KevL
New member
Just thought I’d share a little experience with you.
The new “previously enjoyed” boat is sitting in our home marina all nicely tied up to the pontoon and I’m busily making a list of things that need doing, lifting up all the hatches, climbing into the engine room etc. etc. Anyway one of those “items needed” is an Outboard motor for the tender. Well being a tight arse I decide that there is no point buying a new one as the Zodiac tender is five years old and they don’t last forever, the plan is to buy a second hand one out of the Loot and then replace the lot in a couple of years with a tender and outboard package.
So when I get to work I do a search on the Loot “for sale” website and find an outboard for sale within ten miles from home, it’s a Mariner 4HP 2 stroke for £275. Goes round to the gaff and there in the garage clamped to a workbench with its spinning round bit in a dustbin full of water is an outboard motor. Now I’ve never owned an outboard motor so I do my best to look like I know what I’m doing and I get them to start it. I feel the cowl to see if it has been run prior to me getting there and it is cold but on the second pull of the cord it fires into life and seems to warm up ok. There is a steady stream of cooling water spurting from the bottom of it and it seems to be working ok I figure that buying a second hand outboard is a pig in a poke anyway and the deal is done at £250.
Now it’s the weekend and I’ve got my outboard clamped to a piece of 3”x2” secured to my very substantial workbench. The end of the shaft is in a dustbin filled with water to about 2” above the cavitation plate. I have a bit of time so I decide to make sure it will start and warm up ok before I take it to the boat, so fuel on, breather open, in neutral, throttle set to start position, choke on first notch, two tugs later there she goes. Well I’m chuffed and I’m revving it up and warming it up and pushing the choke in and it’s ticking over and this is great. I think to myself that I’d better check that the gear selector works (wait for it) so I find the lever on the side and pull it towards “F”. Have you ever seen those programs on the TV where a bloke chucks a bucket full of water into “Old Faithful” and runs away, then in a second or two up gushes this column of water? Well it was like that only without the running away bit, so now the roof of the garage is soaking wet, I’m soaking wet, the dog has run away, my workbench and the surrounding area is swimming in water, I’m stood in the middle of all of this and SWMBO is rolling on the floor clutching her stomach in fits of laughter. What do I do, panic that’s what, I grab the gear selector and thrust it hard back towards neutral. There is a brief moment of relative calm, then the dustbin shoots towards me stopping when it hits the cavitation plate and “Old faithful” springs back into life. In my panic I had over shot neutral and it’s now in reverse. Well this is too much for SWMBO and she has to leave garage I some how have the presence of mind to hit the red button this time, the outboard stops and the only sound I can hear is the drip, drip, drip from me and the surrounding area. The dustbin water level is now about 1” below the cavitation plate and on further inspection the throttle wasn’t exactly fully closed either which I suppose didn’t help..
For the following 3 hours every time SWMBO looked at me she burst into fits of uncontrollable laughter which I didn’t find funny at all. So the moral of the story is, by all means run your outboard up in a dustbin of water but whatever you do don’t be tempted to select a gear.
KevL
--
It may be the early bird that catches the worm but its the second mouse that gets the cheese.
The new “previously enjoyed” boat is sitting in our home marina all nicely tied up to the pontoon and I’m busily making a list of things that need doing, lifting up all the hatches, climbing into the engine room etc. etc. Anyway one of those “items needed” is an Outboard motor for the tender. Well being a tight arse I decide that there is no point buying a new one as the Zodiac tender is five years old and they don’t last forever, the plan is to buy a second hand one out of the Loot and then replace the lot in a couple of years with a tender and outboard package.
So when I get to work I do a search on the Loot “for sale” website and find an outboard for sale within ten miles from home, it’s a Mariner 4HP 2 stroke for £275. Goes round to the gaff and there in the garage clamped to a workbench with its spinning round bit in a dustbin full of water is an outboard motor. Now I’ve never owned an outboard motor so I do my best to look like I know what I’m doing and I get them to start it. I feel the cowl to see if it has been run prior to me getting there and it is cold but on the second pull of the cord it fires into life and seems to warm up ok. There is a steady stream of cooling water spurting from the bottom of it and it seems to be working ok I figure that buying a second hand outboard is a pig in a poke anyway and the deal is done at £250.
Now it’s the weekend and I’ve got my outboard clamped to a piece of 3”x2” secured to my very substantial workbench. The end of the shaft is in a dustbin filled with water to about 2” above the cavitation plate. I have a bit of time so I decide to make sure it will start and warm up ok before I take it to the boat, so fuel on, breather open, in neutral, throttle set to start position, choke on first notch, two tugs later there she goes. Well I’m chuffed and I’m revving it up and warming it up and pushing the choke in and it’s ticking over and this is great. I think to myself that I’d better check that the gear selector works (wait for it) so I find the lever on the side and pull it towards “F”. Have you ever seen those programs on the TV where a bloke chucks a bucket full of water into “Old Faithful” and runs away, then in a second or two up gushes this column of water? Well it was like that only without the running away bit, so now the roof of the garage is soaking wet, I’m soaking wet, the dog has run away, my workbench and the surrounding area is swimming in water, I’m stood in the middle of all of this and SWMBO is rolling on the floor clutching her stomach in fits of laughter. What do I do, panic that’s what, I grab the gear selector and thrust it hard back towards neutral. There is a brief moment of relative calm, then the dustbin shoots towards me stopping when it hits the cavitation plate and “Old faithful” springs back into life. In my panic I had over shot neutral and it’s now in reverse. Well this is too much for SWMBO and she has to leave garage I some how have the presence of mind to hit the red button this time, the outboard stops and the only sound I can hear is the drip, drip, drip from me and the surrounding area. The dustbin water level is now about 1” below the cavitation plate and on further inspection the throttle wasn’t exactly fully closed either which I suppose didn’t help..
For the following 3 hours every time SWMBO looked at me she burst into fits of uncontrollable laughter which I didn’t find funny at all. So the moral of the story is, by all means run your outboard up in a dustbin of water but whatever you do don’t be tempted to select a gear.
KevL
--
It may be the early bird that catches the worm but its the second mouse that gets the cheese.
