A treat for Tom Cunliffe to find a working semi-diesel in Denmark during Summer 2017

[@IrregularPineapples]

something about this guy and the way he talks just makes you want to live

[@andybeaumont9903]

Had a Wichmann semi-deisel in our Norwegian fishing boat we brought from Tananger in 1971. Lived aboard for a few years and loved the vessel and her engine!

[@Nerd3927]

I love the way you present this engine and do it justice!

[@hoost3056]

Best storyteller on a boat with a hot bulb semi diesel!

[@CheersWarren]

Could agreed more, lovely sound! I Spain on ‘67 we were at isle tabac at the tiny wharf for the night , we could hear this donk donk donk engine sound in the distance , about an hour later the 40’ fishing boat tried to come alongside and we did some shuffling . He had a semi diesel one cylinder in it . It was Saturday night he had to be back for Sunday ......but he did not turn the engine off! It ran all night until early Monday morning when he left for the week again ...... we got no sleep! Donk......... donk...........donk........ cheers warren

[@PalleMadsen-g8u]

as a retired seaman the sound of the engine brings tears to my eyes

[@ruaraidhmcdonald-walker9524]

Another gem Tom!! Especially for these little known early engines. Electric hot bulb though! Luxury, no blowtorch there!!

[@hobsonbeeman7529]

I have a 2 cylinder John Deere 70 diesel tractor and at idle it reminds me of the engines, just popping along…I luv that sound and puffs of exhaust…. Music to the ears

[@skyking6989]

If nothing else they sound fantastic

[@fraserhardmetal7143]

It's lads like Tom that have made our heritage - long may he continue to reinforce and disseminate it.

[@rogerpoole1862]

Many years ago we owned a Baltic trader, it was powered by a B&W Alpha 2 cylinder. Same sort of starting procedure but our engine had small tubes going into the cylinder heads, these were sealed off by a screw cap for normal running and only used as an aid to starting. There were small cigarette type things that you put a match to and they smoulder away slowly. Once lit you insert into the tube and put the scew cap back on. Maybe this was from a time somewhere between the blowlamp method and the electrical glow plugs as shown in this instance. Simple engineering which never goes wrong. Also the propulsion side of things deserve looking into. Most had a variable pitch propellor directly driven from the engine, no gearbox. The prop was controlled by a wheel in the wheelhouse for varying conditions. For reverse you wind the prop blades into the reverse thrust position whilst the engine is still running in the same direction. Marvelous stuff.

[@arekkaniewski4442]

I would take this sound over generators running at anchor.. come to think this is the perfect remedy for those noise makers. Run this beast for a few hours and they would all clear out. Great video.

[@steadynumber1]

I recall some of the older canal narrowboats with a similar engine noise. They were initiated by blowtorch too.

[@Nerd3927]

One just past me while mored in Streefkerk, on the River Lek. I looked up the video, played it, and I can still hear it in the distance :-)

[@sailingongrace3243]

Very nice. Love the sound of that diesel. " sound of the north"

[@TheRuffusMD]

my grandfather ran a company that dredged out parts of deerfield beach and pompano florida out of the swamp in the 1920's .. he would tell me stories when i was a little boy of a 1 cylinder diesel engine that they used .. it is amazing , that the sounds he would make , imitating that engine , sounded just like the engine on your show .. i feel after all these years , i have heard my grandfathers engine ..

[@TomCunliffeYachtsandYarns]

I'm so pleased that's brought back memories and connected you with your grandfather again. Tom

[@kevinanderson6620]

A lot of fishing boats in Grimsby had these engines. It’s like the soundtrack to my youth

[@arturasstatkus8613]

Thank You,Sir.

[@DanielJohnson-vr9mw]

There are literally thousands of one cylinder semidiesels in Indian farms. Lister and Ruston and Hornsby look alikes. Same reliability and simplicity. Also in some small coastal fishing boats in Mar del Plata in Argentina. This vid is marvelous!

[@fezmancomments]

Grandpa's Steam, Horse and Sail were still with us in our days of Diesel and Petrol. For beauty and love the best of them should be preserved in the Electric days to come.

[@tomr3074]

Splendid boat!! Reminds me of a old John deere tractor

[@eoinrobson2725]

One or two boats that ply around Stavanger are powered by 'huge' single cylinder semi-diesel engines. I can only guess that the torque that these engines generate must be much more than that of its modern counterpart of similar power (hp/kW). When the engine is idling, you can see each burst of exhaust as it comes out. Thanks for sending me your book Tom!

[@andrewbowles923]

Awsome sounding engine, never seen or heard anything like. Im from Houston texas

[@MonkPetite]

See the wire shaking above the wheel house ..at the pace of the engine.. soo cool. We name this engine “gloeikop motor” glow- head Engine.

[@TomCunliffeYachtsandYarns]

I didn't know that. Good name.

[@AquaMarine1000]

As a power (diesel) boat owner it's nice to hear a sailing man get all excited over an engine. The usual coment "arah those smelly things". Cheers

[@seashepherds4959]

Sailors take advantage of things that are useful to sailing. Not to one-up ya mate but when you run out of fuel- well, yer outa fun.

[@AquaMarine1000]

@@seashepherds4959 I hear you, ditto, you don't hear of any container ships running out of fuel, on the other hand you do hear of aircraft running out of fuel. All good fun. Cheers

[@gerdschirmacher7352]

Was für Sound. Da steckt Musik drinn. In welchem Hafen liegt der Kutter?

[@peterlewis7292]

Wonderful engine, I would like to see a little more other than the cylinder head but understand about space in engine rooms. It's almost like a Bolinder 2 stroke. Mr. Tom you'll have to go back and do some more filming, HMG have started to relax our restrictions 😁. Many thanks.

[@massimocorsaro1831]

It's expecially super sound

[@henryroscoe2464]

Two words Tom: PIPE DOWN!

[@TATEXPRESSINC]

Keep up to great work on the videos

[@martinegedecolberg8751]

Dear Tom, When you come to Denmark to pick your lovely boat up from winter storage, I would invite you to come sailing with me for a couple of days in Roskilde and Isefjord. This is real viking terrirory and we have a working Viking Ship Museum that I know will blow you away. It' s an open invitation and we keep both Rum, Whisky and Calvados in the stores of our long keeled Najad 34S :-) Best, Martin

[@philipmasters7491]

Great video. On the small ship engine theme, in 1963 I watched the great Freddy Dinis (by the way his Obituary ran tho two pages in the Engineer magazine) rebuild Theodora’s (nee ‘Kindly Light)’s Petrochemical-Paraffin engine. Wonderful engine but like the Bedouin 2 cylinder we had on Equinoxe and the one in your video they were very laborious beasts to start. I think we were much safer when we changed to the Perkins 4107’s Not a romantic engine but easy to start!

[@TomCunliffeYachtsandYarns]

Very interesting Philip. Theodora is now Kindly Light again, having been rebuilt with extraordinary attention to detail - but without an engine at all. I shall pass on your comments to the guy involved.

[@philipmasters7491]

I know Malcolm well!

[@DIY-DaddyO]

That’s decided, I want one of those engines for my world cruiser yacht.

[@henryroscoe2464]

For someone who claimed to be going to shut up, you talk FAR too much, drowning out the lovely engine note. Apart from that, an excellent video Tom. ⚓️⚓️👍👍

[@carlbarry4368]

I would like to see that Cylinder Head Gasket !! Mate.

[@jjrevelry7913]

Fantastic film! How many litres is that engine?

[@monsDK]

look like 24 hp model.

[@kjartanp4428]

We had a Norwegian 50hp Wichmann that thing had a single 45Litre cylinder. Horsepower isn't really the thing that matters, the tourqe in these thing however is monumental!

[@AndyUK-Corrival]

Wonderful sound. I had a Scottish Ringnetter with a Kelvin K3, started on petrol then goes over to diesel. Three cylinders, 66hp at 150 RPM max. Lovely bit of machinery. You actually visited me on the boat in Moody's many years ago while I was rebuilding her. Sadly the boat was lost after being used for a one off TV programme with an old mate of yours I believe. Very sad as she should have been taken back to Scotland where she belonged. Such is life. Andy UK

[@TomCunliffeYachtsandYarns]

What a tragedy. I sailed with one of those Kelvins too. The petrol was kept in a Teacher's Whisky bottle. It fitted the engineer's hand perfectly as it was poured into those lovely brass cups. So sorry to hear your sad tale. Life goes on. Tom

[@DB-thats-me]

Atlas imperial. 300hp at 300 r.p.m. Real horses! 👍

[@columkenn]

The noise of the engine would drive you mad after a few minutes))

[@meekhinglim4829]

it is a very soothing sound. I may like to sleep on board your boat

[@karlh5645]

Quick question, is there a manual starting procedure if the compressed air system fails (e.g. the air tank leaked and has no pressure)? Is it possible to crank these large engines over by hand? Or maybe bump start it by bouncing off of compression left and right?

[@TomCunliffeYachtsandYarns]

I think I mentioned I was shipmates with one of these engines nearly 50 years ago. We did fail to start it on one occasion in mid-Atlantic The only way, once the air was gone, was to pump up the compressed air cylinder with a manual pump. As I recall, the lever was 4ft long. With 5 of us working in relay, we got enough pressure after about 18 hours. A real killer, but it worked and with a grateful tonka tonk the faithful old engine rumbled into life. I don't think you could hand-start them - certainly not ours which was a biggish one in a 90 ton trader.

[@84com83]

Wen I was a young boy in the 1950-ties.................

[@PrinceKlutz]

It would be interesting to know the working RPM of the engine at SLOW AHEAD, HALF AHEAD, and FULL AHEAD.

[@TomCunliffeYachtsandYarns]

I understand that these engines get up to around 500RPM at full power. Tickover sounds like one power stroke per second.

[@PrinceKlutz]

Hi, Tom. The 1200hp six cylinder Fairbanks-Morse in the army tug I served on in 1969 had a maximum of 325 RPM at Full Ahead.

[@richardfoster5851]

Give the stones a run for there money that would😁👍

[@DaveWatts_ejectamenta]

Like a salty bulldog

[@SihAza]

100 rpm? Has a robust glow-plug.

[@sjoormen1]

So, semi diesel is when only half of it works:-)

[@TomCunliffeYachtsandYarns]

No mate! It all works AND IT NEVER STOPS! Tom

[@sjoormen1]

@@TomCunliffeYachtsandYarns Yes. Diesel is best at that.

[@Bigmac3112]

I like your stuff, Tom, but you are confusing horsepower with torque.

[@TomCunliffeYachtsandYarns]

Never. I drive a 1949 Bentley with a long-stroke 4 litre engine and I've forgotten more about torque than most people today will ever know. But thanks for making the point. It's a good one!

[@whitefields5595]

Tom, You risk confusing folk about 'proper horsepower'. What you are talking about here is torque. I know you know this, but the subject of torque vs power confuses many. It would be worthwhile you doing a vblog on this. Keep up the good work, Birmingham Navy.

[@TomCunliffeYachtsandYarns]

Thanks for raising this important point and thanks for being so generous in your comment. I will try to come up with something to make it clear in due course. Better not hold our breath. I just keep on trucking and wait for something to grab my attention before I do a blog.

[@whitefields5595]

Power is Torque X RPM. The diesel engine in this boat runs slowly but has a lot of torque. In the outboard engine the torque is low. It has to rev faster to give the same power. BUT the power can be the same for both engines. For a given power you either rev slowly with big bangs or rev fast with little bangs. Think of the 2 speed winches. Your arms can only generate a finite amount of torque so you change the gearing in the winch to give the sustainable amount of power in the main halyard to raise the main at a given linear speed The outboard engine has to be small and light otherwise you could not lift it on and off the dinghy. However, being small it has to rev faster to produce enough power. Diesel engines are compression ignition, simple and reliable with no ignition circuitry. They run on cheap low volatile fuel. All good attributes in a freighter. Diesels have to be heavier built to withstand the high compression. They produce their max torque at low rpm so generally run relatively slowly. They will have a large flywheel to store the energy and make it less impulsive. ... so they chug chug along at low rpm. A diesel engine in an outboard would be too heavy and difficult to start with a pull cord. So, neither 'power' is better or worse than any other it is the same thing. BUT high torque from a big old diesel is more satisfying in a boat since it has the 'chug chug' factor which we all find so satisfying! "Power is vanity, torque is sanity" Keep up the good work. Thanks for your no-nonsense, practical contribution to yachting over so many years. Birmingham Navy, Solihull-on-Sea

[@TomCunliffeYachtsandYarns]

Many thanks to the Birmingham Navy for this illuminating comment. I learn something every day, and if you want to know about engineering, you can't do better than find a man with a Birmingham accent. Always encouraging when I'm on the phone sourcing a part for my old car! Cheers Brummies!

[@SimonLeslieEllis]

On the same theme, just, … I have a motor cycle made by Honda called NC700. Only produces 47 horses flat out at 6K rpm. It’s a motorcycle engine based on car engine, that’s gone full circle back to long stroke narrow bore arrangement. It’s brilliant and most enjoyable to ride, unlike revvy sports machines, when riding at legal speeds, which, lets face it, we are all now compelled to do with modern electronic enforcement methods. From the lights, it will go 0-30 in a jiffy with out barely having to rev the engine. Would luv to see a marinized version. It would be so much smaller and easier to maintain than my current Volvopenta D1-20.

[@DIY-DaddyO]

@@whitefields5595 Ah, now I get it. I think 🤔 love to see these big thumpers on a dyno.

[@fotomaful]

Too much talk. Too less engine sound.

[@DogSpirit1]

You talk to much ..😁😁😁 let us hear the Hundested engine working 😀😀😀

[@gondwanatravels8834]

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