Things you should have checked

When using your outboard for the first time make sure you understand how it works so when it stalls in the middle of a river you don't have to ring your dad to ask him to explain the workings of a choke while your new boats drifts. (I did this yesterday was very embarrassing luckily I got it started in time)
 
Forgot the boat keys last week :mad: had to break in but couldn't have sailed and used the motor anyway so wasn't a problem in the end.

Don't forget to turn the engine sea-cock on - mad panic to get back onto the mooring before the impeller etc fried (old boat) :rolleyes:

Misfortune seems only to ever happen to me when others are on board, it's the distraction of others and being calmer when on my own.
 
Apparently I'm not a sailor, then. Never done that (i.e. left my keys behind)

Simple reason - I need my keys to lock the washboards, so I must have them with me in order to leave.

Pete

You'll remember that posting when you leave them in the cockpit one day won't you...

I need mine to open the engine shed and for the gate to leave the carpark, so even though I too use them to lock the washboards, I have had to do that round trip.
 
Before departing remember to turn the fuel on and also remember that the engine can suck enough fuel past the (closed) fuel cock at low revs to run just fine, but when you need more revs - for example on the entrance to Portsmough harbour with a ferry coming the opposite way - the engine will die................

Neil
 
When departing for home and not planning to be back on board for several weeks ....

Remember to dispose of the half a bottle of milk in the cool locker

Fortunately, it was in a zipped up cool bag within the aforementioned locker so the explosion was reasonably well contained. Yeuk!
 
When departing for home and not planning to be back on board for several weeks ....

Remember to dispose of the half a bottle of milk in the cool locker
Fortunately, it was in a zipped up cool bag within the aforementioned locker so the explosion was reasonably well contained. Yeuk!

Leaving the milk behind was a favourite of mine my last season, fortunately the weather was generally so poor it hadn't got to the point of smelling too badly by the next weekend.
 
Before departing remember to turn the fuel on and also remember that the engine can suck enough fuel past the (closed) fuel cock at low revs to run just fine, but when you need more revs - for example on the entrance to Portsmough harbour with a ferry coming the opposite way - the engine will die................

Neil
I'd think about replacing the fuel tap.
 
Remember to get off the boat & walk some way up the pontoon before the owner of the boat you have been visiting attempts to clear his blocked heads macerator with
compressed air :eek: The results were truly astounding :cool:
 
Remember to get off the boat & walk some way up the pontoon before the owner of the boat you have been visiting attempts to clear his blocked heads macerator with
compressed air :eek: The results were truly astounding :cool:

Inside or outside the boat?

I'm told that a similar effect can be obtained (internally) by telling a hulking great Infantry lance-corporal about the pump for the holding tank, but not the seacock that needs to be open before the pump is operated :D

Pete
 
my companionway steps are retained at the top with a hook and eye per side.
I had been workimg on the engone earlier and must have left then unlinked.

I stepped on the top step.
The whole steps just rotated fotward and I was pitched straight down and ended up on the table.

fortunately only a bruised shin to remember it by.

I knew instantly what I had done


Ouch! You were lucky; I once slipped on the companionway, and fell heavily against the edge of the chart-table. Cracked some ribs, and was in serious pain for several days; bad enough that a week's sailing became a week reading in the marina!
 
When leaving the boat don't, on any account, give your son two bags, one containing rubbish to go in the skip and the other the waterpump shaft from the engine which you are taking home to fit new seals to. Its really hard getting the seals to fit on any of the stuff in the rubbish bag when you try the next day and even more unpleasant having to go back to the skip and climb in to find the engine bits!
 
Top