’Agata marque with striking, incredibly quick street motorcycles that are more rider friendly and offer comparable servicing intervals of a year or 12,000km/7500mi, similar to other makes.

The Streetfighter V4 takes the fairings off the Panigale V4 Street Superbike introduced in 2018 and substitutes in a higher and wider handle bar to create a “naked” bike. Unlike most other manufactures, Ducati did not remap the 1,103cc Desmosedici Stradale V4 Engine for power lower in the rev range staying true to the original naked ‘Streetfighter Ethos’ of crashed crotch rocket owners not replacing the fairings. It still makes a full 208hp at the crank when spun up to 13,000rpm and it’s curb weight is a class acceptable 200kg [440lb].

To give you the gravity of what I’ll be dealing with: My fat ass on it gives it 3.05lb/hp to haul at peak power, an Aventador LP 780-4 Ultimate Roadster is closer to 5.2lb/hp with driver. This is real Wile E Coyote Acme Rocket material.

Lucky for me it keeps the Panigale V4 Electronic Suite with a 6-Axis Inertial Measurement Unit (Gyro) and comes with ABS Cornering EVO, Ducati Traction Control EVO 2, Ducati Slide Control, Ducati Wheelie Control EVO, Ducati Power Launch, Ducati up and down Quick Shift EVO 2, Engine Brake Control, Ducati Electronic Suspension EVO.

Suspension is upgraded on the V4S to the Öhlins steering damper, Öhlins electronically controlled and adjustable front fork and rear shock. Wheels are also upgraded to forged aluminum 3-Spoke supplied by Marchesini. Tires are Pirelli Diablo Corsa II in 120/70 ZR17 Front and 200/60 ZR17 Rear. Brakes are supplied by Brembo with 330mm dual front discs and dual 4 piston Monoblock calipers, the rear is a 245mm with 2 piston caliper and managed by an adjustable ABS Cornering EVO system. Tank holds 16L/4.23gal. and the bike gets roughly 7.6l/100km or 31mpg with ‘normal’ riding.

Spring weather really can't come soon enough!
@Photography

When Monsters Tried to Takeover The Dakar
The Rise and Fall of the DAF TurboTwin

Rally Driver Jan de Rooy stands in front of the DAF 95 X1 TurboTwin with the DAF TurboTwin II in the background.

Introduction

Like some of you I’m sure, I stumbled upon the video of the TurboTwin passing the Peugeot 405 T16 the other day, it's the thumbnail for this post and also shown below. It put me down the rabbit hole. You can find pretty much anything online these days, which surprised me because the amount of content on the TurboTwin and driver Jan de Rooy is somewhat of a commodity, quite particularly in English.

Oh, it was a good puzzle this one! I found mistakes galore, incomplete vehicle rosters, miscategorized information and some pretty dope 100bhp/L late 80’s diesel engine copypasta. A good one to sort through and make sense of these great vehicles. I wanted to include a greater human element for a more cohesive explanation.

We love weird and wonderful vehicles.
So why not learn about the rise and fall of the mighty DAF TurboTwin?

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The Race

The Dakar Rally officially marked its first event on December 26, 1978 from Paris, France traveling south across France, The Mediterranean Sea, Algeria, turning West at Niger, Mali and ending in Dakar, Senegal. The event started off as a ragtag mostly privateer rally raid starting with 182 competitors with motorcycles, cars and large trucks.

A true test of man and machine through various countries of the world. The route would constantly change through Africa in subsequent running’s though it was typically started in Paris and ended in Dakar until 1995 and typically referred to as "The Paris-Dakar". It would still run through Africa with various different courses until 2007. Due to the ever-increasing volatility in Africa, it was not run in 2008. Between 2009 and 2019 it was held in South America despite keeping the Dakar namesake and since 2020 it’s been held in Saudi Arabia.

Since its inception in 1979, 76 people have passed due to the rally, including 31 Competitors. Countless amounts of competitors have failed to finish and innumerable racing machines destroyed in this time period as well.

Our particular timeline will be in the Dakar Rallies held from 1982 – 1988, so from rather early in the Dakar but marks the impervious change of when competition ramped up with factory teams. With even a modicum of history knowledge, you’ll recognise this marks the time period when Rally Competitions went from mild to wild.

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The Man

Our focal point will be of one Jan de Rooy. Born February 1943 in Eindhoven Netherlands. In his early 20’s Mr. de Rooy inherited a shipping company from his father which over time expanded to one of the largest transportation companies in The Netherlands.

Driver and Team Leader: Jan de Rooy

Jan had competed as a teen in Motocross, and in 1969 he took up Rallycross Racing. Between 1970 and 1982 he would win and or place 5th or above at 10 different Dutch and FIA European Rallycross Championships. At the end of 1982 he would retire Rallycross and focus his attention on racing trucks at the Paris-Dakar Rally after successfully completing the 1982 Dakar earlier that year.

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The Machines

The truck of choice would be his countries DAF.

Herbert van Doorne originally got his start by fixing the car of the managing director of a brewery A. H. Huenges, who invested in him and allowed him to set up a workshop at the brewery. In 1932 van Doorne and his brother would name his company Van Doorne's Aanhangwagen Fabriek (Van Doorne's Trailer Factory), abbreviated to DAF.

During the second world war DAF would do conversions on truck drives. After the war in 1949, DAF would begin production of large vehicles like Trucks and Buses as well as trailers. In 1958 they would sell their first car.

Jan would start his Dakar adventures in 1982 with a DAF F241 NTT2800, mostly as a feasibility shakedown to judge if competing was a viable endeavour. A tractor of the 2800 series DAF as opposed to a cabover design. Below we will focus on progression and madness of Jan and the DAF trucks he races the Dakar in the 80’s. As you will see, once he was hooked Jan de Rooy had one ultimate dream in mind: Beat the cars with a truck at the Paris-Dakar. He was given the nickname "L'ours" (Eng. "The Bear”).

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The Dakar Endeavour

1982 Dakar: DAF NTT2800 “De Neus” #381

“The Nose”
Co-Driver: Gérard STRAETMANS

3rd Within Trucks
67th Place Overall

A 1982 DAF NTT2800 modified for the Paris-Dakar Rally. With the tractor cab it is referenced as “De Neus” or “The Nose” when translated into English. It featured DAF’s 1160 11.6L Inline-6 Turbocharged Intercooled Diesel Engine kept to a mostly factory specification with some 240hp.

De Rooy ended up finishing the race 3rd in the Truck Class and 67th Overall, however this placement meant that he simply wanted more. His closest competitors were all in 4x4 trucks, those being 3 Mercedes Unimog and an ACMAT.

1983 Dakar: DAF FA3300 4x4 "De Koffer" #342

“The Suitcase”
Co-Driver: Joop ROGGEBAND
Mechanic: Yvo GEUSENS

3rd Within Trucks
34th Place Overall

De Rooy would return for the second time to the Dakar with a mechanic, more sponsors, and prepared 4x4 Truck based on the Cabover DAF FA3300. It is nicknamed “De Koffer” or “The Suitcase” when translated to English due to its rectangular dimensions and box livery depicting a travel trunk.

With improvements based on the design of the truck and a more powerful engine well north of 300hp he would again place 3rd within the trucks but was also quicker overall improving to 34th. De Rooy would decide to build a prototype truck to compete next year. He realised that there would be a limit to the available power and reliability to complete the Dakar from the DAF 11.6L Turbo Intercooled Diesel Engine.

1984 Dakar: DAF F3300 4x4 “Tweekoppige Monster” #521

“Two Headed Monster”
Co-Driver: Joop ROGGEBAND
Mechanic: Yvo GEUSENS

DNF

De Rooy and his team would returned again to the Dakar for 1984, this time with heavily customized DAF F3300 in which a front half of another F3300 truck including the cab, engine, and necessary ancillaries had been installed on the back of the chassis.

Nicknamed the “Tweekoppige Monster” or “Two Headed Monster” in English, the truck featured two 400hp Engines each driving their own opposite and respective axles for a total of 800hp. Only one end featured the controls and steering. De Rooy would unfortunately not finish the 1984 Dakar due to a broken front axle.

This would be the first of twin engine-ed trucks Jan would deploy to the Dakar, but definitely not the last.

1985 Dakar: DAF F3300 4x4 "The Bull" #621

“The Bull”
Co-Driver: Thierry DE SAULIEU
Mechanic: Martinus KETELAARS

2nd Within Trucks

De Rooy would show up again in a new purposely designed twin-engine 4x4 DAF F3300 Truck for the Dakar with the “Two Headed Monster” as support. With the box now a unique sloping shape for aerodynamics it was nicknamed “The Bull”. Carrying on the design of last year but with also slightly more power than the Two Headed Monster. A slight bump in power with 450hp supplied to the rear axle and 420hp supplied to the front axle for a combined 870hp.

The Bull ended up finishing 1st for the trucks, but a prohibited repair due to a flat tire on the last stage caused the rally to give him a 15-hour penalty, dropping him to 2nd.

1986 Dakar: DAF FAV3600 4x4 TurboTwin #601

Co-Driver: Thierry DE SAULIEU
Mechanic: Yvo GEUSENS

DNF: Stage 15

The Dakar Rally had begun to heat up in the mid 80’s as the race captured the attention of manufactures. This year De Rooy would be under the factory support of DAF and carrying on more evolutions of the two engine trucks. The DAF TurboTwin would debut in the tricolour Red, White and Blue of the Netherlands.

Based on the DAF FAV3600 with a lighter cab structure and a steel tube monocoque behind reducing the weight of the truck over 1 ton from last year. Again, engine power supplied by the midship mounted twin turbocharged diesel engines increased, this time around 475hp a piece for a combined output of approximately 950hp.

The TurboTwin was properly quick, staying in the Top 10 with the Cars throughout the race. With only 3 stages to go De Rooy again suffered a broken front axle and had to withdraw from the race.

1987 Dakar: DAF FAV3600 4x4 TurboTwin II #600

Co-Driver: Theo van de Rijt
Mechanic: Yvo GEUSENS

1st Place in Class
11th Overall

Obviously disappointed in last year’s failure to finish DAF and De Rooy made serious modification to the TurboTwin design to improve it. This included extensive use of aluminium which were used for the tubular monocoque and wheels further reduction the weight. Engine power was 495hp for a combined 990hp. There were also modifications to streamline the body to further improve the aerodynamics of the truck.

De Rooy and the TurboTwin II would win the Truck Class by 11 hours over the next competitor and finish the 1987 Dakar 11th Overall. First in class was good, however Jan would set his sights with the help of DAF to attempt to win overall.

1988 Dakar: DAF 95 TurboTwin X1 and X2

X1 #600 [Red Back Top]
Co-Driver: Hugo Duisters
Mechanic: Yvo GEUSENS

X2 #601 [Blue Back Top]
Driver: Theo van de Rijt
Co-Driver: Kees van Loewezijn
Mechanic: Chris Ross

DAF would show up to the 1988 Dakar loaded for bear. More revisions for the TurboTwin included the switch the DAF 95 Cab with revised aerodynamics. Further, they were running two TurboTwin Trucks.

#600 95 TurboTwin X1 was driven by De Rooy and it’s engines had again been boosted, this time with a 3rd Variable Geometry Turbocharger to compound up to 600hp a piece. This brought his truck to 1200hp combined and would be enough power for the big 10-ton truck to reach 0-100km/h [0-62mph] in 8.5 seconds and hit a top speed of 220km/h [136mph]. It would be able to carry some serious speed over the adverse terrain of the Dakar Rally. To complement the increase in power the fuel capacity of the truck was increased to 940L [248 US Gal].

#601 95 TurboTwin X2 was a smaller evolution of last year’s TurboTwin II and driven by Theo van de Rijt who was Co-Driver to De Rooy last year in the TurboTwin II. The X2 would feature the same engine set up as last year with 495hp for a combined output of 990hp.

De Rooy’s X1 was very quick, keeping pace with the cars on many stages. Here is the infamous helicopter video of him passing Ari Vatanen driving the Peugeot 405 T16 at some 200km/h. The lore being that Vatanen banged his fists on the steering wheel when the pass happened.

Tragedy for DAF

January 9, 1988. During Stage 8 Djabo-Adadez of the Dakar Rally, Theo van de Rijt would experience an accident with the X2 Truck at 180km/h just 20km from the start of the stage. The accident was caused by a subsequent washboard of dunes that upset the balance of the truck at speed. This instability caused a loss of control and culminated in rolling over 6 times. Driver Theo van de Rijt and Mechanic Chris Ross are battered about inside the cab of the truck and sustain severe injuries but are transported to local hospital and then medivac-ed back to the Netherlands and make recoveries. Sadly, the navigator Kees van Loewezijn is ejected from the truck 80 meters and passes away instantly.

The fatal accident of the DAF 95 X2 TurboTwin

Immediately following this tragedy, DAF and Jan de Rooy who was 5th in the standings pull the X1 out of the Rally, with a pending accident investigation and review. DAF then shortly deciding to suspend all racing efforts and selling the factory equipment to de Rooy. However, de Rooy does not participate in a Dakar event for over a decade, only returning in 2002.

Jan de Rooy at the wheel of the DAF 95 X2 TurboTwin before the accident

DAF and the external reviews concluded that the vehicle was compliant and that the accident was not the fault of driver van de Rijt but of a tragic racing accident. Despite the findings clearing of any fault and his own experience, Theo van de Rijt expresses deep remorse for the accident and the loss of van Loewezijn. In a documentary, Jan de Rooy has expressed that he originally did not want van de Rijt to drive the second TurboTwin at the 1988 Dakar Rally.

The Dakar would then ban the T4 Class of Modified Trucks from competing in 1989 and subsequent years until their return in 1998.

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After the TurboTwin

As mentioned before Jan de Rooy would return to the Dakar in 2002 with his son Gerard and mechanic Yvo Geusens driving a DAF FAV CF85 4×4, in 2004 he would switch to a DAF FAV CF75 4×4, for 2007 a GINAF X 2222. In 2009 he would switch to the Africa Eco Race.

Jan and son Gerard

A few of the Dakar Machines competing machines are on display. The lead photo shows the 95 X1 and TurboTwin II. "The Bull" is also on display. Earlier this year the Two Headed Monster received a rebuild at the De Rooy workshop. As of October 2021, it is now in drivable condition.

Recently announced is that Team De Rooy will field 4 Trucks at the 2022 Dakar Rally.

The Two Headed Monster is overhauled https://www.dakar-derooy.com/news/

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Information

https://second.wiki/wiki/jan_de_rooy Jan de Rooy Biography

https://www.dakar-derooy.com/ Team De Rooy website

http://motorsportmemorial.org/focus.php?db=ct&n=5001 Kees van Loevezijn online memorial

https://matraxlubricants.com/3260-2/ Basis Piece

https://www.dakardantan.com/ Dakar 1982-1985 Results

https://www.automobilsport.com/race-categories--24,15802,8th-1986-PARIS---ALGIERS---DAKAR-1986-History,news.htm Dakar 1986-1988 Results

There’s a bunch of scattered information I grabbed from random places on google searches, pictures, and YouTube for the .gif

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Conclusion

I hope you enjoyed reading and looking at this unique piece of history of The Dakar and Mr. de Rooy’s life. It’s more complete than what I’ve found in other places and I’m hoping that it’s accuracy is acceptable.

@ibrad

@WilliamsSW

I would have lost my shit if it was an old Ram 2500

@MM54

A 3/4" Drive with an extension pipe will definitely break something. What that is will always be a mystery beforehand!

Subscribed

Adventures in Engineering: Pic Dump

June 25 is “The Day of the Seafarer” because every day must be of something these days.

https://www.imo.org/en/About/Events/Pages/Day-of-the-Seafarer.aspx

25 June of each year is the "Day of the Seafarer", recognizing the invaluable contribution seafarers make to international trade and the world economy, often at great personal cost to themselves and their families.

Governments, shipping organizations, companies, shipowners and all other parties concerned are invited to promote and celebrate the Day in an appropriate and meaningful manner.

The Day of the Seafarer was first celebrated in 2011, following its establishment by a resolution adopted by the Conference of Parties to the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers (STCW), 1978, held in Manila, Philippines, in June 2010, which adopted major revisions to the STCW Convention and Code.

The Day of the Seafarer has now been included in the annual list of United Nations Observances.

I present to you my eclectic but ordered pictures from being a student and working the first half of past decade onboard various vessels and in various places.

If you’d like to know what I’d do, then you must read my time onboard “The Kat” https://opposite-lock.com/topic/6916/the-kat-long-read?_=1624577868027

I will provide a little descriptor for the pictures.
Enjoy

Marine School 2010-2014

Wärtsilä Re & Re Shop
Yes that’s a piston crown that takes up the whole pallet and some bearing caps.

Floating Drydock
Check out some barge in for repairs

Cummins N14
14L/855CID Diesel Engine stripped nearly all the way down (just block, crank, flywheel and mains) and then re-built.

Nuytco Research Ltd. Submersibles
Trip to the Sub Shop

Aviation School
Learn about Gas Turbines

RCI 2011-2012, Apprentice 135 days, 12 hour day work.

Anchored and Tendering Bora Bora

I raise your Machu Picchu with Radio Bora Bora

Sydney Australia
The boys in Brisbane thought I was Irish…

Wärtsilä 16V38B Head Replacement
862L V16: 11,600kW/15,556bhp

Lakes Steamship 2012, Apprentice 45 days, 4 hour watches X2/day.

Docking at Thunder Bay around Christmas

MA Stan (not real name) at the wheels for the steam turbine.

1960’s John Inglis Steam Turbine 9000shp

2013-2015 Different Company Lakes and Arctic, 4th and 3rd Engineer. Various Vessels, Various Watches

Coming downstairs to the MAK 7M43C 6300kW/8450bhp

Montreal near the Cote Ste Catherine Lock upbound I believe

Snow at Salluit Quebec sometime around mid July.

DC "Frankenstein" Switchboard of the “The Kat”

Adventures in Engineering: The Kat

Well, I suppose as I have all the courses done for upgrading, I can share my “Best job I ever had,” to quote the movie Fury. I have only a few pictures so this will be type heavy.

Quick background on myself. I’m a Marine Engineer, acquired my license in 2013. Currently I hold around 20 Canadian marine licenses, certificates and endorsements recognised by the IMO (so I can not only sail on vessels anywhere in Canada or North America, but anywhere in the world if I want). As of now, I hold all certification to apply for a Senior Watchkeeping Licence. This includes advanced certificates in Passenger, Oil Tanker, and LNG Vessels.
The most relatable reference is Scotty from Star Trek. He is stereotypically based on Chief Marine Engineers of vessels in the 60’s (even down to many of them being Scotsman), many of his problems on the show are based on malfunctions engineers have encountered on vessels.

Everything you’re about to read is from my recollection. It is not 2nd hand, exaggerated or embellished for the sake of storytelling.
The company, and all names have been changed or withheld for the sake of liability.

60 Days on The Kat

The Summer of 2014 I spent up in the Arctic onboard a vessel (which was an interesting contract in its own right). The contract was roughly 70 days and I departed in mid-October. I was called a few weeks later by the company to serve on a vessel I’ll refer to as “The Kat”. While I wasn’t too happy not having more time off, I accepted as I needed money to pay off school.

The Kat was built in the early 60’s. A tradition bulk carrier about 400’ft long and with 8000 tonnes of displacement. It had a 5 cylinder 2-Stroke Slow Speed Diesel with about 3800shp and was engine room control (with the old Titanic like telegraph system). 3 naturally aspirated diesel Generators with about 300bhp a pop, and they were actual generators as The Kat was completely DC electric off a 480V main switchboard (as opposed to every commercial ship past 1970 that is Alternator and 3-phase AC).

The Kat electrical switchboard. Yeah, real Frankenstein shit...

I joined The Kat early November, as she was passing through Montreal on the way to a port near St. John’s Newfoundland. It raised my eyebrows when they told me this, it’s not typical to take something over 50 years old out of the St. Lawrence River Seaway and the Great Lakes. Apparently, there was some grandfathering bullshit scheming that had taken place.

I think the 2nd day I was woken up 2h before my watch to clean the sewage treatment unit. To be fair it wasn’t the worst. I got bundled up in disposable coveralls, wore a respirator and googles, popped the lid off and let it have it with a fire hose. Apparently, it was some new engineer ritual they had; I was more pissed that I didn’t get all my sleep than the actual work.

As we left the river is started to get rough, typical late fall storm for the North East. The new oiler on the 3rd Engineers watch before me on the 4-8 couldn’t hack it. He spent his time hugging the garbage can the entire 4h. 12h later we were in the thick of it, my watch handover with the 3rd was and I quote “If she lists over really hard, grab the life jackets over there and head topside. Don’t bother with the bilge pumps trying to save the ship.”

We eventually reached the port to discharge cargo without sinking. I learned the wonders of the DC electrics and incandescent lights. They told me to remove the fuses for the lines I was working on, naturally I tried to cheat and didn’t. I tried to remove a shattered bulb underneath the scavenge box (engine intake manifold). It shorted which resulted in a big bright flash and then all the section lights were out. Now I’d have to find and replace the fuse I’d blown.

About a week after joining, I came down on watch to find the 3rd Engineer replacing a head on one of the generator engines. There was a hairline crack internally from the valve seat. He told me that the guy I had relieved had been the 3rd engineer and the Chief had kicked him and his oiler off after 2 weeks because they had left rags in the Generator engine oil sump after completing an oil change. Notice how rags is plural, yeah that confused me too. Why the negligence? I’ll never know. He also mentioned that he was getting off soon and doing all the maintenance as to make it easier for me as I would be bumped up to 3rd.

The 3rd left a week later at the Welland Canal while we steamed to Ohio and load. I spent 6h dealing with the telegraph and at the controls of the main engine as we went through the locks. The 2nd Engineer and I would be doing 12h days to help the new 4th Andy get familiarized with The Kat. Andy graduated the same school as myself, but 2 years ahead. We’re the same age, and today he’s my best friend. Andy also tried to short cut The Kats electricals one day trying to replace a halogen on deck. He thought he had the right fuse but didn’t meter the light for power. Threw in the new halogen with the plastic wrapper which lit up and caught fire, then attempting to put it out almost caught his rag on fire.

The next few weeks didn’t have too many calamities. We got extremely behind with the discharge and loading at ports though with their equipment failures. Something like 17 days behind. At some point the oilers with the 2nd and Andy cleaned the scavenge space (inlet manifold) of the main engine without me. The problems began after we left Wisconsin mid-December for another trip to St. Johns.

The Descent into Chaos

On Lake Erie the bridge lost Autopilot for the steering. So, we rigged up a bunch of industrial portable fans to blow on the motor and receivers. If they lost it again, it usually meant a circuit fuse for one of the fans had gone or a goof had turned it off.

One of the worst things about being on the vessels at this time is the Christmas rumours. It’s almost always started by a deckhand or mate about how the vessel might cancel a trip be tied up before Christmas. Typically, the Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway begin to freeze up at the end of December stopping the sailing season for the Lakes. Talk like this drive people nuts because it changes every day and they’re always wrong. On top of this, shit was about to get REAL.

Christmas on The Kat

We had to receive diesel fuel due to low level with our subsequent delays. It was so low the Chief was forced to take it in the Welland Canal as we passed through back to load cargo at Montreal for St. John’s. While maneuvering at the lock to get alongside the Capt. backed into the lock wall HARD. We took the fuel and went on our merry way. In Canada we don’t really do fuel quality checks. We sort of expect that the fuel is good… Not this time.

We do a fuel transfer for about an hour a day, it’s done through a centrifugal fuel purifier from a very large storage tank where we receive the fuel to a smaller day tank which supplies the boiler and generators. It was after the transfer the next day the problems hit. First was the boiler; flame out, would not re-fire around 6pm. Plugged fuel filters at the burner about 1/2 way through maintenance schedule. With the filters replace it fired… For an hour. It did this all night. I changed boiler filters 4 or 5 times. We had a diesel bucket to try and wash out the sediment accumulation from the pleats as we didn’t have an infinite supply of new filters.

Naturally the 2nd Engineer suspected we got shit fuel, so he began draining the receiving diesel fuel tank. He had something like 27 5gal buckets of straight water, so 500L of water when I came down. The real problem was the sediment though, it was our real nemesis at the moment. The centrifugal fuel purifier from the 60’s was useless and couldn’t deal with it. It was basically down to the local equipment filters. When we exited Lake Ontario into the Seaway a few days later I believe the boiler filters were being changed daily (usual was every 2mo) and my generators would last 100h running (or 4 days) or they fuel starved (I almost blacked out the boat when I forgot it was time and the lights started to dim). The chief ordered something like 120 fuel filter cartridges from NAPA Auto Parts.

My oiler got off in Montreal just before Christmas as we waited until the 27th to emergency load. He was from the Philippines and spoke almost no English. He was replaced by a guy from Senegal… He spoke NO English; zero, zip. In fact, the only one in the engine room staff that spoke French was the Chief. There I was, a 25yo punk on a dying 50yo ship teaching the oiler his job via Charades. And it got worse, MUCH worse.

We then lost the boiler feed water pumps (what fills the boiler with water). Apparently, the boiler upgrades had run both pumps through a single contactor (essentially a large relay) for the water level control and turning them both on, and having them start and run at the same time smoked it. The temporary solution was to draw 240V from the sewage unit with a power cable and the oilers would have to watch the water level and manually start and stop one of the feed pumps. I still remember bringing Andy down and we both laughed at the ridiculousness of some jank draped power cable to power a pump. Shutting down the boiler is not an option as we burned heavy fuel oil (basically just above tar) underway and need the fuel system hot or else the fuel solidifies in the tanks.

We left again for St. Johns and would arrive there just before the New Year, still dealing with fuel contamination and the boiler pump problem. We were lucky that it was still relatively warm as we travelled down the river. We hit another storm off the cape that was even worse than the first one. There were a couple times the chair and I went sliding a good 15ft across the deck (and then back another 20ft usually) from the console.

I noticed that one of my generator engines was losing oil pressure after about an hour of running. I did the rudimentary viscosity test and it was better than the others but still opted to see if I could bring it above alarm with fresh oil and new oil filters. The oiler and I found some more rags in the sump, the mix of rage and disgust when I told the Chief this was notable. Neither the rags nor the oil was the problem, nor was the oil pump as we replaced it the next day. Even with the rockers and covers off I could not find any abnormal oil seepage from the top end head galleries for the rockers or mid covers for cam bushings. The engine was just really, really worn.

I did some work on the main air compressor but screwed up on the copper head seal, so we were down a compressor for a little bit while I sorted out a “used but good” seal. The previous 3rd had told me not to touch it, but I was a young idiot.

New Year partying would have the cook get plastered in downtown St. John’s and call the Capt. at 2am because he didn’t know how to get back to the ship. That didn’t go over too well as you might imagine. An electrician came and looked at what had happened to the boiler contactor and fixed it for us so that went back to automatic water level control. We would leave a few days later, back into the shit weather. I remember we tried to make anchor during my watch and having to re-fire and find another shelter because we were dragging.

Old Man Winter Wakes Up

Heading back to Quebec though would have temperatures snap and plunge well below freezing at the start of the year. I woke up to the sound of Andy outside my cabin on deck. The deck officer’s crapper pipe from the 2nd deck (which for some reason ran outside the superstructure) had frozen at -9C /16F and he was trying to heat the pipe with the tiger torch to no avail.

The 2nd warned me going from the salty gulf into the fresh water river that we might lose the cooling on the generators due to ice slush accumulation in the sea chest filters blocking flow. I would have about 5min to swap the cooling system from the normal seawater flow to a loop from the aft peak water ballast tank. 14h later it did come into alarm. I managed to get the suction from the aft peak tank but I had traced the wrong valves for the discharge to loop it, so it went overboard instead of re-circulation. The water ran out of the aft peak right as the 2nd engineer relieved me at midnight. He sorted it out but that was 100% my bad, I really thought I had it lined up right.

Winter is where the deck crew becomes envious us with the warmer engine room, a curse in the summer but a blessing in the winter. It got even colder and The Kat had basically no accommodation heat. It did, it just wasn’t at all effective. I was sleeping in a winter hoodie (with the hood up and tied) 3 pairs of socks and all the clothing I had on top of my blankets. Getting changed was a brisk 10s affair. I believe it was now about -15C/5F and there was ice traveling down the St. Lawrence as we were trying to make Montreal. We we’re lucky in that the fuel sediment issues were now mostly resolved.

Andy closed the engine room air inlets one day at 2am because the cold night winter air was freezing the pressure line from the boiler to the pressure sensor and causing false alarms. While this solved the boiler issue it caused the fire detection system to go off due to all the exhaust leaks in the engine room and the alarm rang for the whole ship.

Freeze! Stop Right There!

I would wake up one morning to both the 2nd Engineer and Andy downstairs when I started my watch. We were having main engine cooling issues this time, which seems counter intuitive when the outside temperature is getting near 0F. We were still underway so I took the console for engine control and asked them what they were up to. They wanted to switch flow to the other strainer and pop open the current sea strainer and check for ice and blockage, despite the sea water pump pressure being good. I figured it wasn’t the problem but clearly there was no flow. Strainer was clear so the block was down the line. Next suspect was the sea water overboard valve or water discharge port had iced up as we continued into fresher water up river. They went at it with the tiger torch and sledge hammers. The chief came down at this point. At I think we had to shut down and anchor in the river as the oil temperature climbed.

Time got really weird at this point at the end of the first week of January. We gave up the 4h watches and I think I was downstairs for 16h straight. Andy and the 2nd Engineer were putting in similar times. The Chief was down for hours too. Only the oilers were doing their 4h watches. The ice had built up around us so with myself at the controls and the chief beside we tried to dislodge but we still had little to no main engine sea water cooling flow. The bridge would ring down full ahead, I would match. 25% rack, start air ahead for 5-6s, the big engine would catch, jump straight to 50% rack, and then slowly wheel up to 70% redline as the turbo would need time to spool and we wouldn’t “roll coal” too much, the blowers could handle 50% hence the jump. The RPM would stay low as the vessel could not power out and the oil temperature would rapidly climb over the course of just a few minutes. It would take us about an hour for the oil temperature come down and to try again. We tried 3 times during the day with no success in breaking through.

We called for tug assist at this point to keep us on station and I stayed down during the night as the other 2 had been up longer than me. I remember noticing the tug around 10pm. It had a vibration and noise that I could hear and feel through the hull. I don’t remember the hour when I was relieved, sometime in the early am.

I would wake up and come down to the vessel still stuck. We were still a good 4h sail away from Quebec City, let alone Montreal. The Chief came down shortly. Round 2… I’m not sure what they did (if anything the temperature outside may have slightly warmed) but the main seawater cooling flow had been restored. The Chief and the Capt. talked for a bit on the phone and we gave it another try. Exact same as before alternating between ahead and astern spins but not having to wait for oil temperature. Still no breakthrough. The chief gets another phone call and heads upstairs.

The Cost of Freedom is Always High

I’ll go back a few years to what one of our instructors said to us “One day, each one of you will have to run an engine to destruction to get out a situation”. The Kat had a tired engine, it already had a minor cylinder liner crack was leaking cylinder oil into the cooling water. The oilers would have to skim a little bit of oil off the top of the coolant tank each day. Redline (like an actually drawn red line) was 70% rack. The chief came down the stairs some 10min later.
Chief: “I talked to the Superintendent. We have to get out of the ice at all costs”
Me: “We’re going over 70% rack?” I asked that knowing it could be rhetorical.
As such, he didn’t verbalise yes. His look was enough for me to know.

There’s that scene in Star Trek where they have to eject and light off the dilithium core to escape a black hole… While not as dramatic as that external combustion, we would in essence be doing an engine sacrifice to escape.

I remember sitting there in those minutes waiting for the telegraph to move from engine standby to full ahead. Knowing that the Chief and I with near certainty were about to condemn the ship to scrap. It’s a hard feeling to explain; sitting at the front of huge lumps of iron that achieved the size of an urban two-story single unit town home, knowing that with a few movements of my arms and hands I would begin the injection of its death sentence.

Engine Room Telegraph of The Kat

The telegraph bell tolls and the needle swings to full ahead. I look over at the chief, he nods. Full Ahead. Match Telegraph in Acknowledge. 25% rack, start air ahead for 5-6s, the engine catches, jump straight to 50% rack, and then slowly wheel up to 70% redline. We’re still not making any advance. I look again at the chief. Non-verbally; Your rack chief, your honours. He nods again and begins to wheel up past the redline. At 85% the aft of ship where we are started to bounce up and down. He stopped at 95% and over the course of maybe 20s we began to see the RPM climb which meant the vessel was starting to make headway. Another 20s and he wheels back down to 70%. We begin the few hours journey to Quebec City. We found that while the main engine cooling was now okay, the main engine charge air cooler now had a seawater flow issue. I was trying to balance the inlet temperature by pulling back a bit and this annoyed the Capt. I was relieved about 1.5h from docking in Quebec City.

I woke up the next day with a huge amount of relief. The last day on the boat. Get the paperwork signed, eat something, and be off on the jet in the afternoon back home that night. The 2nd was carrying on tasks for winter layup and asked Andy and I to do some. I did them but really didn’t see much point other than busy work considering the vessel was finished. One of the cooks found me and said there was “a huge steam leak in the crew mess bathroom”. Really the hot water line for the sink had cracked so it was simply a matter of turning off the water valve inside the impromptu sauna. Andy told me that instead of a skim there was about 4” of oil sitting on top of the cooling water when he went down in the morning. We had definitely destroyed the liner. With this being the last engine of the type in the world and no spares: le fin.

Around 1:30pm Andy and I left The Kat and took a cab to the Airport. We had a couple hours to kill. I had some 30 app updates to power through on the free WiFi and we had a couple rightly deserved beers for the last few weeks of tribulation. Like tired soldiers we now reminisced at the whole surrealist nature of the various and very serious situations. “Hey, remember when I showed you that janky cord from the sewage unit to the feed water pump the 2nd rigged up?” We started to laugh. “Yeah but dude, your oiler didn’t speak a word of English! Like how did that even work?” “Oh BTW, the 2nd Mate always told me that the lifeboat engine was good so we never started it weekly. Probably a good thing nothing bad happened…” We both broke out in hysterical laughter at a small table in Quebec City Jean Lesage International Airport.

That was indeed the last of The Kat. It was sold and scrapped within 2 years. The salvage company that bought it found my resume online (geee, wonder why I left…) and expressed a cheerful interest if I would be willing to sail it across the Atlantic. I declined politely but my head went something like “They’re going to sail it? Lord help them, that thing should be towed”. I told Andy and he thought we should do it, until I reminded him of all the shit you just read. A month or so passed and Andy actually knew someone that took the contract and they sent him some tidbits and a video. Underway, one of the main air compressors grenade-ed and the generator engine that had low oil pressure had seized. They were unable to run the bilge system oily water separator (with us, only the 2nd knew the tricks). The video Andy got and sent to me was the flywheel of the great engine churning up and slinging the water-oil emulsion accumulating on the tank top (floor) of the engine room as they were unable to separate the oil and pump clean water overboard. I believe I made a good call to skip that one.

That Oppo is the story of 60 days on “The Kat”.

Seems like a sleepy day here on Oppo.
Here’s a collection of broken ship shit from my phone from the past few months.

Locked out washroom stall, found the optical eye for the auto flush just hanging from someone else’s attempted repair. Simpsons fade into bush .gif

Uninterruptible Power Supply; fried something on the main feed.

Wrong hydraulic cylinder sent (the location of the port is too high). Installed and wrong one bellow.

Between the LNG tuning and over due diesel pilot injectors… Popped another 3 discs with exhaust trunking explosions, they’re $7k a piece.

I posted this before but head job on the old 32. They went through 3 reman (2 had cooling water leaks and a rocker stud sheered) before the 4th one didn’t have an issue. The time to retire the old girl was decades ago.

Main bearings at the 20,000h for the 20DF. Not in the greatest shape with the pitting. Was only on 3 bearings, this being the worst.

@suzuka-blue-2000

The Meme is Alive!

Yes it’s home.

I’d like to do a massive shoutout to the Vancouver drivers; goofs who managed to crash on the very first sunny and warm weekend of 2022 and completely screwing up my pickup for hours after work today as my buddy got stuck trying to pick me up.

As for the Ducaghter. I rode home without incident which was basically the only goal today. It only being some 45F/7C outside late afternoon. Street mode it’s compliant and actually very easy to ride, this is the same as any new liter bike. It changes direction way way quicker than the Honda though and I’ll have to get used to the quick shifter. The exhaust is just fantastic though, V4 make such a great noise and it’s happiest singing along above 5k.

Some Svending will happen soon.

And to suffer though break in…

Better pictures eventually

@pip-bip

Ah, Franks as Beans!

@Krieger22 @WasGTIthenGTOthenNOVAthenGTInowA4

Woah, this is the first time a racing game reveal trailer made me feel truly feel like an old.

There's a bunch of hype in the comments but I think it's just naivety and probably cherry picking.

EA is just a monolithic cash grabber so you better hold on to your butts to make sure your wallet is still there. I wouldn't be surprised if they did some NFT shit with the customization, that would be right up their alley.

@Just-Jeepin

There's a couple articles on it at shows.

'94 Dodge 2500 Chassis with the Cummins 12V

https://classictrucks.net/1956-volvo-tp21-swedish-army-all-terrain-radio-car/

@CarsOfFortLangley

Have a fun trip!

Wish I wasn't working what's going to be a complete shit show because of Thanksgiving.

@AestheticsInMotion

I went multi-tool. My kit is a Leatherman Wave from past a decade ago. It was a Christmas present from my father. I usually only bring it out if we've found something and I haven't gone down to grab tools.

Newer Wave +

My daily carry is the micro Gerber Curve on my keychain. Weighs nothing. The small little knife comes in hand for the odd thing and I like having a surprisingly decent bottle opener 24/7.

@gmctavish

Shmooooooove

@EssExTee @ranwhenparked

Old passenger vessels come with a lot of issues.

Companies don't want to pay exorbitant money to tow and break them overseas and it's gotten to the point where if you do try and break them in North America NIMBY come out and throw a huge eco shit fit.

The only option really is to honey pot someone to take it off your hands for "cheap". They either try to do some mooring scheme and this can work with berthing in remote areas or they're sold to a developing country in which they usually run them on shoe strings and bubble gum until there's a major incident.

The mooring schemes that fail like casinos typically come with the vessel just sitting there because it becomes just recycles back to the top issue (and usually these owners have less money to break than the people selling them), the government has no interested in spending money to help get rid of them either.

@HillRat said in Is There General Consensus On Oil Brands?:

@dogisbadob Buick TourX, built in Germany by Opel but runs the GM 2.0L LTG that was in everything for a few years.

In terms of selecting an oil really only 2 things crucially matter. That it meets the specifications the manufacture has set for that engine and it's the correct viscosity for the environment the vehicle faces.
If you meet those two things then "Technically" [not always the case] you meet the oil change intervals for the engine that are set out by the manufacture and don't risk abnormal wear rates or destroying the engine.

You can find this in the owners manual for any vehicle, some certain performance vehicles even have it on the oil cap.

https://www.manualslib.com/manual/1331679/Buick-Regal-2018.html?page=269#manual

Basically you need an oil that is spec Dexos1 Gen 2 (or the newer Dexos1 Gen 3). Oils meeting ILSAC GF-5 (or the newer GF-6A) and API SP, SN Plus, SN (which anything Dexos1 Gen 2 will be). Your viscosity is SAE 5w30 (all weather climates) unless you live in like Antarctica and it's -20F or below...

Most of the bigger oil manufactures have the Dexos1 Gen2 Cert on the Jug/Bottle:

You can typically find all the manufactures specs the oil meets on the back in small print (though specialty oils may display them on the front). All motor oils are required to show what specifications they meet.

Example:

In terms of the Dexos1 Gen2 you're basically limited to a Full Synthetic because of the nature of that LTG. So your only choices are Premium or Off the Shelf.

People treat premium oil brands like sports teams (even though differences can be minor at that level), I've use a few and they've all preformed great.

If I'm honest, I don't really believe there's too much difference in any oil off the Off the Shelf (hence why I suggest finding something to spec that's on sale/clearance). They should all hit the interval.

@annoying_salman said in Some observation from commuting with bus:

The bus official speed is 50 km/h, but I'm pretty sure the driver ignores it because I hear chimes when I feel that the bus is speeding down the road

I've seen this movie!

The bomb will go off if it drops below 80kph...

@KngT

Hahaha,

"I donated a pittance of tech to Ukraine, what have you done?"

Dude legit tried to take on the political diablo and had to disappear or facing being disappeared.

GET REKT ELON!