Adventures with Honda 2.3Hp

[William_H]

Bought a Honda 2.3 nearly 12months ago. With just one short use shortly after. I have had it lying in the cabin under the cockpit for most of this season nearing an end. I always just use sails.
I discovered It had been laying it on the wrong side so took oil to replenish.
Had a race last Sunday with a start about 2km away and next to no wind. OK I anticipated this might happen so hauled it out put some oil in (couldn'tsee the oil level in the sight glass) I believed the tank was full of petrol. Could not find the plastic bit that holds the dead man's switch out so used a wrap of string.
Anyway she started and ran beautifully for about 1 km. Passed another 22fter not from my club but I knew he was participating he asked for a tow. So brave little 2.3 set off towing heavy 22fter no real problems. Alas after a while Mrs Honda stopped. I think out of fuel. I couldn't feel any in tank. it must have leaked or evaporated over the summer.
Got a tow from support boat who then wanted to also tow the other boat. Him behind me. Typical mobo driver went too fast the loads were horrible at what seemed like 10 knots. Got him to slow down.
Finally arrived at start area. What a shambles Like 20 boats milling around not moving. We were scheduled for a 3rd start at 5 minute intervals. By then the association 22 and 27ft space sailers had been given their start. The start for us ran its procedure and so we all sat. We were about 10 minutes after start when wind finally appeared and we crossed the start line. (sea breeze is very reliable here just sometimes a bit late for 2 pm racing. Race line was set for North Easter and a South Wester came up so scramble for spinnakers in the at first light winds. The wind at first wanted to swing requiring gybe after gybe of spinnaker on an essentailly square down wind leg.
Arrival at the first buoy down wind was a treat for us with about 10 boat all trying to get around and harden up for a wind ward leg.
Wind did come in at about 12 knots a bit of a handful in the end with no 1 genoa fitted but we did get passed by the enemy a 32 fter who struggled in the light winds but got going in the stronger winds. Ah the madness of racing. 2 weeks off now due to scheduling and public holidays and essentially the season is nearing an end. Good news for my UK friends. Summer soon.
Bravo to Mrs Honda but she makes a lot of noise. (air cooled)
ol'wil

 

[Concerto]

Strange you thought you were being towed at 10 knots. A few years ago I had to be towed into Dover harbour as my engine failed to start. The launch tried towing at about 5 knots but my 32ft boat kept snatching and surging causing the launch a bit of a problem. Increasing to about 6 knots solved the problem as the flow on the hull stayed constant and the tow rope remained taught. Much more comfortable.

 

[Alicatt]

Local fishing boat found a 40ft Rotork Sea Truck workboat adrift in the North Sea, started towing it back to Wick in heavy weather but the Rotork kept going under, it has a well sealed cabin and a lot of excess buoyancy so it would bob back up to the surface when they stopped the tow.
The skipper of the fishing boat got one of the deck hands to stand by with an axe and he shoved the throttle to wide open and to tow the boat back and if it went under the deck hand was to chop the tow rope, the Rotork popped up on to the plane and towed just fine behind the fishing boat all the way to Wick, the Rotork sat in the harbour for a while and eventually disappeared, a farmer bought it to take livestock from the mainland to one of the Orkney islands.

Along with a couple of friends we had a look at buying the Rotork as a dive support vessel, it had been kept ashore for a few years and was in not too good a condition.

It was like a landing craft with a drop down bow/ramp and a largish enclosed area to the stern but the farmer had reduced that area to maximise the load area, originally it had a pair of Cat diesels but I think it had VP replacement engines in it when we looked at it.

I do have a nice ancient Honda BF2 2hp air cooled outboard for my tender, only ever used the engine in fresh water when hiring little fishing boats for the lochans in Caithness, still to make it's debut on the tender, outboard is from 1989 and still runs as sweet as a nut.