New engine..

Time for an update on the cryptic comment re. the "engine front" a few posts ago.. bit of a giveaway in the following...  

..😁  

The elderly Suzuki developed an oil leak last year which I had addressed over the winter (a new sump gasket and sealant) but there is still a slight leak, and given the venerable age of the engine (think it's a 2007?), it's overall condition (not brilliant as it lived in an outboard well for  number of years), and also the general issues I have also had with revs and idling this year, I decided to give myself a retirement sailing present ==>

Tohatsu long shaft four stroke ('natch) 6HP Sail Pro version.. that model chosen as it was the one I had before the Suzuki, you may remember it as the one that was stolen [clicky] - always loved it, and the Sail Pro thrust was noticeably better than the Suzuki (less revs same speed)

Price was, I thought, very reasonable (just shy of £1400) and included a new external tank and fuel lead..  I shopped around, but in the end bought it from a local dealer as it means I can maintain warranty more easily - they'll do servicing..  first service is due after 20 hours, which may just be long enough to get me to the end of the season (I don't use her that much).

Picked it up a couple of days later, and what a thing of beauty.. 😍

Looks black, but in direct sunlight it's a very dark purple colour (the lady in the shop said it was 'aubergine'.. 😀🍆)..

Time to make it less shiny before I put it one the boat though.. I'm going for an "under achiever" look so a coat of paint on the leg would make her look not quite so new, and not quite so shiny or attractive....  

Started masked her up..

Taped all bolts and openings

Then two coats of grey epoxy primer..

If it works as camouflage for the Royal Navy's ships, it's a good enough colour for me..  😀

Done..  on the boat it will have a full strength, barrel type, outboard lock (it's a Fulton), and I will be bringing the engine cowl home with me each time I'm away from the boat - I use a Ducks Back soft cover..  

I work on the assumption that the lock, and the fact that they would also have to source a new cowl will make them go away and look for easier pickings..  but we shall see...  🤞

Took the old engine off a few days before I picked this one up, so that is now home and in the garage - that will be going on eBay. The fuel in the tank was put in the car, the new engine and fuel tank had 5 ltrs of fresh "Super"

I moved the new one to the boat yesterday and lifted it to and from the boat the same way I took the old one off, using the boom as a crane, and the main sheet as the lifting tackle - very easy, and very pleasing.

Having secured it I, of course, had to fire it up and check she was OK, all started very smoothly -adjusted the leg angle a notch (Sparrows transom is curved inwards).. and SO quiet!

Time to go sailing at last..

Tacking practice..

Seize the moment...  and bloody pleased I did...

Glorious weekend in the UK with plenty of breeze (forecast was 3 gusting 4) which is Sparrow's sweet spot, the only downside was an 18:30 neap'ish HT, but needs must, and even a few hours on the water was better than none at all, and besides, after that all too short shakedown the other night I was keen to get out for a slightly longer trip..

Down the club by 2'ish then and after a chat with fellow club member Julian, I found some bits to do while I waited for a little more water to arrive...

Main order of duty was to find some buffering/fendering materials for the new tender as she currently has none. 

Round the back of one of the containers at the end of the yard though, I found a couple of old small fenders, still inflated though a little soft. Clearly surplus to anyone's requirements, so with the addition of some line I found in the boot of the car I added these to one side of the tender - I'll make a more permanent fixing this week, but lashed long'wise, end to end, they were perfect...

The tender is beginning to come together - some O rings on the bung fixed the dripping issue I had the first time, and to all intents she is almost dry now...  one of the other issues though was the hawser/towing line which was too short to allow me to tie her off to Sparrow at my usual attachment points but still have her broadside to the cockpit to make getting in and out easier and safer..  I have some 12mm mylar rope in the garage which was a gift from the brother in law and removed from one of the Clipper Round the World yacht race boats a few years back, so a length of that whipped at each end was pressed to service..  it's probably too thick but it tickles me that a rope that probably saw the worst of the Southern Ocean is now a towing line for my little tender.. 😀

With just over 3.5 hours to HT I launched the tender and made my way to Sparrow to get her ready to go..  depth showed me half a meter under the keel, so having taken covers off, started donk, tied off tender, and dropped the mooring chain we were off..  not bad on a 3.4 mtr tide.

Also not surprisingly though, that early in the tide it was flowing fairly strong against me (and the rest of the afternoon to be honest) so with the wind direction being mostly southerly with just a little east in it, I motored to Beacon where I put the main up for the first time this year, slackened the topping lift, rolled out the genoa, and then went tacking for the afternoon..  😃

Pictures of Sparrow courtesy of Julian's missus as they were out on their boat.. 

Lovely afternoon with just enough breeze to keep Sparrow on her toes...  she was pointing well despite the full genoa, and she was also moving well, a regular 3.5 knots SOG. 

What was also gratifying was that the experiment with the genoa sheets seems to be a qualified success..  tacks were definitely smoother with the sheets feeding far more easily, what I want to now is get some guards for the chain plates to stop the sheets catching, I have an idea what I can use and how to do it (seen on one of the other boats in the yard) so I'll fabricate those this week...  "Qualified"? Well they are a little hard on the hands, as I suspected, but not unduly so, and they are manageable

Hurtled past Marker, carried on another couple of tacks and then turned and goose wing ran for the top of the harbour (picture top of post) - I was getting cold and besides I had a fish and chips vision praying on my mind..  gybed just off Emsworth Beacon, rolled the genoa away (as the main was blanking it), started the engine off Sweare Deep, and then sailed down the ditch past Northney (very unusual to be able to do that as the wind down there is very very squirrelly and comes from all directions) before dropping the main just shy of the bridge and then picking up the mooring..

Packed and tidied away and then spent 10 minutes tightening up the stays (nothing like a good tacking session to show which one's are loose 😏) before heading home (via the fish and chip shop 'natch)..  excellent sail!!

Stay tuned for possible updates on the engine front..  changes may be about to happen...

Log:

Distance: 7.56 (cumulative total in the mileage tab at the top)
Wind (Speed; Direction): F3 gusting F4; S going SE
Sail Plan: Full main and genoa
Speed (Max/average in knots): 4.9 / 3.1

Folk boats and genoa runs..

Fresh from the Boatshow and time to get out on Sparrow as the end of the season is fast approaching - my lift out is the 9th October, which is just the weekend after next, but add in some time to drop the mast, and also time to get the sails/boom off her, and I have a little over a week of available sailing time.

Weird old trip, in a weird old wind direction, but needs must...  😏

The strange wind directions continue, this time NE'ly, and as ever with winds with east in the direction, it was fractious and slightly bad tempered...   the temperatures are dropping as well - suspect the final trip(s) will now all be long trousers, and ..  intake of breath... socks...  😕

Remembering the last trip, I decided to do a genoa run down harbour - a northerly is almost dead downwind for a trip to the harbour so a main sail will always shadow the foresail rendering it useless...  I think in hindsight it wasn't the best decision, but that's sailing and learning...

So - engine on, warps off, and down the ditch again - I shall miss it over the winter, but I've done it dozens of times now... autopilot on while I sorted out ropes and halyards, and singled up the sail ties on the main ready for when I'd need it...

Just past Northney I rolled out almost all the genoa, and gradually edged further off the wind as I progressed - tracking the starboard channel markers. Main still down and stayed down until I eventually got to the bottom of the harbour. A long old run, in the sun, coffee in hand, fishing rod deployed, chatting with other boats as they passed.. lovely.

What a beauty - passed me as I was running down wind on just headsail..

All good things come to an end though - and as I've said before, for every downhill there's an uphill, and the wind was freshening (local weather beacon saw it edging into a F5), and undoubtedly I would need reefs in main and genoa for the beat up the harbour. 

Rolled in some genoa, engine on, turned into the wind, pilot on to keep her head to, main up, reefs rolled in, and then bear away slightly for the first beat... sounds simple, it wasn't...😁 

Few lessons learned, next time I'd roll all the genoa away - it easy enough to roll in or out, and means it's not flapping like a banshee, while heading into the wind and you're focussing on reefing. I also didn't have enough rev's on the motor to keep her head to wind properly - a few more would have helped, and when I later dropped the main to head home, proved to be the case. 

Cracking beat up harbour - tide was running so they were quite flat, but every tack was good for 200 or so metres towards the goal - four tacks, and we roared past Marker, spray over the deck, few more tacks and I was at the end of the channel for Northney and rather than drop sails in a confined space I headed into the wind and took everything in..

My mate Julian was out on his boat and got the following, which is always very nice...

Clean bottom apparently...

Neat as a pin...

Back on the mooring and the aforesaid Julian came past on his tender - club bar was still open - seemed rude not to!!  😀

• Oil levels checked - mid line..
• Couple of litres left in the tank - will need a top up

Log:

Distance: 8.2 (cumulative total in the mileage tab at the top)
Wind (Speed; Direction):  Both ends of a F4; NNE
Sail Plan:  Genoa down, reefed main and 60% genoa back
Speed (Max/average in knots):  4.5 / 2.3

The one that came home..

These are beginning to sound like episodes of Friends so I'll have to stop that..  😁

I am retired..  retired...  I can go sailing anytime I like..  so where today would normally have been a "crafty day off", it is no more..  it was just a sail..  but my goodness, it was a cracking sail..

Top 4 gusting 5 when I arrived, but having topped up the outboard tank (I may have grandson as crew on the next trip) with 3 ltrs of Super, put together the replacement fishing rod^ for the one I lost last time, and then rolled a couple of clips of reef in the main, I dropped the mooring and headed for the ditch and the end of the Emsworth channel for what turned out to be a (better) repeat of Sunday's sail..

Solo sailor - everything to hand..   😀

The wind was still fractious, occasional gusts that made me happy about having put the reefs in, but with less shift'age in the wind direction; looking at the stats it shifted through a total of about 50 degrees between E and NE, but the average was much smaller this time..

So a broad reach, occasionally a run, to the bottom of the harbour where once again the wind died with the high tide. Hardening up to get a bit of East'ing I then had a two tack beat to the top of the harbour.

Cracking day - returned to the moorings though, to find one of the club boats in trouble - both our club work boats were out giving assistance, and it looks like a mooring chain had wrapped round the keel - they cleared it before I returned to the shore; I hope everything is OK for the owner..

^ New fishing rod is a Frankenstein lash up from bits found in the garage, comprising the top half of a beachcaster, and a reel from the spares box, tie clipped and taped to the rod section. It worked by the way - deployed on the beat back home I had my first bite and catch of the summer - mid sized - OK, small - mackerel which was returned to the briny quickly, so no time for a photo opportunity..

Log:

• oil topped up
• 3 ltrs fuel added

Distance: 9.31 (cumulative total in the mileage tab at the top)
Wind (Speed; Direction): F3 gusting top F4 ; ENE
Sail Plan: Reefed main, 80% genoa
Speed (Max/average in knots):  5.2 / 2.8

Scorchio...

We're in the middle of a heat wave at the moment and highs don't always guarantee wind.. so it was that with a decent mid day tide I was hoping to get out on a long one, but the wind didn't kick in until just after HT so as I sweltered under an umbrella in the garden looking at the tops of the tree's not moving, the first signs of a breeze saw me heading for the boat..

Huge tides at the moment, 4.8 mtrs on the moorings, and arriving at the time I did there was only two feet between the gate of the tender pen and the water!

Filled up the outboard remote tank with 2 litres, covers off, engine on, and then just an hour and half sailing, but what an afternoon..  glorious force 4's tacking in the sunshine, chatting with a guy on a 420 dinghy as we swapped tacks, until I got the long board just off the entrance to the Emsworth channel and headed south..

Lovely...

• 2 litres of fuel added
• Oil checked (good)

Log:

Distance: 5.69 (cumulative total in the mileage tab at the top)
Wind (Speed; Direction):  F4 (both ends) / SExE going SSE
Sail Plan: Full main and full/reefed jib
Speed (Max/average in knots):  3.7 / 3.1

Fettling...

Fettling?! Chaos...😁

Been a fortnight since the last sail and I was hoping to get lucky this weekend, but I was busy on Saturday, my day of choice, and as suspected when I got to the boat yesterday (Sunday) it was blowing a high end 4 gusting 5 from the West, along with grey and slightly (very slightly) showery intervals...

It really didn't fill me with a sense of joy so I decided to lounge about the boat on the mooring, fettle, fish, read, drink beer, and snooze instead...😀

Along the way however, some necessary work was done, that would have needed doing anyway so the time was very much not wasted..

First on the list was the hinge fitting for the tiller pilot which was showing signs of stress after a couple of years of use...

Here =>

The hinge is stainless steel but not particularly thick - and whereas I was right that it doesn't matter when the pilot ram is extending (as the base presses into the cockpit coaming and supports the hinge), when the pilot ram withdraws it causes a compression at the points marked by the arrows and the hinge has bent slightly..

Wanting to nip this in the bud, I wanted to put some extra support to the bolt hole closest to the hinge - the answer was to put a substantial penny washer on the outside of the hinge in addition to the one already in place on the inside...  to do that though required me first to remove the pilot base (that block of wood), and then remove the cockpit hatch cover, as you need to get your arm up inside the cockpit coaming to get to the nut end of the bolt holding the hinge to the side of the cockpit.. 

Either way - job done - already looks better - it may need a more substantial hinge at some time in the future but for now the job is done.  I've bought the base/block home for a sand down, and another coat of paint..

Next job was a check of the oil level in the outboard, which I had lowered when I first got on board to allow time for the oil to settle.. 

You may remember from the last blog post that I had noticed an oil film in the pan of the engine the last time I had sailed and was concerned it might be leaking..  

Either way, it was a warm day (despite the clouds) so I didn't think it was necessary to run the engine up to warm the oil further, pulled the dip stick and checked the oil (mine looks like that one right - the oil level is read from the very bottom part of the dipper - the straight bit just after the cone)...  

Happily the oil was mid way between the two marks, so no further action required, and a weight off my mind..  looks like the leftover oil was from a previous issue (I have a suspicion the dip stick wasn't fully tightened up during last years use and there was some leakage)

Last job was to check tension of the side stays upper and lowers, and all was good apart from the rear lowers which were very slightly less tensioned, so I gave them a few turns to taughten them up..

Jobs done - fishing rod deployed for the first time this year (nothing, nada, not a sniff), then a beer, a snooze, and a read, before the showers finally drove me home..

Good day but I need to bring the broom out next time - she's hairier than Jimi Hendrix under the water line..💩