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It’s both like and at the same time the antithesis to those shows where you have the scene with the alcoholic standing up in front of a group of people and saying “hi my name is George and I’m a recovering alcoholic”
“Hi my name is Scott and I want to go cruising.” It really doesn’t sound like much.. there isn’t much overt drama to it. Most people when you tell them you want to get a boat and move onto it to live a nomadic lifestyle give you that look that says. “where did this guy come from? loon in the house!” You get questions from them .. “What about your Job? Your house? Your life.” Though to be honest I also get from some of them “that is so cool” and “I’d love to do that”.
I went out with Patty and Jeff today on Pirate Girl (beneteau 323). I really like how she handles.. you can set the sails and she will steer herself forever in flat seas. So far every Beneteau I have been on sails well. I’m sure there are some that are not a good as others and I will readily admit to only having sailed on 5 or so, but all those have been a pleasure to sail. She also has a nice size cocpit and if you sitting leaning back against the cabin sides facing aft the angle on the cabinsides makes for a very comfortable rest. I like the cabin also just for the headroom.. most of it is 6ft.. I don’t have to do the duck thing in the main cabin.
Well I guess its official.. my new outboard is not running right. I showed my video (Tohatsu outboard video) to Tohatsu USA and Vic who I spoke with told me to take it to a service center.. he thinks its in the ignition.. I will say this… Tohatsu USA has been really responsive to my calls and questions. Its not fixed yet but to date I’m really happy with their customer support. They pick the phone up and talk to you right away and Vic who I have been dealing with has been really helpful.
I have finished the break in period… I took the boat out again with Patty and Jeff after running it for a while at the dock to finish up the break in period. I don’t know if something is wrong with the engine or what but it doesnt perform as strongly as my old 4hp 2 stroke. It also has a lot of vibration. I have talked with tohatsu and am going to take it into the local service center and let them take a look at it. The guy at tohatsu said if it isn’t getting up to the top end rpms it is supposed to be then it could be the timing advance having problems in the electronic ignition. They have seen this before. Or that I possibly need to get a lower pitched prop. The one on there is a 7.7 inch 8 pitch prop. I can go down all the way to a 7.9 inch prop with a 6 pitch.
here is a video of the engine running at the dock.
I ran the engine for several hours on saturday when me and Miriam put it on the boat. Today I ran it for a few more hours and even took the boat out and ran it up and down the water way for a bit. I have been carefull to follow the breakin scheadule and rpm constraints.
other related posts
http://www.scottcarle.com/wordpress/?p=277
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In the fall of 2003 I painted my Shock Santana 21 topsides with Glidden porch and deck paint from Lowes or Home Depot.. I forget which. I used a fine roller and for the non skid areas added the non-skid powder they sold there for a couple bucks a pack. I mixed it into the paint before rolling it on. This seemed to work well and the finish was sand paper non skidish 🙂 Here is the link to the original post when I painted her. I recently got a comment from a new Shock Santana 21 owner and in a followup email he asked me how the paint had stood up.
Went out today for the spring regatta. Not many people showed up. Only 3 boats went out. Me on Sea Puppy, Angela on Valkyr and Jerry took out L.C. Marie. It was really light and shifty winds. We were supposed to head down the beach and run past the Cherry Grove Pier but we were basicaly sitting dead in the water for a long time. By the time the winds started to pick up, Tina the young lady that came out with us on sea puppy was sea sick… Another case of a sick puppy on sea puppy. I turned around and went back to the inlet. Once we were off the ocean and back on flat water she felt fine.
After breakfast I was going to do some work on Sea Puppy. Mainly some cleaning.
However I got side tracked with an invitation to go out on Valkyr, Angelas 38 Down East. It was a great day for sailing .. Flat and about10 to 13 knots of wind. By the time we got back in I was beat. No work done on Sea Puppy but sailing fun was had by all.
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This morning I got up and had a nice mug of tea sitting in the cockpit. I got to watch the excitement as a trawler that was anchored near me through the night got stuck on the sand bar near the entrance from the ICW. The Boats US tow boat was out there pulling him off. Actually last night there was another powerboat stuck in the same place that got towed off. I figure based on those two incidences that they make a fortune pulling people that get stuck there off. It’s very shallow accross most of the entrance other than a narrow not well marked just shallow channel.
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I took Sea Puppy out today. I was pretty tired and decided not to sail. I motored to the calabash anchorage and dropped anchor. Spent the evening kicked back in the cockpit reading.. It was really nice and peacefull, something I need to do more often.
I ran the anchor light all night and the drain on the battery was minimal. The led bulbs are still working fine.
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Ok I have recieved the inline scale I purchased and have tested for static lbs of thrust that my 4hp johnson outboard provides on my sailboat. The scale is rated from 1 lb to 3000 lbs in 1 lb increments with a digital readout and is certified. I tested three times to make sure it was consitent. I also created a bridle from the aft deck cleats to tie the scale to so that thrust was measured by pulling on a line that ran down the center of the boat from the bow to the center of the transom.
at an idle 15 lbs of thrust +- 1 lb
at half throttle 60 lbs of thrust +- 2 lbs
at full throttle it varied by about 10 lbs ranging from 120 lbs of thrust to 130 lbs of thrust. This was not a variation from one test to the next but a variation within each of the three tests while at full throttle.
I took Sea Puppy out by myself. Winds 15 to 20 gusting to 23 or so. Seas about 1 ft.. what a blast.. on a beam with half the jib reefed and two reefs in the main I was still doing 7 knots. Measured the wind with the anemometer that Miriam gave me for christmas 🙂 I wasn’t trying to push it hard there for I reefed fairly early. Also with sustained gusts that were runing 7 to 10 knots over average wind speed I reefed more for the gusts than the sustained winds.
As always when by myself I ran the jacklines and clipped in if out of the cockpit. Mostly it was a pretty slow day. I just enjoyed the clear blue skys and nice winds.
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