Motor, et al

Posted By: Don Schroder
Date: 9/22/06 4:49a.m.

Report: outside forum guidelines

In Response To: Unplanned swims (Neil S. '77 5.2)

Definitely gonna be more careful next time. Drysail, now there's a concept I'll have to explore further! Luckily, the motor was not running when we went over (of course, if I had motored in I would not have capsized), so I got it working yesterday evening--cleaned out the plugs, drained the carburetor, sprayed in some cleaner, bought new gas (added extra oil and some stabilizer), squirted a little fuel in the cylinders, tightened the plugs and pulled and pulled and pulled (lots of pulls) and finally got it started. I'll run it hard for a good hour today and dry it out some more. Neighbors are going to love that. I'm pleased I didn't damage the rig, but what I neglected to report is that I lost my eyeglasses, ruined my DSL camera (sorry Mark, no pix of my capsize, can you post yours?) and cell phone, sunk a pair of binoculars and lost a shoe (which is just as bad as losing both of them). Needless to say, it was a very, very expensive day! Solid hardwood is the way to go with the slats. I gave an overview of how I restored mine about a month ago. The screws heads are just countersunk, so they are exposed. The wood is African mahogany, since you cannot easily get the Honduras species that was originally used. Check out http://bbs.trailersailor.com/forums/harpoon/index.cgi/read/8005 for more detail.