
Your teachers, Jan Athenstädt and Nigel Calder
Welcome to our course on marine diesel engine maintenance!
We are thrilled to welcome you to this "virtual engine workshop". Nigel, who wrote the first edition of his Marine Diesel Engines as long ago as 1987 (the book is now in its third edition) is the primary content generator and then Jan applies his magic to turn this into engaging online content. Xavier Gomez meticulously reviewed the content and is now translating it into a Spanish edition. After over two years of effort, including thousands of hours spent on recording, editing, and generating 3D animations, the course is finally complete.
Target Audience
We designed this course to be accessible to everyone, starting with basic concepts. But we also cover a number of advanced topics, teaching you everything necessary to keep your engine running smoothly for thousands of hours. Even seasoned boaters are likely to pick up many new tips and tricks throughout the lessons.
Diesel engines are fundamentally reliable, often more so than gasoline engines. In industrial and commercial settings, diesel engines frequently last for thousands of hours before needing major overhauls. And with proper care, a marine engine can run also anywhere from 5,000 to 15,000 hours before requiring anything other than routine maintenance. However, many pleasure boat engines fail much sooner.

According to this statistic from the Dutch coast guard, engine failure is one of the most common reasons for rescue missions at sea
Most engine failures in pleasure boats are caused by poor maintenance, neglect, or inappropriate duty cycles, such as running long hours at light loads. The key issue is that if you delay preventive maintenance, something will eventually break down. At best, this could lead to an expensive repair and a ruined vacation. At worst, you could lose your boat or even put yourself and your crew in danger.
The goal of BoatHowTo is to help you be safe and self-reliant on your boat. To achieve this, it is crucial to understand how your engine works, how to maintain it, and how to fix it if something goes wrong. This is the goal we had in mind when creating this course.
We produced the lessons in two locations. Jan guides you through the theory from the small studio he set up aboard his boat "Ahora" in the Mediterranean, where he spends his summers cruising. The other part of the lessons is recorded in the engine workshop at a boatbuilding school in LĂĽbeck, Germany. There, Nigel will explain the practical aspects of engine maintenance and many of the tricks he learned during the 60 years he has been working on engines.
Special thanks go to the staff of the German boatbuilding school in LĂĽbeck/TravemĂĽnde for providing access to their engines, as well as to Matthias Rummel, our assistant who helped with the filming and video production. (Make sure to check out his YouTube Channel!)
In the next lesson, we will give you some tips on how to make the most of this course.
Jan/Nigel, please advise how should I proceed to get registered for the Marine Diesel Engine course.
Hi Christopher,
The Diesel course is not out yet. We are currently wrapping up the last lessons and will let you know via email as soon as it’s released!
Best
Jan
Hello Jan and Nigel,
I am very much looking forward to this course in marine diesel engines! Thank you for putting this, and the previous courses in electrical, together. It has nicely rounded out my boat systems knowledge, and has been great joy to follow along what I feel is a well thought out project.
Here’s to another great course!
All the best,
Christian
Thanks Christian, welcome aboard! 🙂
Is there a way of knowing when a comment I make gets answered such as an email?
Hi James,
When you type your comment, there should be a checkbox popping up below the text field where it says: “Notify me when someone replies to my comment”. If you tick that box you should get an email when someone answers to your comment. You can also scroll down to the very bottom and click “Subscribe to comments” and then you should get notified about any comment on that post, even if it’s not related to your question.
Best
Jan