April 6, 2013:
I fired up the outboard to run/clean it some more. I figured that letting the gas/Seafoam mix sit for a week or so would be good and would really clean the sludge out. I guess I was a little too right.

It started right up and ran great for about 40 minutes. Then it started slowing down. By the time I hurried out of the boat's cabin and to the outboard it was just above an idle. It tried turning the throttle up and down, but it just slowed down and died. I could not restart it. With the cruise getting closer and outboard shops starting to get backed up, I called around and found to my surprise that the Tohatsu dealer could get to it in a day or two. It took a couple hours off work Monday morning and delivered the motor to them.

They called me on Thursday when it was ready and said the problem had been the carb needed a good cleaning. My amateur guess is that the Seafoam loosened years of crud and sent it to the carb, which couldn't send it on and clogged. The repairman said the motor now ran “like a sewing machine” and he had adjusted the idle down a bit, but high enough that it didn't die when he shifted it into gear.

I put the motor back on the boat and was happy when it started on the first pull. Now, what's next on the To-Do list?

The following post was originally posted on March 30. Somehow, I deleted it a week or two later and have had to reconstruct it.

March 30, 2103.

Since my last post, there was a discussion of my outboard issues on a Catalina 22 forum on Yahoo.com. One post to the forum described a cleaning process using a product called SeaFoam. (Thanks, Don. By the way, great name!) It involved dumping a bottle of SeaFoam and a treatment of Sta-Bil in a 3-gallon fuel tank full of high octane, no-ethanol gasoline, then running that mixture through the engine for several hours. The idea is to give the mixture time to dissolve and burn off the accumulated varnish, sludge and other crud from the fuel system and carburetor.

You may recall that the issue with my outboard was its refusal to start, so my concern was whether I would be able to get the engine started at all. As I thought about it, and read the various suggestions for getting the engine to start reliably, a thought occurred to me. The ideas all dealt with using the external gas tank. But the 4hp Mercury/Nissan/Tohatsu is kind of unique in that it has both an external gas connector and an internal tank. I was using the internal tank, which is gravity fed. But the tank is only a couple of inches above the carb. That's not much gravity-induced pressure to move the gas. So when I hooked up the external tank, I did everything just short of standing on the pump bulb. Gas was going to get to the carb, by golly!! Sure enough, the engine fired with the first pull of the starter. It ran beautifully.

Another point: I have often heard from experienced sailors that you shut down the engine by disconnecting the fuel and letting the engine run until it runs out of gas. But a call to the local Tohatsu dealer brought a different response.

The lady I spoke to said you should only run a small 4-cycle dry at the end of the season, before long-term storage. She said to always use 100% gas, never any with ethanol, and add Sta-Bil. Turn off the engine by pulling the kill switch. The lack of ethanol and the added Sta-Bil keeps the gas from gumming up your carb. She explained that the small fuel pumps often have problems clearing air from the lines when you try to start the engine after running it dry. I guess that's why the company doesn't recommend it.

I let it run for about an hour and a half before I had to head for home. The recommendation was to run it for 3 hours, but I was out of daylight and needed to get home.  I killed the engine with the kill switch. I'll try starting it this weekend and see what happens.

April 13, 2013

Late last week I bought a Bimini on eBay. When I arrived home on Thursday there was a large package by the front door.

Hot dog!

Like a kid Christmas morning, I tore into it. Now, a reasonable person would take it to the boat, or at least the harbor, before putting it together. So, I'm not always reasonable.

I cleared space in the living room and started inserting sections of tubing. It quickly became obvious that this thing was bigger than I thought it would be. I was a a bit concerned that I'd ordered the wrong size.

Now, this Bimini has aluminum tubes to support it when it is furled. As I was turning it to try to get more room to open it, one of the tubes swept across the fireplace hearth and shattered a little class container that my wife had placed there. It had scented oil and several of those reeds to diffuse the scent. The room became heavily scented as the oil ran down the hearth and across the wood floor.

I had yet another occasion to see my wife's “What on Earth are you doing?” look. But, since the matter was cleaned up quickly, I wasn't in trouble long.

A friend met me at the boat Friday after work and we tested several locations before finding one that seemed promising. It was quickly apparent that the aluminum support tubes wouldn't work. There wasn't a position that would work both furled and open. I removed the tubes and will have to buy nylon straps.

Today I drilled the holes, applied the sealant and installed the mounts. Tomorrow, the Bimini will be installed.