CB35 Fuel line shut off valve

[Rondo]

I have looked high and low for the shut off valve to the incoming side of the Racor 900 primary filter. I keep thinking there must be one, but have not found it. Can anyone point me to the location?
Rondo

[Rondo]

I ended up changing the Racor filter "on the fly" by putting a pile of absorbent pads down, placed a bucket under the bowl, and a second bucket close by. I then opened the top of the filter, grabbed the handle, yanked out the old filter, quickly pushed the new filter into place, then put the top on and screwed it down. I would guess that a quart or more of diesel fuel flowed over the sides. Some into the bucket, some onto the stack of pads under. The clean up took longer than the change.

This CAN NOT be the way this should be done. Is there no one out there who knows where the fuel shut off valve is located, or hidden, as seems the case?

The next "on the fly" task is to prep a valve, cut the hose, and install the valve next to the filter housing. I think Albin did a high quality build on this craft, but this is an egregious and vexing oversight. At this age, I don't do many anymore, but the next survey I do this will get a red flag for a prospective buyer.

Rondo

[Pitou]

I do not have a 35 TE, but a 2006 - 31 TE .. so similar build vintage.

As well with my boat, Albin only put a shutoff valve on the outflow side of the Racor turbine filter and not the inlet side. They did put accessible butterfly shutoff valves at the top of the fuel tanks for both the fuel feed and the fuel return lines. I have a total of four of these butterfly valves. 1 - engine fuel feed, 1 - engine fuel return , 1 - generator fuel feed, 1 - generator fuel return.

Follow the fuel feed to your Racor back to your fuel tank to see what you have and let us know.

[Rondo]

I should mention that our CB35 is the last one built in Rhode Island, so may have had changes from earlier versions. I can assure that there is no shut off valve between the "out" side of the Racor and the engine, as it can be followed easily. The first thing I did was to try to follow the hose coming to the "in" side of the filter. It disappears into a fiberglas tunnel next to the stringer, never to be seen , again I so far as I can tell. I have put my fiber optic camera into the cockpit access door to look at the top of the tank - nothing to see there. I cannot view the top of the tank from any position I have discovered. No question in my mind there are two supply lines and two return lines, but being able to see them is a problem. I am considering the installation of a couple of round access ports in the back of the dinette settee, to allow a view and access to the top of the tank.

I have decided to install a shut off valve in the line coming "to" the Racor. I will pinch off the hose by placing a thin rubber sheet over it, then using vice grips to halt, or at least slow the flow of fuel, while I push the valve with installed hose barb fitting into the hose. The valve will be in the "off" position, so little risk of the flow getting out of hand, as it shouldn't take long to cut the hose, slip a hose clamp into position, then insert the barbed fitting, and tighten the clamp.

After a logbook with more than 50,000 nautical miles of cruising, I no longer consider myself a novice at messing about in boats, but this has been a real frustration. I really do appreciate your effort. Thank you.
Rondo

[Rondo]

Lovely day in the Tampa area, dry with moderate temps --- a perfect day to spend crawling around the cockpit and below decks on our Command Bridge 35. After more time cutting zip ties, tracing hose runs, feeding quarters to the swear box, and torquing my already creaky knee, I think the light finally came on. I simply got out engineered by Albin. Here is what I have found.

From the first time on the boat, I was impressed with the 2 inch hose that cross connects the two fuel tanks. With a single engine, it makes it easy for fuel to flow between and equalize the level in the two tanks. When filling up, it also means no worries about needing to add fuel to both tanks, as I keep the valves open. However, I wrongly assumed that with the easy flow between tanks, only one pickup and return were needed, or used ---- wrong, wrong, and wrong. Each tank has a pick up tube and a return line. The hoses, are routed all the way aft, behind the rudder post, nowhere close to the location of the Racor filter.

For the fuel supply, the fuel pickup from each tank feeds aft into a bronze "T". Each line has a shut off valve before the "T". The line from the 3rd outlet in the "T" goes to the Racor inlet side. These are not difficult to get to, just that BOTH VALVES MUST BE CLOSED TO HALT FUEL FLOW TO THE RACOR. A Similar situation for the return lines, except no valves - the return from the engine goes to a "T" and then back forward to each tank return port. No doubt this uses a LOT more hose to complete the supply, but now that I am among the learned, it is not a problem. There are quite a number of hoses bundled together with hefty zip ties, so a fair bit undoing and subsequent re-doing was necessary. Now that the map is in (volatile) memory, my handy "Sharpie" marker will make short work of labeling the array of hose, fittings, and valves behind the rudder post.

We just returned from a little over 4 weeks aboard, travelling from home near Tampa, to Tarpon Springs, then back south as far as Naples. The boat performed admirably for the most part, with the only casualty being the Lewmar windlass. It died the last haul-up in the last anchorage we visited. I stopped it with about 3 feet of chain remaining to wash off the sandy mud. It never started again. After getting home, and testing all options, I removed it from the foredeck and took it into the shop. After pulling the case side off, I found the entire gear train and motor surrounded by salt residue, mixed with grease. The internet is full of comments about this issue with these windlass models, so not a rare event, apparently. Needless to say, a new one will be aboard shortly. Just grateful it held on until the last 3 feet.
Along the way we visited friends with docks, and several favorite anchorages and marina stops. We have lived and boated on the Florida West coast for 40 years or so, and fondly remember it when it was much less busy than current times. After missing out on an extended trip last year with all the pandemic issues, it is just good to be back on the water.

I know the season is just getting started for many of you "up there". Here's hoping you all have a great boating season this spring and summer.
Rondo

[Pitou]

Fine job chasing those shutoffs down and glad to hear that you're using your boat!

[WillieC]

There is nothing more gratifying than chasing down an issue, spurred on by your own natural curiosity, even while making more work for yourself (re-dressing the bundles) and reaching a solid conclusion.

Well done!

And thank you for posting.

[Rondo]

Back in the days of full employment, my lawyer joked that the best profit center in the law office was the fax machine and the copier. I have decided that for a marine electrician or repair guy, it is zip ties. Only takes a bit to cut them all loose and lots of grunting and effort to replace- all this after the service is done. AND, it all pays the same.
Cruise on,
Rondo

[Rondo]

Just a few final comments in closing. I am still a little frustrated that I cannot find a way to view the top of the tanks, other than the limited view via the very small openings in the forward end of the cockpit. One day, maybe, perhaps, possibly, it might bother me enough to install some access ports.
The other mistake was not even considering that they would route both tank supply hoses from the tanks all the way to near the transom then, join together and route back to the engine primary filter. Same for the return lines. All aside, it is simple now that I know.
Have a great summer season,
Rondo

[BobHaze]

Rondo: A couple of observations after your posts. Ours is a 2004 35 CB that we bought in 2018 and we use it quite a bit and generally love the boat. She's shrink-wrapped in New Bedford for the winter but in the spring I'm looking forward to tracing the fuel lines to see if they're set up like yours.
As for the 2" fuel cross-over lines, I think they're great except it sounds like you and I take different approaches. The first time I fueled the boat it was from a truck and I was alone on the boat. I didn't think to close the cross-over valve and made the mistake of opening both fuel fill caps on deck before I started fueling. So there I was fat, dumb & happy, pumping away into the stbd tank when all of a sudden I saw a geyser about 2-3 feet high shooting up from the port tank fill cap. Holy s**t, says I as I quickly shut off the fuel fill and dove for some sorbent pads I had luckily placed in the cockpit. I jammed some pads into the transom scupper to keep the fuel from going into the harbor, and quickly started mopping up the fuel on deck and on the cockpit sole. Virtually no fuel went overboard. The door into the cabin was open and there was fuel on the threshold, but none got into the cabin, thank God, or I would have had a really big problem getting rid of the diesel smell. Lessons learned (for our boat, anyway): always fill 1 tank at a time, with the cross-over valve closed and only open the fill cap for the tank you're actively filling. And if at all possible, always have 2 people on board with the other person (usually the Admiral) standing by the overboard vent from the active tank with a sorbent pad at the ready for any overfill. As soon as she starts hearing gurgling from the vent, I stop filling. This has worked well for us.
The other thing that came to mind reading your posts is the tops of the fuel tanks. When I was buying the boat the surveyor noted that the sound insulation over the stbd tank was wet and was sitting on the tank top, as the adhesive attaching it to the underside of the cockpit sole had evidently failed at some point. His concern was the tank top always being wet, and suggested I pull the loose sheet of insulation out to dry or replace, and figure out a way to glue new insulation to the underside of the cockpit sole. I confess it's crossed my mind a couple of times but to date I haven't done anything about it, and it's challenging because there's only an inch or so clearance between the tank top and the cockpit sole. Gluing on the new insulation will probably involve fashioning some long wedges of some kind to press the pre-glued insulation up onto the fiberglass cockpit sole, and probably leaving the wedges there to keep everything in order. And I think your idea of cutting an access port or 2 behind the salon in the vicinity of the fuel tanks would be helpful, as well.
The one big drawback to the design of this boat, IMHO, is access to the engine and generator, which is limited to say the least. I recently helped a friend with some projects in the engine room of his Nordic Tug 37, and I was envious as hell that we could both sit next to the engine and do our work. One can physically not get next to the engine in my boat, I'm always laying on my stomach in the cockpit and reaching down to do anything on the sides of the engine, like changing filters. I know that boat design is all about compromises, and I think Terry Compton did a pretty good job overall of fitting a lot of equipment and systems into this 35' boat, but it sure would be nice to have better access to my engine.
BTW, for all my whining, the first winter we had the boat we took her down the ICW to Key West for the winter via Lake Okeechobee, Boca Grand, Everglades City and back up the East Coast, and last summer we took a 2 week cruise to Maine with a couple of other boats. The boat works out great for a couple...until I have to work in the engine room!

[Rondo]

Bob - sorry so late to reply, but things have been hectic around here. I am laughing while mentally doing a video of all the scrambling about to get things back under control. Glad it worked out in the end. I confess to fueling the boat with the crossover open, but have never had an incident. I use a long hose private fueling service most times, as we keep the boat behind our Florida home. He is one man business, and he is very conscientious, though most times we are in attendance when he arrives to deliver. We have carefully logged the fuel consumption and engine hours between fuel stops, so always have a pretty good guess how much will be needed. The admiral and I actually have a little game about who will get the closest guess. Our fuel delivery guy has a digital gauge right on the fill nozzle, so it's easy to tall when we get close to our guess. At a marina, we do the same by watching the pump gauge. We also always keep a close ear, because you can "hear" the change in sound as it gets close to topping off. I don't think we've ever had more that small burp at the vent. A previous vessel was a Hatteras, and it had a fuel whistle. If you are not familiar with it, it is simply a wind driven whistle, installed in the vent line. As you fill the tank, the whistle is driven by the air displaced out the vent line as the fuel fills the space in the tank. When the whistle stops, shut the fuel off right then. It never overfills. I'm pretty sure they still make them.

AS far as the space, I admit that while I have traditionally done almost everything myself on our boats over many years, these days I find myself fixing the boat with my VISA card far more than I thought. I can still get around, but as 80 casts a shadow, I don't hesitate to call for assistance when needed. Besides, it hurts more afterward these days. I have most things on the vessel figured out after 4 years, so we don't struggle too much. The vessel we owned the longest was a DeFever trawler, and it had a huge engine room, nearly stand up headroom, and most everything mechanical resided there. I am forever spoiled. But we have chosen to downsize to the Albin,and, after some adjustments, we are pretty happy with her. It is the most accommodating 35 footer we have found. After cruising many, many thousands of miles at 8 knots, we are enjoying the 15 knot cruise speed, and it still doesn't break the bank at the fuel dock. We spent 6 weeks aboard last spring/early summer visiting friends and favorites on the Florida West coast, and the boat and we, did fine. We were planning a spring 2022 cruise back to the Chesapeake, but a medical "surprise" intervention has slowed preparations for that little 3000 mile shakedown.
I agree, that I have found no real reason to be critical of the build on the boat. She was very lightly used when we got her, and we still only have 600+ hours on the Cummins QSB.

We have good friends nearby who searched high and low for a CB after riding with us a few times. They ended up with a 32+2, and, Like us they are downsizing from a trawler, and are having some of the same space withdrawal issues as you and we have surmounted. They have only had her for a few months, but they are using it, and enjoying the experience, except perhaps for having to keep putting all those quarters in the swear box, every time he needs to work on something.
Cheers, Ron