First a general look at Puff the Magic Dragon.
If an image has a rollover image we will indicate it with Rollover

Puff is a Ford Sea Panther a 1300cc petrol engine with a diesel head modified and marinised by Ford. There are thousands in use in yachts but not widely acknowledged. The engine is original to the yacht and is 29 years old. Just like any women if you treat her well and with respect she will look after you. Don't and your on your own mate.
Puff knocks out 30Hp and is a real work horse. She has never failed to start for me although you have to learn how to speak to her.
The photos later in this sequence were taken three months after she was lifted out for the winter. Puff had not been started all that time. She started second time after turning the engine over for about 15 seconds. For those who are not into marine engines that is very good.
We will start at the back and work forward then start the engine.
The two blue pipes C at the back, are the cockpit drains. There are four in all. Sea cocks for them are behind the batteries B to access them you need to go through he deck locker. To get to the batteries again through he deck locker and the dark panel visible to the right of B. There are three batteries in all, a green one to the left of B and a large black on to the right of B. These are the domestic batteries in all 200 amp/hrs. Battery B in the middle is the engine battery and is a heavy duty ford battery.

ESC to the bottom right is the engine water intake sea cock. It is a lever type horizontal closed vertical open. It will be open when you take the yacht and you can leave it open unless you need to close it in an emergency. Above the sea cock is I the impeller we replace them at the beginning of the season so you shouldn't need to bother with it. If you need to there will be a spare in the bosun's locker.
Up again to F, this is an automatic fire extinguisher. It is heat triggered.
Bottom left SGG the stern gland greaser. This bit of kit is full of grease and the handle should be turned until resistance is felt and then a 1/4 turn more. It delivers grease to the propeller stern gland behind the engine. Once a day is OK unless you are doing lots of motoring then about every 4-6hrs. Anytime you are doing anything around the engine when it is running, take care that hair or clothing can't get caught in the fan belt.
In the centre of the coil of green wire is a fuse panel FP these fuses are for the switch panel 1 above the nav seat. Rollover
coming into the engine now D is where you will find the dip stick there will be a better view of it later.
A is the air intake for the engine and is a significant piece of kit in an old engine like this one, and the reason Puff got her name. More about that later.

We are going to start the engine.

It is important to establish a routine when starting the engine so that you don't forget anything. With that in mind there is a check list 8 in the nav area, just like an airline pilot. Rollover
The first thing to do is check that everything is set up correctly. the last thing that happened was the engine was stopped using the pull stop C . If it is still out the engine will never start so we start by checking it is pushed fully home. In the picture it is.

Next we need to set up the throttle.

Here is the throttle and drive button.

The button 1 is either pushed in or pulled out.
Here it is pushed in, which means the gears are engaged and if we were to turn the engine over the propeller would turn in the water. This is no good for starting the engine. We need to disengage the gears by pulling the button out, Rollover. The piece of chord is just to make pulling it a little easier.

As with the engine stop/pull these are checks to prepare the engine for starting. I have built these steps into my engine shutdown routine too so these important points are effectively checked twice. Get either of these things wrong and you will never start the engine.

Now with the engine stop in and the drive button out we are ready to set up the throttle for starting. The throttle is is in the neutral position here.

Notice the throttle trigger 1. With a car gear stick you either pull it up or push it down or push it past some resistance to prevent you going accidentally or quickly into reverse. The throttle cup trigger performs the same function. Notice the notch in the silver ring below the lever. There is a similar notch in the top behind the lever you will see it later.
Lifting the cup Rollover releases a rigger that engages in the notch to prevent the throttle going from forward to reverse to easily. With the cup pulled up we can put some revs on to start the engine.

Just to re-cap:The stop is in, the drive is out, the throttle cup raised and now the throttle advanced to about this position. Knob level with the top of the wood trim of the deck locker.

At this point we can go below and start the engine.

8 is your check list for starting and stopping the engine.

10 is where the ignition key, pre heat switch, and engine instruments are located .

'The battery switch is inside the quarter berth. We will select battery No2.

From left to right:

Temperature gauge, Red ignition light, just visible behind my knuckle the green oil pressure light, behind my finger amp meter. I am pointing at the pre-heat switch. What we are going to cover now is all part of learning how to talk to Puff the right way. With the ignition switched on, ignition lights lit, we are ready to use the pre heat.

The white label is a suggested sequence for the pre-heater, but if you understand the principal behind it you can vary from the routine if it works for you. We will remove the steps now so that you will see what is happening more clearly. Press the pre-heat switch Rollover.

Unlike modern diesels which have glow plugs in each cylinder, older engines have a pre-heater located in the air inlet A.
Here you can just see the gray smoke of the vaporised fuel around the air intake. This picture is about 8 seconds into pre-heat.
About 12 seconds into the pre-heat Rollover the vapour is beginning to spill down over the intake manifold.
What is important here is to appreciate what we are trying to archive and that is to flood the manifold with vaporised fuel to aid the cold start. 15-18 seconds will probably be more than enough under normal circumstances. This pre-heat is more important at the beginning and end of the season when the temperature drops overnight. Many times in summer the preheat is not needed at all.

Now you know how Puff the Magic Dragon got her name.
Just while we are here B is a close up of the oil dipstick.
You need to bare in mind these pictures were taken as Puff was started for the first time in 3 months after a cold winter layover, so I may have gone over the top a little but it is a good demonstration of what can be done Rollover.
The engine was turned over for about ten seconds and didn't fire. I paused to repeat the preheat, obviously the time needed to vaporise the fuel was less as the pre-heat was already warm. Turned the engine over for another 5-10 seconds and away she went purring like a pussycat. When Puff starts up all the vapour is drawn into the intake.
OK so now Puff has woken up let her run for a minute to warm up, then drop the revs back to tick over.

This is just a note about the rev counter.
It is fed from the alternator. When the engine is warm it is possible to start the engine without putting the throttle forward to add revs.
Don't ask why but the alternator has some kind of gate or electronic switch that needs some revs to open it and allow it to work.
If you start the engine with low revs it may not open the switch. If that happens your rev counter will not work, which is your best clue. But more importantly your batteries will not be charging. The cure is to just give the throttle a little boy racer Brummmm. The gate will open and the rev counter work.
Of course this will never happen if you always follow the starting sequence described above.

Now we put the throttle to the neutral position, and if you are ready to go push the drive button in Rollover to engage the gears and then apply your revs again .

It is both both amusing yet at the same time heart stopping to watch Multinet sail backwards down the straights while everyone onboard panics and looks for the reason the prop appears to have dropped off. Multinet goes better under engine when the drive is engaged. Push the drive button in if you want to go anywhere.