As you have probably read in the lighted boat parade post we had an issue with our bow thruster and port engine. Our mechanic got to the boat on the Friday after the boat parade and started to troubleshoot the issues.
We had two separate but linked issues.
First the bow thruster had continued running and would not respond to the helm control. It eventually had to be turned off at the battery switch in the engine room. By then smoke and a strong burning smell had blown through the boat.
The mechanic pulled the motor and reported back that the thruster solenoids had fused with the result that the thruster ran continuously. A secondary failure was that the thermal override had also failed allowing power to continue to the thruster. The heat on the thruster had melted the plastic housing and also melted the rubber coating on the battery cables to the thruster. This had caused the wires in the battery cables to touch and had caused arching. He believed that we were very lucky to avoid a fire.

The motor will have to be replaced and has been ordered. Paul has also requested that a cut off switch be added to the circuit so that the thruster can be turned off without anyone needing to enter the engine room while the engines are running. We will add that to a location in the forward guest stateroom, above the thruster..

The second issue was understanding why the port engine powered down. There had been no alarm at the helm suggesting that it was not an overheat or oil pressure issue.

The mechanic found the engine in gear and the port Glendinning electronic controls inoperable. On putting a meter on the control power source he found 26volts. He took off the controls cover and discovered that they were 12v motors. These control had only been installed 12 months ago, and somehow the yard used by the previous owner had installed 12volt control motors on a 24volt system.
The mechanic is guessing that the touching wires at the thruster sent a spike through the DC system and the port Glendinning motor was blown.He pulled both control units and sent them back to Glendinning to have the motors switched out. He also is speaking to Glendienning as they will be able to tell from the serial numbers on the units who ordered and installed these.
I will update this post as we resolve these issues.