A Question Of Seamanship. February YM

[Uricanejack]

February A Question Of Seamanship.
I was just reading Februaries YM. It's one of those long winded dick and Jane went sailing stories. Before it gets to the point.
Sailing from France to Uk. Jane tries to start motor. it struggles to turn over and won't start. Unfortunately main switch was on both.
Then the what would you do bit. I cheated and went straight to the answer page. It was all about plotters and turning back or caring on. I guess the point he is trying to make is about charts and navigation.
I never thought of any of that stuff. The first thought to cross my mind though wasn't about navigation. I would just try opening the compression levers'. To see if it would get going.
What would you do?

 

[capnsensible]

Used sails to propel the vessel to its destination.

 

[Triassic]

Reach over and pull the starter cord........ Simple is most definitely best!

 

[Woodlouse]

I'd sail to where ever I was going. If I absolutely had to start the engine I'd have a go with the starting handle.

 

[James_Calvert]

I have a spare battery. Totally disconnected. I'd swap it for one of the dead ones.

(It's handy for early / late season weekends when the Eberspacher canes the domestic battery overnight. The swap-out is recharged at home during the week)

 

[RichardS]

February A Question Of Seamanship.
I was just reading Februaries YM. It's one of those long winded dick and Jane went sailing stories. Before it gets to the point.
Sailing from France to Uk. Jane tries to start motor. it struggles to turn over and won't start. Unfortunately main switch was on both.
Then the what would you do bit. I cheated and went straight to the answer page. It was all about plotters and turning back or caring on. I guess the point he is trying to make is about charts and navigation.
I never thought of any of that stuff. The first thought to cross my mind though wasn't about navigation. I would just try opening the compression levers'. To see if it would get going.
What would you do?

On my 3YM30s I don't have compression levers or starting handle or another way of starting. I have a 20ft jump lead but if both starter batteries and all three house batteries were flat then those engines aren't going to start..... Period!

Having said that, I have three separate circuits and no combination battery switch so, unless I'm very unlucky, I'll always have power somewhere.

Richard

 

[Uricanejack]

Used sails to propel the vessel to its destination.

Would be my fall back position.

 

[Uricanejack]

On my 3YM30s I don't have compression levers or starting handle or another way of starting. I have a 20ft jump lead but if both starter batteries and all three house batteries were flat then those engines aren't going to start..... Period!

Having said that, I have three separate circuits and no combination battery switch so, unless I'm very unlucky, I'll always have power somewhere.

Richard

I don't have a starting handle for my 3 GM 30. which is unfortunate they are handy.

 

[Triassic]

I guess to put a slightly more serious tone to the replies the answer would depend on where I was in the voyage and the time of day. If close to the French side and already into the afternoon then it's probably better to think about returning than facing a night passage across the Channel without any navigation lights or electronics, including possibly the VHF. If early morning and a favourable wind I might consider pushing on and dealing with the lack of engine on the other side. I'd like to think most of us have some form of hand held GPS and VHF these days as back ups?

 

[Uricanejack]

The Nav lights is a significant point. I have in my chart table a little battery operated set of LED nave lights. a single red green for the bow. and an all round white. Even without those a good flash light to shine in time would be OK.

 

[AndrewB]

Give Jane a tow-rope and tell her to get cracking. This is SWMBO (a few years back) towing a Sigma 38 with blocked injectors at a very respectable 0.2 knots.

 

[mjcoon]

I don't have a starting handle for my 3 GM 30. which is unfortunate they are handy.

If there is a visible flywheel, would it be possible to wind cord round it and pull? You would need decompression lever(s) too, of course, and have to be ingenious about how to drop them at the right moment...

Mike.

 

[nigelmercier]

When I subscribed to YM I would often attempt these. On comparing my answer, my reaction was often "WTF?". This was normally due to prior knowledge of the locale that was not explained in the question, hence a poor question.

 

[NormanS]

Having a dedicated starting battery, it is highly unlikely to happen to me, but if it did, I would get the little petrol genny out of its locker, and use it to charge the batteries.
Once, when I had an unfixable problem with a starter motor, I just sailed to my destination.

 

[lw395]

Leave it some minutes. There is an optimum time to wait while the batery recovers a little, and is also still warm from the abortive cranking.
Decompressors if you have them.
I have heard tall stories of engines being decompressed by wedging thin coins between valve and rocker....

Otherwise think about best places to be sailing with no option of a motor and no lights.
Although an LED tricolour can be run off AA's for a fair while.

 

[NormanS]

I used to have a boat whose engine could be started by using the sails, or by getting a tow.

 

[bbg]

If the only real issue is battery power, I should have thought every boat should have a hand held GPS (or in this day and age, even a mobile phone) as a backup, and spare nav lights.

Navisafe makes very good, very bright backup nav lights. There may be other brands now.

 

[chrishscorp]

Give Jane a tow-rope and tell her to get cracking. This is SWMBO (a few years back) towing a Sigma 38 with blocked injectors at a very respectable 0.2 knots.

We have joked about doing the same using our 4 legged mutley who loves swimming, just need the spinnaker pole and something suitably edible hanging off the end of it, it may be the occasion the fray bentos pie comes in handy

 

[dunedin]

Yes I too thought this was a particularly bizarre one.
In this day and age the least of our worries in the event of power failure would be the chart plotter. Most of us carry multiple devices with GPS and typically the charts as well (eg Navionics or MemoryMap on smart phones and tablets). So one thing to do is record position from phone then power down all mobiles to save their batteries.
Crossing the channel lack of AIS mig.ht be a shame, and lack of lights at night a bigger worry.

But the biggest worry would be light and fluky winds - I would not want to get caught in fog becalmed mid shipping lane, or in differnt circumstances near rocks in very strong tide areas (eg Channel Islands, Corryvreckan etc).
But chart plotter not a concern

 

[Topcat47]

I hardy ever use the chart plotter our of sight of land, anyway. A paper chart and hand-held GPS are all that's needed for a channel crossing. I'm sufficiently familiar with the Solent not to worry about charts but I have them just in case. It's handy for landfalls (the plotter), particularly Alderney from the Solent, but hardly essential. I'd be more concerned about depth on approaches.