The fourth season of Below Deck Sailing Yacht is off to a terrible start. As a matter of fact, it’s not off to a start at all!
Soon after the crew of Parsifal III boarded in Portisco, Italy and started preparing for the upcoming charter season, Chief Engineer Colin Macrae discovered a rather big problem: the boat’s main engine wouldn’t start.
Engine trouble may not seem like a major issue for a sailboat, but sailing yachts (and also smaller sailing vessels) require engine power in order to enter and exit marinas, as well as docking and undocking.
Colin later diagnosed the issue to be seawater that got into the engine via the aftercooler, and a Cat repair crew estimated that it would be approximately 15 days for them to completely rebuild the engine. As Captain Glenn stated on the Season 4 Premiere, a 15-day delay would essentially mean their charter season was over.
Thankfully, Colin was able to step up and potentially become this season’s hero as he devised a workaround that would simply bypass the problematic aftercooler. The end result would be less engine power, but at least the boat could leave the dock and maneuver at slow speeds (theoretically).
In addition to the engine trouble, First Officer (and fan favorite) Gary King was stuck in quarantine after repeatedly testing positive for COVID. The end result for viewers was the first charter of the season was spent without leaving the dock, and without Gary.
Below Deck Sailing Engine Failure Conspiracy Theories
Fans of reality television are well aware that a lot of what they see on screen has been heavily influenced by producers attempting to make the show more dramatic and/or entertaining.
The series of events over the first couple episodes of Below Deck Sailing Yacht Season 4 had some more suspicious viewers openly speculating whether or not the engine problems were real, or just made up for the camera.
In addition to the engine problems providing some great drama, viewers wondered if Parsifal III could even leave the dock without a First Officer (Gary) because he is the person designated to captain the boat if the Captain cannot.
The conspiracy theories gained some traction online, and Starcasm was even inspired to make a meme about them:
Personally, I put no real merit in the theories. I worked at a marina and am quite familiar with how common engine trouble can be for any kind of boat. (Constantly being around and in water — especially saltwater — is not good for internal combustion engines.)
In addition, I’ve been writing about reality television for 14 years and I have every confidence in the world that Below Deck producers would not hold up a charter if the First Officer got injured or was otherwise unable to work. Heck, they didn’t even pause when Captain Lee Rosbach had to leave in the middle of a charter season!
Colin Macrae addresses fake engine trouble theories
The theories about producers scripting the engine problems gained enough momentum that Colin felt he should address them and put them to rest. He shared a lengthy statement on Instagram in which he explains just how serious the situation was — and will continue to be this season.
Here’s a video of Colin working on the Parsifal III engine followed by his full statement about #Enginegate:
“Been seeing quite a few comments about the engine failure on @belowdecksailing being scripted. Well, let me explain…
“The crew literally join the boat a day before the first charter, and I had no reason to believe the engine would not run. But when I did go to start it, it would not turn over at all.
“I immediately suspected the starter motor, which we luckily had a spare of, so I replaced that, to no avail. I then split the gearbox from the engine, which you saw on TV, with the help of the deckies, to see if it was the gearbox or engine that was apparently seized. This took us HOURS and we managed to eliminate it being the transmission.
“I then seriously started to suspect that the engine was hydra locked, and when we dumped some “oil” out of the sump, out poured salt water. Not coolant. Not fresh water. The ocean. Probably the worst thing that could possibly happen to an engine.
“When we ripped the aftercooler off, we saw that the engine was literally full of salt water. The issue was that there was a small hole in the aftercooler, and water had been filling up the engine while sitting at the dock.
“You saw a lot of hesitation from us on TV as to what to do next, but to cut a long story short, I got asked by the owner of the boat to do anything I could to get that engine running.
“The shot you see here taken by @capt_glennshephard is me hot wiring the engine directly, to get the last remains of water out of the cylinders of the engine. From here it was a long and slow process of filling it with diesel and dumping it out, to try displace all of the water. Then the same with oil a few times.
“When I went to try start it, it took a long time for the fuel to prime again, but it actually started. Was pretty ecstatic at this point as you saw!!!
“Anyway, I can totally understand why people would think this is staged, but I can assure you, a catastrophic failure of this magnitude nearly cost us the season. Not something anyone wanted.
“I ended up bypassing the aftercooler so that it was not having salt water running through it anymore, but you will have to keep watching to see that my engine troubles were far from over. It was the most challenging season of my life…”
One commenter asked how it was possible Captain Glenn didn’t notice something was wrong with the engine sooner. “Because the boat was sitting at the dock getting cameras rigged etc.,” Colin explained in reply. “No one knew the engine was slowly filling up with water.”
Asa Hawks is a writer and editor for Starcasm. You can contact Asa via Twitter, Facebook, or email at starcasmtips(at)yahoo.com
