Back up engine

[coveman]

Not sure I see the sense in this point of view. The OP has sails, but there are undoubtedly occasions when auxiliary power is required...

...if on even one of those occasions, that auxiliary (whose reliability may be in doubt) quits, the small weight penalty and insubstantial cost of a reserve outboard will have repaid the bother of its acquisition and storage, many times over.

Not to mention the confidence it inspires even if the main engine never fails, to know that you can cope if it did. Plus the option to power the tender.

+1

 

[dancrane]

Cheers, Coveman. :encouragement:

I really think the answer is in the question title..."Back up engine".

These forum pages show interminable reliability issues that may result from ill-use, neglect, poor or faulty maintenance or old fuel...

...nobody who asks these questions goes to sea contentedly aware that their important auxiliary propulsion is actually unreliable, so the issue is not whether or not to feel confident that it works, but whether or not to allow for the foreseeable possibility of its failure.

The fact that the boat has sails too, is irrelevant. Although I admit I'd like to see more people sail all the way to and fro, rather than starting their motors at the first hint of a dying wind or narrowing channel.

 

[dancrane]

You're assuming that the 'spare' lies idle, growing unfit. I've been consistent in saying that it ought to see duty as a tender-engine.

This concept only works if the yacht is petite enough to make useful progress with the tender's engine, be it mounted on a purpose-built bracket or on the tender alongside.

Everything you say about keeping the principal engine up to its job is admirable good sense. But it doesn't nullify the frequent instances we see on the forum of unhappy owners whose diligence and care isn't met by 100% reliability of their motors.

My impression is that some instances of auxiliary failure are grudgingly accepted by owners as the result of symptoms they hadn't taken care to diagnose and resolve. Then there are the rest, which defied their owners' knowledge or skills to predict or prevent.

If you have to drop anchor inconveniently and beg a tow, it's a pain, whatever the reason. If you have a back-up engine, it's not.

 

[AndrewB]

Not sure I see the sense in this point of view. The OP has sails, but there are undoubtedly occasions when auxiliary power is required...

Is it a surprise to know that at one time yachts of this size very often had no engine at all? This was true of the Kingfisher 20+ I owned in the 1970's: like many small yachts we carried a sweep for sculling in harbours. Lack of an engine didn't stop us visiting the Scilly and Channel Islands, Brittany etc. in our summer holidays.

Of course, a sweep isn't much help against Channel tides. In light winds one got used to anchoring all over the place. There are useful anchorages along the South Coast that have been long forgotten.

 

[dancrane]

I reckon constructing and learning to use a sculling oar or 'yuloh' will be an early pleasure in my belated yachting career.

It must depend how easily way can be achieved thereby. I'm sure it's very satisfying to scull the last couple of miles to a safe haven, using the tide on a windless day, in a yacht that was adroitly designed to be easily driven. Much less enjoyable if there's no option!

 

[Stemar]

Is it a surprise to know that at one time yachts of this size very often had no engine at all? This was true of the Kingfisher 20+ I owned in the 1970's: like many small yachts we carried a sweep for sculling in harbours. Lack of an engine didn't stop us visiting the Scilly and Channel Islands, Brittany etc. in our summer holidays.

Of course, a sweep isn't much help against Channel tides. In light winds one got used to anchoring all over the place. There are useful anchorages along the South Coast that have been long forgotten.

Nor is it much use coming into Portsmouth harbour with cross channel ferries coming the other way. Sails may not be a lot of help either, as the wind can be totally unpredictable in the small boat channel.

 

[AndrewB]

Nor is it much use coming into Portsmouth harbour with cross channel ferries coming the other way. Sails may not be a lot of help either, as the wind can be totally unpredictable in the small boat channel.

But possible. Ten years ago, at 3am on a very cold February morning, and with a broken engine, I requested and received permission from QHM to enter Portsmouth under sail.

Full marks to Haslar Marina who unasked, and for free, met us in their workboat just outside the marina at that early hour and towed us in.

 

[Stemar]

So have I.

In a 7 from the west, in a Snapdragon 24. And, yes, the Mont St Michel decided to come out and play...

Hence the slightly bitter tone of my post.

 

[langstonelayabout]

I always say, only half joking, that if you've only got a plan B, you're already in trouble.

I had to laugh.

Years ago I enquired after a boat for sale to be told that it had an inboard, an outboard and a backup outboard (I guess that second outboard makes it a plan D).

Turned out to be owned by a chap that was an RNLI crew (jolly good organisation, by the way).

I really received a cold silence over the phone when I commented that with all of those engines, he must be risk averse.

 

[LONG_KEELER]

In May of this year I was with a friend who had just bought a nice 41' yacht. Following an engine problem we had to get a tow for the last bit into the marina but had a really exciting sail gettingtting there. The charge for the tow would have gone a long way towards a second hand outboard.