The engine has been serviced - it's still under warranty and I'm keen to ensure this continues but not at the expense of having the mickey taken. Last years service came to just less than 25% of the cost of the engine (! 😏) so this year I double checked before taking it back for another service with them and having confirmed it would be the same cost, this time after asking for recommendations, took it to another service centre..
Very pleased with the service from Bursledon Outboards who are themselves a main Tohatsu dealer so my warranty has been maintained, but at an overall cost that was significantly less than the previous guys.
Impellor changed, fuel filters changed, spark plug changed, new anode on the leg, and then a couple of things that for me confirmed my choice of changing to them despite the additional distance to get to them.. one the engine had been overfilled with oil at the last service, not something I would have expected from a main dealer.. what was also strange was that the bolts for the cover on the magneto fly wheel were only finger tight and had loosened to the point where the cover was now rubbing the fly wheel - weird... I would definitely have noticed it last summer, so my assumption was that the manhandling of the engine off the boat, into the garage, and into the car, had been enough to joggle it loose... the engineer was happy that there was no permanent damage but was keen to see if it qualified for a repair under warranty - we'll see .. either way, I was impressed with their customer service, and the engine is done!
Elsewhere, and in between the showers and shocking weather, the Jolly Boys convened or the first Jolly Boys boat to hit the water this year, which was the good ship AmiLy who went in on Monday.. Rod's done a lot of work on her engine over the winter so clearly that needed testing, but he'd also contracted with one of the Hong Kong sail lofts for a new main sail.
He's never liked the old one, which is probably original to the boat so he was keen to get that on as well to make sure it fitted. Hmmm... too windy really for a conclusive test, but the biggest "concern" is that the supplied sail was loose footed, which he very specifically asked for it not to be. He's back in touch with the loft and they have acknowledged their fault so he's just waiting for them to agree what to do - in all likelihood a trip to a UK based loft to have a bolt rope fitted, in the meanwhile though, a smaller subset of the Jolly Boys met on Tuesday (today as I write) to take AmiLy round from Port Solent to her home berth on Whale Island.
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| They're dredging the main channel into Port Solent, so we met these guys as we exited the lock |
Glorious day, but chuffing cold, the sun eventually shone and an ideal day for a 40 odd minute perambulate down the harbour - all of it on a smooth as silk engine (Rod most chuffed) and 40 odd minutes later we pulled in on to the home berth. There is something very pleasant about slurping tea, on a boat, after a winter ashore... 😊
As the wind was considerably less (though still feisty) on the pontoon when we arrived, we decided to have another go at hoisting the new main - first, despite the fact that it's loose footed, it is an exceptional quality - it's fully battened and the pockets/tensioning system are amazing, very impressive. Good quality sail cloth, well stitched, with plenty of reinforcements and good reefing points. Most impressed, (as was Rod 😏)
Minor issues? Well apart from the foot, but two it's an absolute bugger to hoist and drop - now that may be as a result of the full length battens being over tensioned (?), it may also be that we weren't completely head to wind so there may have been some lateral wind pressure - what we are agreed on is that the sail is staying on and we need to go out and actually sail it to see how it performs.. bring it on we said!
Log:
Distance: 3.94 (cumulative total in the mileage tab at the top)
Wind (Speed; Direction): F4 gusting F5: NW
Sail Plan: n/a
Speed (Max/average in knots): 5.4 / 3.3
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