Prior to last Sunday's problems I adjusted the carburetor so that the outboard will actually idle. Previously, whenever the rpms dropped near idle, it would simply die. In fact I am in the habit of not bothering to remove the kill switch clip to stop the engine, just turn the throttle down and it dies. I believe this partly explains what happened Sunday. After motoring to the vicinity of the race, I turned the throttle down, but the engine didn't die. I pulled the kill switch.

On Monday I played with the engine to try to see what was wrong. I found it was very easy to flood the engine while trying to start it. Maybe that happened Sunday? I leaned the mix a bit and the engine ran better and idled way better.

I poured the gas from the external tank into a transparent gallon jug that had held tea in an earlier life. I cut off the neck to open it up and make it easier to pour into and out of. Result: gas was completely clear. No sign of water. I poured it into my truck's tank.  I will now refill it with fresh gas and Sta-Bil.

I have sunglasses with a built-in video camera at the bridge. They are made for hunters, but they work reasonably well for me. While reviewing the video of Sunday's race, I noticed that the kill switch clip was in the cockpit, not on the engine. Then it hit me. I'm not used to thinking about the kill switch. I never put it on the engine after the race! No wonder it wouldn't start!

Well, that's an easier fix than the others I've been considering.

Mixed results this weekend. Gloria and I raced in the Sunday afternoon races. There were two races and 3 C-22s were in the fleet. We finished a solid last place in both races. That's both disappointing and disturbing because I have raced better than that in the past. But upon arriving back at the dock, I noticed we have some “lettuce” growing on the hull at the transom. I guess the antifouling paint I used wore out. Can't win races with a garden growing on the bottom. If I get time, I'll raise it on one of the club hoists and power wash the bottom.

More unsettling is the fact that when it was time to come in, the outboard wouldn't start. Again! (Read the earlier posts to get a feel for how frustrating this situation is for me.)

Suspicion is once again on water in the gas somehow. The external tank is about half full at this point, so maybe there is enough air (and exchange of air) to allow water to accumulate. Also if water had gathered in the “reserve” area, the sloshing around the tank took as we heeled and tacked, could have stirred things up. I'll try draining the tank into something where I can see if there's a layer of water. I'll probably need to drain the carburetor bowl also. Then fresh gas and a double dose of Sta-Bil ought to do the trick.

At my boat club there are at least two other owners of Tohatsu-built outboards experiencing the same “water-in-the gas” issues I am fighting. Maybe Oklahoma City has just had a lot of water-laden gas delivered to us? Maybe the unusually wet spring and summer have resulted in water seeping into the holding tanks at the gas stations. Who knows? But it seems odd to me that we're only hearing about it from the owners of Tohatsu built engines. Do other small outboards have a fuel/water separator in their lines? The Tohatsus don't. I have been told by a rep at their support line that they have a separator available for $117. That seems like a lot, so I'm going to try other things first.

Sunset on Lake Hefner, 7/21/13

It was a great weekend!

Our club scheduled the annual Long Distance race for Saturday night. We sail on a lake (Lake Hefner) that is basically a 11/2-mile diameter circle. The club places up to 9 semi-permanent marks around the lake each year. The long-distance race has us zigzagging from mark to mark across the lake following a designated course. The race committee reported the course was 15.2 miles long.

Now, when you think about that, the common response would be that doesn't sound like much fun or much of a challenge. But did I mention the race starts just before sunset and takes place mostly at night? It teaches skeptics just how easy it is to get totally disoriented at night. To make matters worse, two of the marks haven't been re-installed after being pulled during last year's drought. They were temporarily replaced by large inflatable yellow tetrahedrons.

Problem: No lights on the tets.

Solution: chemical glow-necklaces like you might see at a concert. Once you got within about 50 feet of the mark, you could see the glow, but by that time you already knew where the mark was. In fairness, the race is always scheduled for a weekend as close to the full moon as we can get.

The net effect is that GPS systems are almost essential. We have a combined GPS/depth sounder/fish finder on Serene Dream. So Friday evening my wife and I decided to sail around the lake and set a waypoint for every mark that was out. Upon arriving at the boat, we realized we'd somehow lost a spreader boot, so the Genoa was out of the question. We used the standard Catalina-issue jib. It was a very nice evening, we got the marks put in the GPS, and we enjoyed a wonderful evening sail, with Gloria getting a lot of time at the tiller.

Gloria at the tiller

On Saturday the skipper's meeting for the Race was at 19:30 (7:30 p.m.) There was what they called a “LeMans” start. What that means is the Race Committee looked up the PHRF handicap for boat in the race. They sorted them by handicap, with the highest handicap (slowest boat) at the top. They then did some sort of calculation to apply a time-offset for the length of the race. The slowest boat would start first and others would start some minutes later, based on their rating. If all worked as planned, everyone should finish just about the same time. The order of arriving back in the harbor would also be the order of finish without further handicap calculation. As the slowest boat in the fleet, we were the first to start, to be followed shortly by a San Juan 21.

Moonrise over Lake Hefner, 7/21/13

The two temporary marks weren't set until just before the race, so we had to waypoint them as we passed them for the first time. But it was still twilight then and we could see the marks to find them. It was a beautiful night to sail. Winds were moderate, 8 to about 13 mph (we're inland, so rarely use knots or nautical miles). When we got back to the harbor at about 23:40 a couple of the club members were cooking up breakfast tacos. The results showed our lowly Catalina 22 in second place in the 11-boat fleet! I'm happy!

Sunday afternoon is always a low-key race that our club is using to try to encourage new racers (and specifically Catalina 22s) to try racing. I went out for the first race, but wasn't really gung-ho about it. That was in part because it was blazing hot and also I was single-handing the boat for one of the first times ever. I quickly realized that diving to leeward to adjust the jib was not a good idea, especially if there was a gust. We've never tried cross-sheeting but it seemed a good idea. It worked well for me. Even with just the jib (hadn't had time to replace the spreader boot) I kept it competitive with the other 2 Genoa-flying 22's, although I came in third (last) place. But the heat was getting to me so I retired and didn't do the second race.

And then, Sunday evening, the Catalina Fleet had a moonlight sail to take advantage of the almost-full moon. When I showed her my “improvement”, Gloria didn't like cross-sheeting at all. She said the line made her feel hemmed in and crowded. So she will trim the headsail on the leeward side. To each his(her) own.

Serene Dream sailing into the sunset

Since we were not racing and were interested in a relaxing, pleasant sail, we reefed the main so boat heel would be less.  We only stayed out until about 22:00, but it was relaxing, peaceful and a beautiful night to sail.

Just the kind of night for a Serene Dream.

6/20/13 Gotta see for myself!

Some people just have to learn things themselves.

I tried to start the outboard a week or so ago and it wouldn't start, despite my best efforts. In frustration, I took it home to work on it.

Once at home, and using the internal tank, I found I could spray starter fluid into the carburetor and it would run for maybe a second. The fact that it would run with starter fluid meant I had spark and air. That only left fuel to be the problem. I took off the carb and tore it apart. The float was fine, as was the valve attached to it. There were no “shoulders” or “steps” on the plastic conical tip. I doused the innards and all the tubes & passages of the carb with cleaner, wiped it clean & dry and put it back together. OK, what's next?

I put it back on the engine and tried again. Same result. Next I started at the carb and unhooked the fuel line. A tug on the started rope produced a strong spurt. My first thought was “Well, that's not it. Look at all that gas!” Then a looked closer. What was coming out was not clear amber, but kind of hazy. I grabbed a clear glass and collected the fluid. As it settled a distinct layer of water formed in the bottom. I then went to the hose running from the internal tank to the shutoff valve. When I pulled it and drained some into the glass, there was quite a bit of water. I recall not closing the vent several weeks ago. “It's not really necessary,” I reasoned, “After all, I store gas for my garden tiller and weed eater in a tank at home that no longer has a cap on the vent. It's open all the time. I've not had the problem with them.”

But apparently it is necessary to keep it closed on an outboard. Probably because of the higher humidity of the air, meaning there's just more water vapor available to condense.

So, I connected the external tank that had a can of Berryman's Chemtool added as suggested by one of the club members who works with outboards a lot, and it started right up. Yesterday I took it back to the boat and fired it up. With the boat secured in its slip, I put the outboard in gear and ran it at a high idle for about 15 minutes. It still doesn't like to idle and will die if I let it get anywhere near slow, but I can deal with that later.

Now, maybe if I can keep water out of the gas, the motor will run better.

Moving from a 17' Daysailer with an electric trolling motor to a Catalina 22 and outboard has been quite a learning curve!

May 18, 2013 - Back from Vacation

Our 'Plan C” vacation following the Kentucky Bourbon Trail was great. After an all-day push, we arrived at our hotel in Elizabethtown, KY, a few miles south of Louisville.

I can highly recommend the Kentucky Bourbon Trail for a low-key week’s vacation.  The actual trail takes 3 ½ days if you push yourself, which we did.  One suggestion is to take the website’s suggested itinerary and reverse it.  That’s what we did, mostly be chance.  I think they designed the tour to save some of the best-known distilleries for last.  But we found the tour at the Jim Beam distillery so complete, it helped us understand all the other tours, even if they were a bit light on one area or another.

We stopped to visit friends and relatives on the way home and spent last night with some friends in their home in Grove, OK, near the shores of Grand Lake.  They have a delightful locations, backing up to a large field of several acres.  We sat on their patio for breakfast and watched various birds visiting their feeders.  I could get used to that life!!

We arrived back in town on earlier today.  Unpacking will happen over the next day or two, and Monday I will launch the boat and take the trailer to a shop to look at the wheels and axle.

May 11, 2013

Well, with the trailer down and having missed the NGCC, I am really bummed. But I'm taking my vacation by golly. The question is, what are we going to do?

Plan B

As we debated this last Friday, we thought “If we can't take the Gulf Coast Cruise in our sailboat, maybe we can find a cheap “last minute” rate for a regular cruise. Maybe out of Galveston.” But Gloria pointed out that we would need our passports. Unfortunately, they expired several months ago. We decided right then that one of the first things we're doing is getting the paperwork done and renewing them. We did that on Friday, but obviously there's no way they'll be back in time for us to take a cruise this week.

Plan C

Several years ago, my brother-in-law was stationed in Scotland with a major oil company. We took a family vacation and went there. Although the kids were just in their early teens and couldn't sample the wares, we went on a quest to visit several of the Scotch distilleries. What we learned about single-malt scotch and blended scotch was fascinating. Why not do something similar in Tennessee or Kentucky?

A quick check of the Internet shows that Kentucky has organized the Kentucky Bourbon Trail, roughly centered on Lexington, KY, involving 8 major distilleries, as well as a Craft Distillery Trail, with a number of small distilleries. We decided that we will have time to drive there on Monday, spend Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday on the large distillery Trail and drive home Friday.

Hot dog! We have a plan!

May 9, 2013 – Day One & Done!!

It was a late night last night as we had not finished packing. We got up with the intent to have the boat hitched up and be on the highway by 7:00.

Well, not quite.

It was about 8:30 when we pulled out of the boat club parking lot and hit the highway. We got about 5 miles down the road when there was a loud thump and the trailer lunged to one side. A quick check in the rear view mirror showed sparks showering from the left axle and no sign of a wheel. I quickly moved to the shoulder and stopped. Just as I stopped, Gloria asked “What's that?” and pointed to the left. Out my window I saw the wheel rolling past us and angling across 3 lanes of rush hour traffic. No one hit it and about 100 yards down the road it stopped in the center median. I was sure we'd blown a bearing and the hub was ruined.

“We're probably done,” I said.

The shoulder was unusably narrow, but I carefully made my way back to get a quick look at the axle. To my surprise, the hub was there and looked intact, though the threads on the lug bolts were damaged. The Bearing Buddy, however, was no where to be seen.

As rush hour was waning, I made my way across the road and recovered the wheel. The holes for the lug bolts were eroded away to about twice their normal size. No lug nuts were present, apparently having been broken, or thrown earlier.

We called a friend from the boat club, who came and picked us up. We removed one lug nut from the right wheel to use as the model to find replacements. You would be amazed at how difficult it was to get replacement lug bolts. After a trip that took way longer in time and distance than it should have, an auto parts place produced a handful of nuts they assured us would work. We then stopped by a hardware store and picked up a ½" x 20 die to clean up the threads of the damaged lug bolts.

Fearing for our lives and limbs, we called the OKC police, who send a cruiser to partially block the right lane of the parkway. We cleaned up the threads, put the spare tire in place, and proceeded to try the lug nuts. They didn't fit!! We took them back to the parts place and learned that the rep sold us metric lug nuts, not SAE. Armed with the right lug nuts, we returned. The officer had remained with the boat and, almost 4 hours after we started, we pulled back onto the highway.  Thank you so much, Officer M. Smith!!

We immediately pulled into a tire shop to check the torque on the nuts and check the pressure. They didn't have a cap for the hub, so we determined to go to Bass Pro, where I bought the Bearing Buddies originally. But first we grabbed lunch at a fast food place across the street.

Thus, it was about 1:30 when we pulled into Bass Pro. We went in, bought the Bearing Buddies (they only come in pairs) and borrowed a rubber mallet to install one on the left hub. That process didn't take long, but I noticed that the (intact) right hub was noticeably warmer than the left that had the trouble.

We decided to drive down I-35 about 8 miles and pull into a gas station to check the temperature of the hubs. If the right was was still warmer than the left, we would abort the trip, rather than lose a bearing miles down the road. In fact the right was warm, while the left was barely above ambient.

With a sense of frustration and disappointment, we headed slowly home. Back at the boat club, Gloria looked carefully at the trailer and noted that the right wheel appears canted in at the top. I suspect the axle is bent.

So, as soon as we got back Friday afternoon, we canceled the hotel reservations, notified the cruise that we won't be there, and unpacked the food we were going to take on the cruise.

And we're at home tonight, but we both agree we need a break of some sort. Whether we drive to Galveston, or New Orleans, head west to camp in the Rockies, or do something else will be decided in the next few hours.

Sorry to disappoint you.

The next morning, I took photos of the wheels.  For comparison, here is the left wheel as seen from the back of the trailer, which appears fine.

Below is a view from the rear of the trailer of the right wheel.  Notice how much more of the tire is visible at the top of the fender than at the bottom.  No, the fender is not crooked.  The tire really is at an angle.

This is the same wheel as seen from the front of the trailer.  Something's definitely wrong, here!