Engine starting problem after sailing...

The engine not starting after a good sail problem was significant, and meant we had a few times where we had to sail back to our dock spot. It was very annoying, and took away from the fun we had on our sailing trips.

Eventually I got to the source of the problem - somewhat by accident, and it was the wet-lift muffler, which was dramatically overfilling with water due to the wet lift pipe having melted away before we got the boat. The water was flowing back into the cylinders when we were on port tack, and the spark plugs were getting wet, and that prevented the engine firing up.

Anywhoo, in Nov and Dec I found the problem, formed a new wet-lift pipe and got everything working again. Thankfully, the engine is starting perfectly now. Even after some hard sailing on both tacks. It is a huge relief!

Ralph.

Detailed Report.

Christmas Weekend Cruise II

We left the boat ready to go on Saturday, and got out for a nice sail on Sunday. Did a Subscrub on the way out to clean off any grass that might be trying to call the hull of Silver Fox home! Some breeze when we first got out, but it died away pretty quickly.

Wind started off N, then went NW and faded away, with only occasional zephyrs. Then something started out of the NE and was 5 or 6 knots for a short while. Airport was reporting SE winds all afternoon, so we must have had some thermal action going on! Temp around 50 degrees, water temperature around 48 degrees.

We had a fun time and we had some great conversations and called Naomi & Ed for some good advice!

Put the boat away for winter again on the way back (removed all sails, skyed halyards, extra dock lines, etc), and left the boat in great condition. Again the engine was not an issue and we are happy to report that it worked perfectly!

Had a nice dinner & drinks at the Laughin' Gull Yacht Club (ex-PDX) after sailing.

Christmas Weekend Cruise 1

Godot in Kinsale was scheduled to go out on the annual boxing day race, and on this side of the Atlantic, we were going to do the same and toast each other, but they had ice in Ireland and did not race, but here in Norfolk we went sailing!

It was very foggy when we got up, and very, very moist air with mist when we went to the boat, which had an amazing interior soaking up to the point of the waterline. Dripping wet at everypoint from the waterline down, and forming a perfect waterline - on the interior of the boat! I first thought the boat had perhaps partially sunk before the self bailer kicked in and drained all the water. But that seemed to be impossible as the damage, etc did not lead to that conclusion. Then we figured it had to be condensation! Crazy! Probably because the air today was actually warmer than the sea water - which is a sudden inversion from normal.

Anyways, as we had expected, it took quite a while to set the boat up as it was in winter mode (sheets stowed, sails stowed, halyards skyed, etc, etc). We headed out in the cold mist, and had light airs out of the West, and a large rolling sea out of the East!

We sailed on a tight reach out to the 'middle' bouy, avoiding all the shipping that was appearing out of the fog as we crossed the channel, and then sailed back at close to the same sailing angle - ahead of abeam. The weather improved somewhat, and visibility improved dramatically.

There was a strong North to South tide running, which kept the water levels high at Cobbs, despite the ebb and flood!

Sailed upwind for a while on both tacks, with the boat well healed, to test the rebuilt muffler, and see if it had resolved the problem, and I am happy to say it seems to have done the trick! After the sailing there were NO engine starting issues - how sweet is that!!!

We came back to the dock and drank a toast to the family in Ireland, ourselves, and the crew of Godot!