outboard sabotage by bees!!

[Jon penrith]

Hi all,launched my boat recently in cornwall & was blasting along quite merrily when the engine suddenly cut out.It felt hot & after leaving it to cool for a bit re started ok but I notice no water was coming out of the tell tail, but water was coming out of the v little hole next to the tell tail.After much poking & rumaging I managed to extricate a bloody bees nest which was blocking the tell tail.This bee, a cardaman bee I think,had taken a shine to the hole of the tell tail & built its nest in it blocking it good and proper.As I keep bees I thought this might be in retribution for all the honey I have nicked off my bees.Fortunately engine seems to run ok, but not what you'd expect when out on the sea!

[Tim M]

GLad your engine is OK now. Funny story

[Mark Halliday]

Someone somewhere carries a length of thick strimmer line to unblock blocked tell tails. Yet another thing to stick in the tool box.

It could bee the bee all and end all of your problems.
Sorry, I'll buzz of now.

[lc0021]

that's what you need - a RIB with a real sting in the tail!!!

[Tim M]

Originally Posted by Mark Halliday

Someone somewhere carries a length of thick strimmer line to unblock blocked tell tails. Yet another thing to stick in the tool box.

It could bee the bee all and end all of your problems.
Sorry, I'll buzz of now.

Interesting this should come up: my tell tale has been totally blocked for little while now. Today I thought I would finally get to the bottom of the problem (having changed the impellor and thermostat diaphragm). I ended up attaching the pump I use to inflate the tubes to the hopse which feeds the tell tale. I gave this a few hard blows and hey prestow, blockage removed!

[roycruse]

My old suzuki DT55 was notourious for a blocked tell tale - never had anything as exotic as a bees nest though

a quick blow with the styrup pump was all it ever needed but it would only blockl up again on the next trip out.

Stupid design I guess...

[Nos4r2]

Best way to unblock a telltale if it's fed from the lower end of the water jacket is to backflush with water from a hose-it'll clear it nicely as it shifts more than air will. You'll be surprised how much crap comes out.