One step back in boat buying

Wansworth said:
The whole engine thing is a mania……will itstart if it’s stopped……once running will it stop🙁…….it happened steaming into Littlehampton just on the start of thr ebb and the engine stopped ,managed to get a rope round the bulastrade of the pier…….butwhy did it stop?……sort of mild panic!…….I don’t recall now what I did nothing involving spanners but it started again .
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All this talk of inboards and outboards misses the point. Any engine on a yacht is called an auxiliary, as your primary source of motive power is your sails. On the other hand you could follow the French on many of their small yachts, they have no engine - so nothing to go wrong. They just use a long sweep (stored up the backstay) and scull the boat. Small yachts that you are looking at are easy to get moving and very easy to steer in close quarters. OK, an engine just makes it a bit easier but does have all the associated engine manias you dream of. In over half a century of sailing I have found the most likely problem is running out of fuel. Other problems do happen very occasionally. Wansworth you should be looking for solutions to your not having a boat rather than looking for problems.
 
Calling the engine an "auxiliary" is a misnomer nowadays. Even the keenest yachtsmen spend a lot of time under power. Sails are part of a highly visible, attractive but illusory aura that seems enviable to non-sailors. Only when they get their own sailing boats do they find how much going slowly, or backwards, sailing involves. Who doesn't routinely motor rather than accept delay?

It hardly matters as long as the engine can drive the boat without its sound and vibration being obnoxious. When we couldn't use the sails - I was cockpit-bound after an operation - we just motored. It was great - effortless and rather serene despite the two-stroke noise and smoke.

The less we treat sailing as a sacred reason for having a boat, the more we can enjoy what else boats offer. Sails are fine when the wind's the right strength and blowing the right way. More often it's a ruddy obstacle. On those days, don't even try to set sail - let the boat be a magic carpet instead - and go further and faster, without effort.
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Concerto said:
All this talk of inboards and outboards misses the point. Any engine on a yacht is called an auxiliary, as your primary source of motive power is your sails. On the other hand you could follow the French on many of their small yachts, they have no engine - so nothing to go wrong. They just use a long sweep (stored up the backstay) and scull the boat. Small yachts that you are looking at are easy to get moving and very easy to steer in close quarters. OK, an engine just makes it a bit easier but does have all the associated engine manias you dream of. In over half a century of sailing I have found the most likely problem is running out of fuel. Other problems do happen very occasionally. Wansworth you should be looking for solutions to your not having a boat rather than looking for problems.
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Indeed I threw out the engine on myCommadoClass motor sailer and bought a 15foot Ash sweep off Lallows in Cowes,
 
Wansworth said:
Indeed I threw out the engine on myCommadoClass motor sailer and bought a 15foot Ash sweep off Lallows in Cowes,
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There's your answer then when next looking at a bout with an inboard engine, throw it out and fashion or buy a suitable length sweep, drill a hole in the taffrail and pop in a galvanised rowlock . Just make sure that when you wish to return and there isn't a strong head wind and the tide isn't against you or setting across you as you try to enter your berth.
 
Fr J Hackett said:
There's your answer then when next looking at a bout with an inboard engine, throw it out and fashion or buy a suitable length sweep, drill a hole in the taffrail and pop in a galvanised rowlock . Just make sure that when you wish to return and there isn't a strong head wind and the tide isn't against you or setting across you as you try to enter your berth.
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One is in the lap of Neptune…….I had numerous anchours and rope on reels ready to deploy……..or take the least line of resistance and have a cup of tea….
 
Fr J Hackett said:
There's your answer then when next looking at a bout with an inboard engine, throw it out and fashion or buy a suitable length sweep, drill a hole in the taffrail and pop in a galvanised rowlock . Just make sure that when you wish to return and there isn't a strong head wind and the tide isn't against you or setting across you as you try to enter your berth.
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Drop a dynema loop around a genoa winch & put the sweep through that, giving it a twist if you can to tighten it. Then put a plank across the cockpit seats as a thwart for SWMBO sit on whilst she rows. Couple of flicks of a cat o nine tails & you will be doing 6 kts before you know it. After 10 minutes of that she will get that Seagull out of the garage, polished & smoking on the transom before you know it. Shear bliss.
 
Daydream believer said:
Drop a dynema loop around a genoa winch & put the sweep through that, giving it a twist if you can to tighten it. Then put a plank across the cockpit seats as a thwart for SWMBO sit on whilst she rows. Couple of flicks of a cat o nine tails & you will be doing 6 kts before you know it. After 10 minutes of that she will get that Seagull out of the garage, polished & smoking on the transom before you know it. Shear bliss.
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Dyneema :eek: Good lord nothing but the finest hemp for our Wansey.
 
Daydream believer said:
Drop a dynema loop around a genoa winch & put the sweep through that, giving it a twist if you can to tighten it. Then put a plank across the cockpit seats as a thwart for SWMBO sit on whilst she rows. Couple of flicks of a cat o nine tails & you will be doing 6 kts before you know it. After 10 minutes of that she will get that Seagull out of the garage, polished & smoking on the transom before you know it. Shear bliss.
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