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Skunked! (long)

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delliottg
Former Mainsheet C250 Tech Editor

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USA
4479 Posts

Initially Posted - 08/15/2012 : 11:04:34

This past Sunday, Rita & I took my best friend and his teenaged son sailing & crabbing. The plan was for he & son to run the crab pots out to a spot off of Magnolia Bluff in our Avon so we'd get some extra soak time on the pots, then we'd rendezvous with them, coordinating with the VHF. That was not to be.

We got the Avon prepped with PFDs, oars, VHF, crab pots, floats, drinks, etc. Then grabbed the new Coleman 5hp OB from the dock locker with the intention of just dropping it on the transom and off they'd go. Well, the instructions for how to store the OB are um... ambiguous at best, it shows a silhouette of the OB laying on it's side with a bump that I interpreted to be the shifter down (oil filler cap up). Apparently that's not the right way, all the oil had leaked into the dock box. Perfect. Cleaned that up, added some oil to the sump, filled the little onboard tank and hung it on the transom of the boat. It started right up, but wouldn't idle down, (sound familiar?). We played with it for the better part of an hour (an eternity measured in teen-time) thinking it just needed to warm up and get blown out a bit. Neil (my friend) decided to take it for a spin around the marina to run it at a bit of speed and see if that cleared things up. Not so much. We finally abandoned the idea of them using the Avon, the OB was just too squirrelly for him to feel confident out on Elliott Bay with it.

We piled all the gear back onto SL and headed out. The wind was right on our nose to get to Magnolia, so we thought about just motoring over there, but decided sailing was part of the fun and put our sails up. It was a bit windier than Rita cares for, so we tucked in the first reef on the main. It's nice having someone on board who's also a sailor eager to teach his son, plus it gives Rita confidence that she's no longer the only one who has to respond if some sort of emergency occurs to me.

As we were heading over to the bluff, there were tons of other vessels on the water, more than we've seen all year. There's a para-sailing company that works off of pier 66 that's pretty spectacular to watch. Until he decided to make a sharp turn off our starboard side. Since the wind was out of the north, his turn caused the para-sail to be carried over the top of SL. The distances were very hard to judge, but we all felt that the rider only cleared the top of the mast by 20-30'. Way too close! No harm done, but I'm still mad at the boat operator. Stupid thing to do, and put their client in jeopardy as well as us.

We sailed most of the way over to Magnolia then decided to motor sail the last mile or so as we wanted to get the pots in the water sooner rather than later. We dropped them in about 20' of water which has worked for us before, and sailed off north-ish out into the sound on the reefed main & 110 jib.

We sailed out toward Bainbridge island racing a ketch for a bit (they beat us handily, but it was still fun). We turned back toward the bluff to go pull our pots and the fun began. The wind got really gusty, and we got knocked down a couple of times, which was good fun for 3/4 of the crew and terrifying for the last. She was OK, but I had to play the main sheet constantly by hand to dump it if we got another puff. There were also a ton of larger vessels to deal with, two cruise ships, constant ferries, and two tow boats & barges going in opposite directions. We had to dodge around the stern of just about every one except the last ferry who changed course to avoid the tow & barge we were shadowing on the way back in.

So, to the point of the story, we picked our first pot, which was Rita's and it had three crabs inside, but the two males were too small to keep, and the single female we couldn't keep anyway. I poked fun at Rita for getting skunked on her pot. Should have held my tongue. We pulled up mine next, nothing except seaweed, completely skunked, same thing with Neil's, nada, zip, nothing. No crab dinners for us. We think maybe we set too shallow and too near the kelp beds. Next time we plan to drop in deeper water.

It was getting late, so we motored back to the marina. A nice no-drama landing in our slip and a bit of clean up so we could head home. We put the OB in the back of the truck so I could work on it.

After we got home, Rita commented that it might have been the best day sailing for her ever. While she was frightened by the knockdowns, she wasn't as terrified as she thought she would be, and in general the heeling (which I kept to a minimum) didn't frighten her either. Woohoo! That right there was worth it to me. I told Neil that he & his son were welcome on SL anytime they wanted to go.

On a side note, I worked on the OB yesterday. First, it'd drained all it's oil again, turns out you're supposed to lay it on the tiller side (I found the manual online), but they recommend that you drain the oil if you're going to store it on it's side (not necessary, it's self draining), or store it upright (not very practical in my dockbox), or on the transom clamps, which I'll try next time. I filled it back up with oil, added some Sea Foam & Stabil to the tank, and checked the spark plug. The plug itself looked fine, but the boot wasn't all the way down, so I think it was getting intermittent spark. I put it in a bucket of water and ran it for a while at high idle until it warmed up and got some of the Sea Foam/Stabil mixture into the carb to clean it out. That seemed to work, now it'll idle right down to the lowest setting now. I adjusted the idle setting to just above where it'll sputter & die, and tightened up the throttle cable, which had some play in it. Then, shut off the gas valve and let it run itself dry. I'll try to get it started again today, which I hope goes well. I hate working on little engines.

David
C-250 Mainsheet Editor

Sirius Lepak
1997 C-250 WK TR #271 --Seattle area Port Captain --

Edited by - delliottg on 08/18/2012 08:39:22

Stinkpotter
Master Marine Consultant

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Djibouti
9089 Posts

Response Posted - 08/15/2012 : 19:51:23

Skunked?? I don't think so!

You know what they say about how a bad day on the water compares to a <i>good</i> day at the office... You didn't have a bad day!

What is your definition of being "knocked down"? I've sailed many boats that could be knocked down--I never thought of my C-25 as one of them.

Edited by - on

delliottg
Former Mainsheet C250 Tech Editor

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USA
4479 Posts

Response Posted - 08/15/2012 : 20:18:48

Hah, that's a great question Dave. If I were racing, a knockdown was when the mainsail got close to or actually touched the water from a big puff (never-ever even gotten close on SL). When Rita's on the boat, a knockdown is when we heel suddenly enough to make her squeak or squeal in fear. That's generally when the boat gets heeled over more than 20º or so.

I'd have to agree, we only got skunked in the sense that we took home no crab, but had a great time overall. Even the teenager said so when asked by his mom, and he's keen to go again, which my friend is ever so grateful for. His younger son isn't even interested.

Continuing the side note on the Coleman OB, I just went & started it a couple of hours ago. From a dry carb, it started on the 3rd pull with a partial choke. Died when I pushed the choke all the way in, started right back up without the choke and then idled down as nicely as a single piston engine's ever going to idle. Still need to go run it around on the river a bit, but I think we might be over that hump.

Edited by - on

TakeFive
Master Marine Consultant

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2272 Posts

Response Posted - 08/18/2012 : 16:14:39

We were in Seattle visiting my son last week. On Sunday we took a side trip up to Oak Harbor to visit my high school girlfriend's parents who live in Oak Harbor (waterfront house right on Salish Sea). On Sunday (same day as you) we went out on the water helping them harvest their four pots (two for each licensed person). Fortunately they got 10 keepers, so they got their limit and we FEASTED that night. We also went out Monday to pull their pots out of the water, and they had 7 keepers. Good thing we threw back everything that wasn't significantly over the size limit, because we got checked on the way back. They said it was the first time they had ever been checked in over 20 years!

Overall it was a great trip. We also did the Salmon Bake at Tillicum Village, Underground Tour, Chihuly museum, went up Smith Tower, kayaking with my aunt in Olympia, and climbed to the top of Mt. Si. Great time, and spectacular weather!

Edited by - TakeFive on 08/18/2012 16:19:15

shnool
Former Capri-25 Tech Editor

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USA
1032 Posts

Response Posted - 08/19/2012 : 08:29:06

Sounds like a nice day to me, skunked or not!

Knockdown, generally when the mainsail hits or NEARLY hits the water.

On the Capri 25, its very hard to do unless you fly the spinnaker, and broach. I sometimes call it a knockdown when the water is on the deck over the rail and headed towards the cockpit, but I figure I am at about 35 degrees when that happens, so I am guilty of it too. Probably I should say "hard over."

Either way it's inefficient, anything past say 25 degrees will get you more sideways than foreward.

Edited by - on

delliottg
Former Mainsheet C250 Tech Editor

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USA
4479 Posts

Response Posted - 08/19/2012 : 12:34:51

Rick,
Sounds like you had a great visit out here. Pulling a limit is something we talk about but have never seen (yet). Had an interesting conversation with a new dock mate yesterday. He says he's been fishing the sound since he was seven years old and we've been setting our pots in too shallow of water. He says we need to be down at least 40' and as deep as 80' which is more line than we have (75'). However, I've got two 100' extensions I can use if I want. He also suggested a different place called "Four mile rock", which is further away, but supposed to be good crabbing.

John,
When I used to race, more than a few times I've been knee deep on the leeward rail grinding the jib sheet in. The owner of that particular boat, a J92, loved to push the boat hard, but we rarely placed further back than second in our races. We got the mast nearly horizontal several times on that boat. Racing on that boat was why I bought an inflatable PFD, handheld VHF, and a compass. I never felt unsafe, just close to the line enough to take precautions.

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