Solitaire
Active member
Well after 2 1/2 months of the most glorious boating weather and having been only able to watch as my boat has languished in a shed; Saturady saw the relaunch of Solitaire with her "new" diesel power package. On the way down the Hamble I stopped off for that red nectar and what a delight - 28p/litre, 73litres, £20/forums/images/icons/smile.gif. It was then off with a few of the Pathfinder guys down to Swanage where Col was found at anchor, preparing himself for the forthcoming water battle(wow, what a big gun he had/forums/images/icons/wink.gif, in Studland. I decide not to go as too scared to get the new engine wet.
What was a real thrill was to see the fuel guage hardly move - in my petrol/gas days the guage would be showing under 1/2 for the equivalent distance. The run back to the Hamble was great.
Sunday saw a cloudy start. Filled up again to see how much diesel I'd used the day before and delighted that 6 hours running had used 104 litres - now even bigger /forums/images/icons/smile.gif. I decided to run over to Chichester, but going past PH decide to drop into Gunwarf. Stayed there over lunch and then headed back via Whitecliffe Bay to the Hamble - fuel guage not moved so far.
All in all, I'm over the moon with the conversion. The prop is going to need changing, as I get on the plane very quickly but top speed is only 23 knots and that's running at 3,400 RPM (engine has an over rev control, so that's max revs). The original prop is only 15" diam. so I'll need to go up to at least a 19 to get the full effect of the engine to my boat size.
Just waiting for the sun to come out and then I think a trip to Lymington is on the cards. With so much of the season gone, I've got make the most of what's left/forums/images/icons/wink.gif
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What was a real thrill was to see the fuel guage hardly move - in my petrol/gas days the guage would be showing under 1/2 for the equivalent distance. The run back to the Hamble was great.
Sunday saw a cloudy start. Filled up again to see how much diesel I'd used the day before and delighted that 6 hours running had used 104 litres - now even bigger /forums/images/icons/smile.gif. I decided to run over to Chichester, but going past PH decide to drop into Gunwarf. Stayed there over lunch and then headed back via Whitecliffe Bay to the Hamble - fuel guage not moved so far.
All in all, I'm over the moon with the conversion. The prop is going to need changing, as I get on the plane very quickly but top speed is only 23 knots and that's running at 3,400 RPM (engine has an over rev control, so that's max revs). The original prop is only 15" diam. so I'll need to go up to at least a 19 to get the full effect of the engine to my boat size.
Just waiting for the sun to come out and then I think a trip to Lymington is on the cards. With so much of the season gone, I've got make the most of what's left/forums/images/icons/wink.gif
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