Sunny Saturday.

Saturday was clear, dry and pretty warm. Very un-February-like.

I got on the boat and had a tinker with my 3.3Hp outboard that steadfastly refused to start. The petrol tap was refusing to let more than a small dribble of fuel to the carb, so it started and then stopped. So that's another job to sort. I need to get it going, because Jim's travails the previous week focused my mind onto having backup options like an alternative motor if the main one conks out.

After opening the lockers to get two stroke oil, I noticed a bit of water in there, so I got to work with the pump and sponge. Got the water out and then started airing the wet bits. The rope in the lockers came home for a wash in the washing machine.

Yep, the lockers are odd. I need to get the new locker top on the port side this year. The locker top isn't delaminating, it just offends my slight OCD-ness. I like things to match and be nice, I'm just hopelessly sluggish at making it happen.

With the sprayhood up, and breeze was blocked so the cockpit was a pretty nice place to be.

So with the lockers dried, some bits dried and some in the dinghy to come home, after a brew and a few biscuits I rowed back ashore.

One thing I noticed on the dinghy are scratch marks. It looks like Mr water Vole, Rat, or whatever got stuck at the bow of the dinghy and wanted out:

I will have to think of a solution to this, because if ratty makes my dinghy his home and then graws through the hull at all, I will be very upset. Plugging the open inspection holes up seems like a plan so he can't use the buoyancy tanks as a home, then maybe lifting the dinghy up on bricks  so it's not as safe and cosy as it used to be would seem to be the plan.

Helping Hand.

Last week Jims boat broke its mooring. It let loose and all that stopped it drifting away was the chain dragging on the mud.

I went down last Monday after work and Jim was struggling. I didn't have my oars with me so couldn't get out to Sprite and help drag Jims boat back. I wish I had because in the end later that evening his boat had drifted so much it had to be rescued by the RNLI.

So this weekend just gone I started helping him make a new mooring block. I've scrounged a couple of tyres and a plywood sheet. Enough to fill with concrete. All I need to scrounge is some steel bar to make the mooring ring to set in the concrete. Not bad for nothing.

He also needs new chain as his seems to be pretty much shot. Most likely why it parted in the first place. That might be a bit more expensive.

I've also got his engine at home because it wouldn't work , hence why he couldn't recover his boat on its own.

I'll be busy then. :-)

New eBay purchase

I mentioned in my previous post that I've got something new for the boat.

Well, here it is:

It's a Mariner 2.5Hp two-stroke outboard. For less than £40. Bargain!

It has issues, though. At that price it would be silly to think it wouldn't.

The first issue was it started but died not long after. That was traced to a dodgy fit on the cap on top of the carb. It looks like the cap which the throttle cable goes through and the throttle mechanism bolts on to has stripped it's threads. A temporary fix with araldite has made the engine work and stay working, but at some point it needs a more permanent resolution. The throttle seems to have been designed badly, with the throttle lever mechanism bolted onto the cast alloy cap. Any tension on the throttle mechanism pulls on the cap and strips the soft alloy thread.

A while the engine was running in the dustbin it's apparent that there's still something a bit iffy. The exhaust note isn't right. Looking around the engine there's a water within the casing. It looks like the head has cracked and possibly the gasket sealing the power unit to the leg has failed. But the leg is fine, the impeller seems to be pumping water, so there is good news.

The cylinder head seems to be another point of especially bad design: the head is a casting which includes the moulding at the rear of the engine. If you drop the engine on the ground hard you crack the cast moulding or in some cases like this one the head.

But this engine is a lot better than my Seagull that has never started. I'm going to bung the Seagull on eBay as spares/repairs and use the money to put into the Mariner. Despite it's problems, it still runs which means its worth spending the money on.

So I'll be stripping the Mariner and checking on it's issues over the following weeks and making a shopping list for boat jumbles and eBay.

Oh and also today I installed Jim's solar panel on his boat. I'm pretty sure his battery is buggered because I checked it's voltage and it was 2.9 volts. He needs a new battery for the panel to keep charged.

I tried a spot of sailing on Friday but the mainsail had other ideas, jamming about 2ft from the top of the mast. Some dry lubricant sorted that out but I only fixed it when back on the mooring. By then the tide was dropping. I lubricated all the blocks and also re-jigged the downhaul which was also jamming. A bit weird because it all worked last year. It just goes to show checking all of these things in advance is worth it.

The VHF is back on the boat but I didn't have time to give Solent Coastguard a call. Too busy sorting the rigging and doing bits on Jim's boat.