Sail to power, early lessons for your amusement

FlowerPower said:
A variation on this is "It is also very important to untie all mooring lines before setting off, especially the one running to the forward centre cleat that I can't see from the helm".
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I did that a week ago - rope on the stern . My fault entirely.
I did once set off with shore power attached - it snapped the connector off the pontoon - no harm done to my shore power cable . not a trick to be done too often.

Not so sure these are motorboat things - yachts have shore power and mooring lines too.
 
MartynG said:
I did that a week ago - rope on the stern . My fault entirely.
I did once set off with shore power attached - it snapped the connector off the pontoon - no harm done to my shore power cable . not a trick to be done too often.

Not so sure these are motorboat things - yachts have shore power and mooring lines too.
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100%.

Moving from sail to power you need to learn:

There is a lot of boat behind you.
The pivot point moves about and isn’t very effective (unlike a keel)
Going fast enough for the wheel to be effective in a marina is a bad idea.
Yachties think you are making too much wake at 2 knots.
Yachties think you are stupid ( they have a motor after all so can do both - can’t they?)
Rowers are worse than yachties.
A 1” thickness of foam on a solid cockpit seat is not “luxurious” or even “comfortable”. In fact a hair shirt is not essential boating attire.
You don’t need to leap off the boat and wrangle it to a stop.
Sound signals are a thing.
Everything else is the same.
 
Not boaty but worth relating for
the embarrassment.

I think I’ve mentioned in other threads I had a Peugeot 405Mi16 4x4, modified as had been used at a racing school. Lots of toque.

Miserable day, raining hard. Just got petrol and topped up the air in the tyres. This at a Tesco garage, so I jump back into the car and drive to the store attached. Back into space and hear this odd sound. Get out and the airline is wrapped around the towing eye of the car!

Parked and took it into customer services and said I think this is yours. Asked if they wanted my details and she said no it’s OK. The pedestal was still bent over a little when I left the UK!

Amazed it didn’t just break the hose or worse come flying through the back window.

W.
 
NO,4 A 230 VOLT AC RELAY CUTTING THE SUPPLY TO ONE ENGINE WITH A 230 VOLT LAMP ON THE DASH TO TELL POWER IS ON.
 
Scala said:
No video of 3 4 or 5 I'm afraid. Shorepower, well at least we know that (a) the strain relief in the connector works; (b) the marina safety trips work; and (c) not very many people got too angry to have their microwaves, BBQs or bacon sandwiches disrupted by the outage I caused. Also probably a good thing that my usual practice of looping the cable round a pontoon cleat saved the pontoon power pedestal.

3 is just a matter of getting used to it I think. The days of sticking the autopilot on and going below for a pee or to rummage around for a pilot book are gone, I don't think I'll be doing much of that. Hitting the swell more or less head on at 30kts caused a certain amount of unintended vertical motion, the first a bit uncomfortable, the second a full half pipe. The wall of water that ensued on landing* mostly entered the boat through the huge sunroof opening so Mrs Scala and I were a tad damp. Some squeaking was audible, and not from the sunroof.

So an instructive day.


* I really don't think an extra 2 degrees on the deadrise would have helped much.
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Glad you getting use the boat and having fun,, Ref 3. More deadrise is definitely better, We tend to go for the more speed option too? have taken off a few times. all good fun. I am sure Martin gave you some fast runs last year in his 37 ?

I have only stuffed my boat once and was actually only doing 9 knots at the time, It was more a case of not focusing on the waves, I had turned round to check on the boat that was out with us, Turned back round to watch the bow dip under the wave and water roll up the deck and dump a load of water over the crew, It missed me (y) and got my son and step son soaked:D
 
Ian h said:
Glad you getting use the boat and having fun,, Ref 3. More deadrise is definitely better, We tend to go for the more speed option too? have taken off a few times. all good fun. I am sure Martin gave you some fast runs last year in his 37 ?
...
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That day with Martin was pretty much flat calm, it was the Cowes Torquay day, we went out to watch the field come through the chute. That boat felt very fast.
 
Scala said:
Actually, a couple more.

8. Labelling trim tab controls with useful terms like "port" and "starboard", and "down" and "up"; "down" being at the top of the switch and "up"' at the bottom; and the indicator lights that go down when they mean up, when in fact the opposite is true for every label, is completely perverse, I've read the manual and I know what it does but it's all wrong.
9. Going behind a sailing yacht at a good distance often earns a wave. OK that's good thing.
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The trim tab labelling normally refers the the bow.
The actual operating of the trim tab is the same up or down but on the opposite side. ie port side TT down results in Stbd bow down
 
Used to drive me nuts with the S/Sker it’s the opposite to intuition.
Sometimes I forgot , got in a muddle and in a x wind did the wrong thing and heel would alarmingly increase .
Book was confusing , well for me !

How ever bless Amarti although retro .....I have a position dial and a toggle “ Up “ of “Dn “......the flap .
They are so easy to use and even go up to minus 2 for following seas .

In General useful when fully loaded 2200 L fuel + 500 L water at slow speeds to lift the stern .
And of course to bring more finer bow into play in rough head seas .....rather than back off the throttles .

Anyhow point is they are easy to use and you can see where they are .
Thats important at the berth as you can see if they need pulling up ......thinking ram seal preservation issues .

88D3F2B2-25ED-49A3-837F-BDB33E54FC24.jpeg
power is off so they flop down at rest .
 
Just wait until you learn these tips about the change

1. Life is more comfortable. You can always find somewhere to lie out in the sun in comfort.
2. When not underway things are very quiet. No creaking, no boom travelling, no halyards frapping and when you have any roll from wake, it stops when the wake passes.
3. You can use English in conversations with fellow boaters about your boat rather than boat speak and people will nod and not tut.
4. You can cool/keep much more beer, rose, white wine, tonic, ice, etc etc.

My biggest embarrassment on the first day we took ownership was not being able to figure out how to turn the engines off. Where was the damn stop button hidden. The key to success was the key.
 
Rocksteadee said:
The trim tab labelling normally refers the the bow.
The actual operating of the trim tab is the same up or down but on the opposite side. ie port side TT down results in Stbd bow down
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Yes that's right, although I do wonder if mine are wired "as designed" because correcting heel (or lean, or is it list) seems not to work. I'm going to get someone to operate the switch whilst I actually watch the tabs (in the marina) so I can be 100% sure of what they're actually doing then try it again.
 
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mcanderson said:
Just wait until you learn these tips about the change

1. Life is more comfortable. You can always find somewhere to lie out in the sun in comfort.
2. When not underway things are very quiet. No creaking, no boom travelling, no halyards frapping and when you have any roll from wake, it stops when the wake passes.
3. You can use English in conversations with fellow boaters about your boat rather than boat speak and people will nod and not tut.
4. You can cool/keep much more beer, rose, white wine, tonic, ice, etc etc.

My biggest embarrassment on the first day we took ownership was not being able to figure out how to turn the engines off. Where was the damn stop button hidden. The key to success was the key.
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All true apart from 4 (in this case) because Saily Scala had a huge fridge/freeezer. Mobo Scala one has a teeny tiny drinks fridge in the cockpit ?and a slightly bigger one in the galley. ... ???
 
On the fender stowage point that is, perhaps oddly, well up on the list of priorities when we look at boats and we probably wouldn’t buy a boat if there wasn’t a solution. Might sound a bit petty but for us function is a bit ahead of form, which sometimes doesn't appear to be the norm in mobo circles........but then we are closet yachties!

We are in the process of changing (again) and the next boat will be very different from our current S34......more something that many ex-yachties might be more likely to choose and what I would describe as a very seamanlike boat......with good fender stowage! ?
 
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On the shore power issue I remember a blissful day that had seen me engaged in nothing more arduous than sharing my spanners with Neptune as I completed a minor task on the foredeck. My attention was drawn to a group who boarded a neighbouring boat at a run and short of cutting their lines wasted not a moment in getting underway at pace. Sadly the orange line had been overlooked and the next few moments of disarray were most enjoyable ... at least for this onlooker. o_O
 
Greg2 said:
On the fender stowage point that is, perhaps oddly, well up on the list of priorities when we look at boats and we probably wouldn’t buy a boat if there wasn’t a solution. Might sound a bit petty but for us function is a bit ahead of form, which sometimes doesn't appear to be the norm in mobo circles........but then we are closet yachties!

We are in the process of changing (again) and the next boat will be very different from our current S34......more something that many ex-yachties might be more likely to choose and what I would describe as a very seamanlike boat......with good fender stowage! ?
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Hi Greg, yes I saw she'd been sold, maybe you could start a 'guess my next boat' thread.... :)
 
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I remember my first few days and how terrified I was that I had forgotten something eg the power cable. I had a check list that I followed religiously until the day I didn't of course. In this instance I roared off from an anchorage, arrived where was planning to stay and found i had not lifted the ladder out of water. It was horizontal to the boat with the metal having bent up. haven't done that again!! So lots of empathies :)
 
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