Roll up your sleeves for three action packed days of hands on diesel engine training where you’ll get greasy, learn real world skills, and gain the confidence to handle your boat’s heart and soul. We’ll provide all the tools, safety gear, and fuel (yes, coffee and pastries count) to keep you sharp each day. Enjoy a fresh lunch daily and, as your well earned reward, set sail on a beautiful evening cruise across Chatfield Reservoir with Victoria Sailing School. This isn’t your average sailing vacation, it’s part of American Sailing’s Learn to Sail series, built for adventurous sailors who want more than just pretty sunsets. This is where confidence is built and engines are fixed.
This learn-to-sail vacation with Victoria Sailing School is ideal for sailors and boat owners who want to understand and care for their own marine diesel engines.
Prerequisites:
This class is designed for both the recreational user of marine diesel engines and the professional user of these engines. Class size is limited to a maximum of 8 students.
Upon Completion:
You will understand the dynamics of how your marine diesel engine works, all of it’s different systems, how those systems interact and all of the different maintenance procedures to keep the engine in tip top running order.
Tibor is the owner of Victoria Sailing School (located in Denver, CO), and actually learned to sail in Colorado. He has over 2500nm of offshore sailing experience and races on J/22’s on Wednesday nights. He has been teaching Victoria Sailing School’s Diesel Engine Maintenance course for over 5 years, and performs all the maintenance on his own diesel engine (plus ~15 outboard engines).
Covers the basics of how all internal combustion engines work and the specific differences between gas and diesel engines. We will also cover all of the different systems that are typically installed on a modern cruising sailboat reviewing the pros and cons of different models. This day also covers the basics of using a multimeter to diagnose battery and electrical issues. We will finish the day by going through the procedures for winterizing a marine engine and how to configure the engine to operate as an emergency bilge pump.
Designed for graduates of the 1 day course who wish a greater understanding on the intricacies of a diesel engine and gain more experience in troubleshooting problems. When the students arrive, neither of the 2 diesel engines will be running – each one of them will have numerous issues. It is the students job to go through the engines, diagnosing the problems and fixing the issues. It typically takes about 3 hours to get each engine working properly and the problems are divided evenly between electrical and mechanical issues and we try to have issues that are “common” issues.
This is the day we take the engines apart, using compression testers, leak down testers, pop testers to diagnose the general health of a marine diesel engine. We will take the cooling system heat exchanger apart, disassemble the fuel injectors, modify the shim packets in the injectors and generally and discuss how to test the timing of the engine.
Cap it off with a relaxing evening sail on Saturday, applying your new knowledge while enjoying Colorado’s fresh mountain air.
Please Note. This itinerary is meant to serve as an example, however, it is important to note that the actual itinerary is subject to change due to weather conditions or circumstances beyond our control.
