Buying dead end technology

I hate paying top dollar for dead end technology. That's why I'm having a hard time figuring out what to do about my dying outboard motor. It's an old 2 stroke, fuel inefficient and loud. On the plus side, even after the throttle broke, it is a simple enough engine that I could get it running again. That old engine got the boat across Florida Bay, so I almost fell like I owe it something.

Okay, a purist would say it's a sailboat and doesn't need a motor. While that's technically true, a motor sure makes things a lot easier. When the wind died while crossing the bay having a motor sure beat bobbing around for a day waiting for a breeze. Few people anchor out for hours waiting for the tide to turn.

So I'm pretty much committed to having an outboard, which is a bit weird. For years I've been working to reduce my dependence on petroleum products. The gasoline engine is a dead end technology. Maybe not for years and years yet, but we are just one International crisis from it becoming cost prohibitive.

An electric motor would work -not for crossing Florida Bay, but one would allow us to get in and out of marinas and what not. Even with all its limitations, going electric is tempting. Of course, putting a lot more solar power on the boat would almost be a necessity.

Then there are the new Lehr propane motors. I finally got to see one at a marina. The guy tied up next to us had a 5hp kicker. He seemed to like it, mostly as he really hated gasoline engines and this was an viable option. Reviews on the motor are mixed. One thing that surprised me was how loud the motor was. It was as loud as my old 2 stroke, and there's no excuse for a modern engine to be that loud.

Then there are the Chinese knockoffs of old Yamaha designs. They are cheap; cheap to buy and cheaply made. My guess is that servicing them for anything more complicated than spark plugs might be hard to do. Let's call this the disposable outboard option.

Maybe I'll just keep my eye out for a reasonably priced used motor.

It kinda makes me glad that the little sailing scow I'm building will have oars for a backup.

-Sixbears

I need a garage

I need a garage, not to keep my vehicles out of the weather, but as a dry place to build stuff.

Our long period of dry weather came to an end. I'd gotten used to day after day of zero percent chance of precipitation. My boat project and even a lot of my tools, were left outside and uncovered. Last night there was a chance of rain, so the tools and lumber were piled up on the porch.

We did get rain. The next morning I discovered my clipboard with 40 pages of boat plans were left out in the rain. Yes, I felt like an idiot. I was able to separate the pages using a sharp knife blade. Every flat surface in the kitchen was covered with wet sheets of paper. They dried and are perfectly usable. There is a back up electronic copy saved on my computer, but with the price of printer ink, who wants to print out another 40 pages?

The big problem with a garage is paying property taxes on it. My taxes are high enough, thank you. What I should do is buy a nice big tent like affair like Joel at: A Wood Man's Wanderings. Of course, he's building a huge boat. I guess I can put in with the occasional work stoppage due to bad weather as my boat is tiny.

Speaking of tiny, my boat will be essentially a 12 foot by 4 foot rectangle. 12 is a magic number. As long as the boat doesn't have a motor, 12 foot and under boats do not have to be registered. This boat will move by sail and oar. In fact, my heavy duty stainless steel oarlocks just came in the mail.

After a few days of rain, more dry weather is supposed to come in. With any luck, baring distractions, I'll be back at it. Maybe it's just as well I don't have a big dry garage to work in. Nothing else around the house would ever get done.

-Sixbears

The iron sail dilemma

I've a love/hate relationship with my sailboat's outboard motor. It's a 6 hp Evinrude. That's plenty big enough to push my 19 foot Oday sailboat.

What I love is that it does the job. If I take of the outboard properly it runs well. When I bought the sailboat, the previous owner had a few motors I could choose from. This one cost me a couple bucks more than some of the others, but it has an alternator. Normal use of the motor has kept the boat's battery charged up.

What I hate about it is that it's a gasoline engine. It uses a nonrenewable fuel, is noisy, and produces fumes. I try and use it as little as possible. Yesterday, it started running rough. Today I figured out why -too short a run time. On my small lake, I just motor far enough from shore to drop the swing keel and raise the sails. That doesn't give the motor enough time to reach normal operating temperature. Today I had to run it around the lake a few times to burn the carbon out. A good hard run and it smoothed right out and is running fine.

For lake use, an electric trolling motor would be sufficient. That's what the previous owner did. Of course, he had electric grid power at his dock, so charging the battery was easy. I don't have power at my beach, so the battery would have to be carried 300 feet uphill every time it needed a charge. That's not something I want to do with an 80 pound battery. A good solar panel could do the job, but I don't have the funds for that right now.

A gas engine is what makes sense. When we sailed the Gulf Coast of Florida, there were long channels that had to be traveled before we could get enough water to drop the keel. Often we ran against both wind and current to get out to deep water. I don't think a regular electric trolling motor could do the job nearly as well. There are electric motors that could do the job, but they cost more than what I paid for the boat.

Gas is available all over. We could motor all day, and be fairly sure we could refill the gas tank for the next day. A gas engine makes sense for coastal travel -for now.

There are times when I just want to mount some oar locks on the boat, and build a good set of oars. Maybe that's what I'll do.

-Sixbears