oz-1
Well-Known Member
hello everyone, went out for a sail in our beautiful Torbay today. There was a lovely stiff breeze blowing and in no time at all i was off Berry Head and heading for Dartmouth. I should have been thinking about putting in a reef in the mainsail, taking the jib down and leaving the staysail up. Instead the boat was heeled nicely and seemed to be going really well so i continued with full sail on. suddenly there was a loud bang, the bowsprit ( made out of 11/4 inch tube ) was pointing up at the sky. The forestay hung loosely, luckily the mast stayed upright. I Quickly rounded up into the wind, took the mainsail off, dropped the jib and used the jib halyard as a temporary forestay. This was bad luck number one. I then put my outboard on, and with that and the staysail i managed to get back to Torquay, called the harbour master to ask if i could come alongside the visitors pontoon until i could get back into the inner harbour ( The cill would not drop to allow access for another couple of hours ). what had happened was that the bobstay had parted and hence the pressure on the forestay had pulled the bowsprit up. this, although inconvenient, isn't a disaster so i was relieved. After making some lunch and a coffee it was time to call up the harbour master to ask for a bridge lift to enter the inner harbour. My vhf decided to pack up, bad luck number 2. I phoned the harbour master, apologised that i had to use my mobile phone and could i please have a bridge lift, to which he very kindly did. I finally got onto my birth, secured the boat and went to lift my 8 hp Tohatsu up out of the water, and the handle came off in my hand!! I just could not beleive what had just happened. The bowsprit and vhf i can fix, but the Tohatsu handle is another issue. It isn't the throttle/ steering handle but the u shaped handle for carrying the outboard. I am writing to ask if anyone knows how easy or difficult it is to replace, and if it is possible to get that part. My boat is a home built Flicka ( Bruce Bingham design ) It is 21 feet 9 inches long on deck, i built her in 1993, did my own rigging too ( So far it has lasted 25 years ). The outboard is a 8 hp 2 stroke engine i bought brand new in 2005 and has only done about 75 hours and it is great. Any help would be appreciated. By the way, i also lost my reading glasses overboard.
