www.iFourWinns.com

I have a CO problem with my 2006 348 Vista and an unburned gas smell when getting on plane. Four Winns told me no other boat owner has this problem. They wanted to cut into the swim platform to solve the problem. I said "no". Has anyone else had this problem?

Bob,

An unburned gas smell is typical of boats with High Density Polyethelene fuel tanks. Do your CO detectors go off? Have they been checked by Fireboy (sensors checked and recertified)? Do you drive the boat with all the canvas in place (this can cause the station wagon effect). More details are needed.

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Brett DiMichele

What do they mean by 'cut into the swim platform'? Where, and why?

Do you have inboard v-drives or sterndrive I/Os? Which engines?

As Brett suggests, can you explain a bit more about how you're running the boat when it's happening?

Oh, and update your profile to include a location, it helps narrow down answers to some questions (salt/fresh/warm/cold,etc).

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-Bill Kearney, 2005 348 Vista

Thanks Bill and Brett for your response to my question about my co problem. I do my boating in salt water on the South Shore of Long Island, NY. The boat has twin 5.7 volvo engines with ocean series composite outdrives. The gas tanks are stainless steel. I drive the boat with the canvas on also with the canvas off, with just the front open or with just the back open and nothing seems to help. Four Winns took the boat to the dealer and changed the bellows in the outdrive and said it would push the exhaust deeper into the water. It did nothing.The next thing they did was to have a volvo engineer hook up a computer to the engines as we drove the boat. He said there is a problem and he would send the info to the factory and see what they could come up with. This was last summer and I am still waiting for a satisfactory response. The last word that I have received was to cut holes in the swim platform with stainless steel grates to vent the fumes I told them "no way". What I think is the real cause is that the boat has such a large swim platform that it should not have been sold with ocean series outdrives that do not set deep in the water so that the fumes don't come back. So if any body else is having this problem please let me know.

I've got v-drive inboards that exhaust out the sides, above water, so it's not like we can make many direct comparisons.

I picked up a handheld CO monitor (around $80 off eBay). You might want to get one to get a more accurate picture of what's actually happening. They're much more informative than just waiting for the permanent ones to trip.

I've had the cabin CO alarm go off twice when underway. Once with the canvas up and the other when we got caught in a nasty summer thunderstorm. All bets are off on the latter. But when the canvas was up it triggered pretty quickly. Even with a panel or two open, in a lame attempt to improve ventilation.

When spring returns I do plan on putting some time into measuring it more accurately. I had some folks from Boat/US aboard last Fall to help them write an article on a few things (weather and CO, mainly). I was really surprised how high the CO readings were with the genset running while in our slip. Seems the engines are a lot 'cleaner' than the genset. So I have on my 'to do' list for spring to take the boat over to a reasonably protected cove on a calm day and do some measuring.

As to your problem, are you saying the setup of those particular drives underneath the swim platform is causing the CO trouble? It would certainly be interesting to hear from other 348/358 owners with I/Os. But unless they've got some way of measuring the CO accurately it'd be a bit difficult to diagnose.

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-Bill Kearney, 2005 348 Vista

We have the same drives as you. We never had that problem. We have ran with the canvas up a couple of times when it was raining. Also we ran with the canvas up in front of the arch a lot. We have had other people on board and they never smalled anything. We boat at Lake Raystown. But the dealer had it at the bay for 1 year. This was his boat for a year. He used it with his family and never had a problem.

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348 Vista ( Last Call )
Raystown PA

I have an '07 358 with the OSX drives as well. I ran a lot of the summer with only portions of the canvas opened up. Frequently we'd open the screened windows on the back and side and remove the isinglass from the front of the boat. We definitely did have some troubles with station wagon affect and the aft-cabin CO detector going off. Bill's suggestion about a handheld CO meter sounds like a good one. I'm going to look into it. As for specific design flaws my first reaction is a little bit of skepticism. Are the ocean drives that much shallower than the traditional drives? I certainly haven't noticed them to be. The exhaust through the hubs so I would expect they aren't exhausting any higher than other drives. The boat does have a fairly large swim platform but I've looked at many other boats with similar sized platforms and not heard or seen any indications of problems with those boats and CO.

Anything to remove the threat of CO on these boats is a significant plus. It's certainly not something I'd like to screw around with, I believe I'm only likely to lose a fight with CO.

Ben

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2001 Cruisers 4450
Volvo TAMD-74P 480hp Diesels

The problem would have to be with the bellows or some other exhaust component. The actual X Dimension and depth of the OSXi isn't any shallower than the regular DPS drive and I can't fathom why (aside from some screw up with the exhaust system) why it would be backdrafting CO into the cockpit aside from the typical station wagon problem which is an issue with any boat that has camper canvas. When I have my canvas up, I will open the bow access window and open the rear and side isenglass so there is positive rearward ventilation through the cockpit.

One thing I do sorely miss that my old boat had was opening wing windows, I really, really miss those! I actually wish I could keep my bow window closed and just slide up the bottom half, like the power vent window on the larger yachts.

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Brett DiMichele

I would pick up a CO detector to really determine if there is a problem. We had to replace the CO detectors on my boat within a month of owning it. The dealer said there was a batch of defective units out there and he had already replaced a few. My detector would go off while cruising with the cabin closed and all the canvas down. It would go off at the marina in the middle of the night with nothing on and no running engine or running boat within a mile. It is a rude awakening at 3am. Since the replacement there has been no problems. We have the 5.7's with the Ocean Series Drives.

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07 Tiara Sovran 4300
07 338 Vista - SOLD