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John Russell
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
3444 Posts

Initially Posted - 06/05/2011 : 17:25:22

Went out for the first sail of the season. Only been in the water 32 DAYS!!!!! Great weather in Ohio

It promised to be a real lazy day with winds forecast in the 5 - 10 mph neighborhood. Well, that's what we had when we headed out. Soon, however the winds became steady at 7-10 knots. As the winds picked up, I decided to follow the advice here and reefed early. Put one reef in the main and furled the genoa about half way. Making 4 knots and practically no heel. Everybody happy.

A little later, still reefed, the sustained winds picked up a bit and I found my knotmeter telling me 6.2 knots! Pretty good for a boat with a calculated hullspeed of 6.18 knots. It was at that speed for just a very short while but, I maintained 6.1 for quite awhile. All this with a reef in the main and effectively a 90% jib. Yee Haa!

Unfortunately, the 12 year old was bored. Oh. well.

I furled the headsail and shook out the main and headed home at a comfortable 4 knots.

When i dropped the main for the motor into the marina, I cranked the Tohatsu about 3/4 and came in at about 4 knots until I actually got close and entered the marina. When I throttled down, the motor coughed and began to run really rough. Damn, now what? Well, I got down my fairway and approached my slip and throttled all the way down, put it in neutral (as always) for the turn into my slip. That's when the motor completely died. Oh, yeah, did I mention that as I turned, the wind was right on the nose. Got about halfway in. Thanks to a neighbor that pulled us in the rest of the way, we made it in.

I tried to restart it a few times then, I pulled the cover off the motor and took a quick survey. That's when I found out that the motor runs a lot better if BOTH of the spark plug wires are attached. One must have shaken loose on the way in and popped off when I quickly throttled down. Re-attached it and it started right up. Whew!

John Russell
1999 C250 SR/WK #410
Bay Village, Ohio
Sailing Lake Erie
Don't Postpone Joy!

Edited by - on

britinusa
Web Editor

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USA
5404 Posts

Response Posted - 06/05/2011 : 17:48:34

Gotta love those 'Phew' moments, I bet thoughts of boat units were firing like crazy!

Glad that a dock buddy was on hand. Things seemed to have turned out pretty good.

Did the 12 year old's interest move upwards too?

Paul

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TakeFive
Master Marine Consultant

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2272 Posts

Response Posted - 06/05/2011 : 18:42:14

Winds have been very gusty here in PA the last few days. Thur. was 15 with gusts up to 30 knots, Fri. was 10 with gusts up to 25. We decided to pass on both when my wife went on a hike in the woods and a tree blew down. Yesterday was 5 kt with a long puff up to 20. Enough breeze to get up the river to Philly, but it died completely and we motored back.

We've never had the "fun" of having our motor die on us. With the 2-3 kt cross currents I have getting into the fairway it would be a harrowing experience. Obviously I would go to the gas dock if it happened before getting into the fairway, but if it happened after entering the fairway I'd be in for a world of hurt.

Edited by - TakeFive on 06/05/2011 18:57:53

Stinkpotter
Master Marine Consultant

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Djibouti
9076 Posts

Response Posted - 06/05/2011 : 19:29:32

Gotta love those dock neighbors! (Compared to the marinas I've been in, the dock at my condo is pretty lonely when I'm fighting a wind and current as I enter my slip.)

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John Russell
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
3444 Posts

Response Posted - 06/05/2011 : 19:38:34

No, Paul. I was making 6+ knots and the tweenager was below moping.

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TakeFive
Master Marine Consultant

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2272 Posts

Response Posted - 06/05/2011 : 21:21:48

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by John Russell
 No, Paul. I was making 6+ knots and the tweenager was below moping.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
I recently told my wife how glad I am that we bought a boat that was big enough to sit below comfortably. That's where my 15 year old seems to spend most of his time - unless he just stays home.

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The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.