tonyg
New member
Disenchantment with noisy outboards began after being given one on completion of Hartley Scamp,- 14ft of pure plywood, and rowed until the beast arrived. Twin cylinder John. 20 horse and weighed about the same ( Shires ie.) Trouble was, in the shed the plug leads produced sparks you could weld with. On water, one cylinder only. "Graphite" said a friend, "Probably plug wont fire under compression". So several empty pencil-cases later, and cylinders brimming with black powder, we launched and tried.
Should explain at this point, the engine was old, the molecules of rust from its long since rotted recoil spring was probably beginning to show up in trilobite fossils. Starting was achieved by wrapping a cord long enough to lassoe a giraffe, around a large pulley, holding the broomstick handle bit and running towards the bow whilst passengers on side benches sat with their knees up by their chins. Thus it was on the fatal day, but this time we were loaded for bear!
The explosion was of dinosaur extinction magnitude. Forty thousand seagulls and two egrets went vertical to the Van Oort belt on a mushroom cloud of instant bowel evacuation.
There is a rumour that the Richter scale people have records of the only occasion they found a moving epicentre, and those nice people in the States that watch out for incoming aseroids, thought one had got by.
Meanwhile the engine produced a hole in the water the size of the Corrievreken, and a small passenger liner at its moorings, mooned to the sound of tinkling chaos from the dining room.
Our whole estuary into a white-water rafting area, and that was with only the bottom millimetre of prop being submerged.
Had a heated discussion with my wife.(It wasn't a row. It only becomes a row when someone says "And another thing") As a result I took up sailing.
Should explain at this point, the engine was old, the molecules of rust from its long since rotted recoil spring was probably beginning to show up in trilobite fossils. Starting was achieved by wrapping a cord long enough to lassoe a giraffe, around a large pulley, holding the broomstick handle bit and running towards the bow whilst passengers on side benches sat with their knees up by their chins. Thus it was on the fatal day, but this time we were loaded for bear!
The explosion was of dinosaur extinction magnitude. Forty thousand seagulls and two egrets went vertical to the Van Oort belt on a mushroom cloud of instant bowel evacuation.
There is a rumour that the Richter scale people have records of the only occasion they found a moving epicentre, and those nice people in the States that watch out for incoming aseroids, thought one had got by.
Meanwhile the engine produced a hole in the water the size of the Corrievreken, and a small passenger liner at its moorings, mooned to the sound of tinkling chaos from the dining room.
Our whole estuary into a white-water rafting area, and that was with only the bottom millimetre of prop being submerged.
Had a heated discussion with my wife.(It wasn't a row. It only becomes a row when someone says "And another thing") As a result I took up sailing.
