Why the Welly Centaur will be better and safer than a donkey Centaur

Tranona said:
Actually not too bothered about wrecking a Centaur for sentimental reasons. Just the proposed modifications will produce a **** boat that will not do what is asked of it. None of the espoused justification stands up to any rational scrutiny, but guess rationality went out of the window long time ago.
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Somebody also probably told RJ Mitchell what the dire effects would be on speed and manoeuvrability if he built a plane with only one wing........ I don't disagree with you by the way - I don't actually know if what you say is true - but I wouldn't mind seeing the experiment... I just wish DW would stop procrastinating and get out there and find a Centaur to chop up... :D
 
dylanwinter said:
The price of an old Centaur with a dead engine is around £2,000

the price of a Centaur with an engine "that can be seen running" is around £6,000

the price of a Centaur with a good engine is much closer to £8,000 or £10,000
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I might start buying up £2,000 Centaurs, stick decent inboard engines in them at a cost of less than £2,000, then sell them on for £8,000 to £10,000 a pop, making £4,000 to £6,000 profit a time!
 
Fantasie 19 said:
I just wish DW would stop procrastinating and get out there and find a Centaur to chop up... :D
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You have to take time picking over the wreckage out there.
Was it really only a week ago that Dylan kicked it off with wanting pictures of wells?:rolleyes:

I cant wait to see the pictures of him collecting lobster pots, in the Pentland, in a force 11,with smoke billowing out of his fuel locker and a fountain gushing up from his well.:rolleyes:


Dylan Ignore "the negative vibes man"
I think some on here probably still think the world is flat!

For your info the best photo I never got was one of an inquisitive young seal pup trying to get onboard through our empty O/B well.
Camera went click but modern equivalent of no film in camera as card was still in puter!

So there is another potential use for a Welly Centaur.

Actually thinking about that you could fit a forward looking camera in the well to spot any uncharted rocks ahead of you! Your Wellcam!

Steve
 
TSB240 said:
You have to take time picking over the wreckage out there.
Was it really only a week ago that Dylan kicked it off with wanting pictures of wells?:rolleyes:

I cant wait to see the pictures of him collecting lobster pots, in the Pentland, in a force 11,with smoke billowing out of his fuel locker and a fountain gushing up from his well.:rolleyes:


Dylan Ignore "the negative vibes man"
I think some on here probably still think the world is flat!

For your info the best photo I never got was one of an inquisitive young seal pup trying to get onboard through our empty O/B well.
Camera went click but modern equivalent of no film in camera as card was still in puter!

So there is another potential use for a Welly Centaur.

Actually thinking about that you could fit a forward looking camera in the well to spot any uncharted rocks ahead of you! Your Wellcam!

Steve
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I filmed the Nene with the underwater camera - it is in one of the films

This summer I also filmed in the Farnes with it

I shall be heading into some lovely clear waters with seals and dolphins

so there will be oppportunities to film even with the outboard in place - there is room to get the camera down the well

the window in the duck punt was a tremendous technical success.

As for string winds I never expect to be out in anything above a seven

Roller reefing and proper sliders on the main so I can kill speed pretty quickly

I assume a frightened man can wrestle 40 kg into a cockpit

or at least shove a breadnife down the well and cut the stuff free (after carefully marking it with a spare fender and length of strong twine of course)

the weather forecasts are astonishingly accurate for the next 24 hours and I never expect to be more than around 40 miles from good shelter

As for missed photographic opportunities

One of the first rules of being a video hack is to start every trip with a pile of empty cards and a bag of full batteries

empty the cards every night into the laptop and plug in the dead batteries

Fail on rule 1 and the rest is just missed opportunities

As for a boat....the right boat is out there and asking for some-one to tell where she is The poor boat has stood at the back of a yard for five years - she is decaying fast now. The weeds brush her belly. The woodwork will need a lot of sanding and lots of unguents applied. Probably she will need new hatches

The standing rigging will be suspect - but a cheapish item to replace

the sails have been kept down below - no water has crept into the cabin

her keels have been strengthened.

She was parked there five years ago when the volvo threw a wobbly under distressing circumstances - the incident was the first time the owner realised that he and his engine are getting on a bit.

He is on first name terms with the local mechanic - after all theirs has been a long relationship. Money changes hands in just one direction.

He asked Brian to take a look -

the mechanic took a look

the engines needs pulling and re-building - spares are expensive or not available off the shelf.

and if you are going to pull the engine then best replace it with something more reliable with a spares infrastructure

The cost of the job meant that the boat was put ashore - it either needed a new engine or a new owner. Five years have passed.....

I can hear her calling - asking for a chance of one more adventure

that old Volvo has deprived the boat of the chance of being taken for a sail

so find me the right boat lads

Dylan.winter@virgin.net
 
Tranona said:
Are you serious? 6A output! Barely enough to recharge the starting battery if electric start.
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I have been sailing with the Tohatsu - rated at 6 amps - for the past 18 months

so far so good

and it is one of the glories of having a hand starting engine - no full battery paranoia anymore

if the battery runs flat then it does not matter - you can still start the engine

Dylan
 
TSB240 said:
Dylan Ignore "the negative vibes man"
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Hear hear..

ODDBALLSAYSsilkscreen.jpg
 
Tranona said:
Are you serious? 6A output! Barely enough to recharge the starting battery if electric start.
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The electric start on my Yamaha 9.9 takes less than 50A, because it runs through a 50A fuse. It requires a maximum of 5 seconds cranking to start, even when cold, so 250 As. Lets say recharging is only 50% efficient, so I have to put back 500 As. At 6A, that takes 83 seconds to replace. So you see, your rather gloomy claim that I have barely enough charging capacity to replace what the electric start has used is so wildly and completely inaccurate that it makes a mockery of your argument. If you wanted to claim that an outboard does not have sufficient charging output, you should have used as an example something better than the electric start. Energy used is proportional to current times time in case you were not aware, not just current alone. The starter may be high current, but the time it runs for is absolutely trivial. I can recommend a good book on boat electrics if you want.

I have lived with the output from my Yamaha 9.9 and a 30W solar panel for 13 years. I run a full ST60 instrument system, a ST2000 autopilot, chartplotter, VHF, AIS receiver, Navtext, entertainment radio, LED interior and navigation lights, a Waeco CF18 compressor coolbox, and when the engine is running I can recharge my netbook, mobile phone, camera, or run the Eberspacher heater. This summer I spent 32 days continuously away from mains electricity in gloomy Scotland, and the battery volts never went below 12.5V.

But, of course, you and your 100's of Amps altenator say it can't be done, so I must be making it all up or be confused or something. Or just maybe there are other people out there with other types of boats and engines from yours who do things differently from the way you do and don't run a radar, microwave oven, deep freeze, big fridge, TV etc.
 
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Dylan

I am fascinated by your posts

but

I do wish

you wouldn't do everything

as short

double spaced

lines

it' s

wearing

my

scrolling

finger

out

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
AngusMcDoon said:
Is having 60 litres of petrol on a boat in dedicated tanks and handled appropriately any more dangerous than 10 litres of LPG in a boat used for cooking? I would guess half of the people claiming the danger of petrol here have a gas system on board, and gas goes inside the boat too, whereas petrol does not.
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Gas can be dangerous.
Petrol is smelly and can be dangerous.
Neither need be unacceptable if managed properly.
 
lw395 said:
Gas can be dangerous.
Petrol is smelly and can be dangerous.
Neither need be unacceptable if managed properly.
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All true, but the petrol smell is confined to a locker only accessible from outside, whereas on a diesel engined boat you tend to live, eat, breathe, sleep diesel smell all the time, especially on an old boat.
 
I used to have an Impala that had been converted the other way.
It was not a nice boat to motor in, but the big plus of the diesel was the ability to motor back from France or across Lyme bay in flat calm using remarkably little fuel.
I guess when it was converted, outboard meant two stroke.
These days I would not object to a 4stroke 10hp motor, in a 26-28ft boat, provided that it was a boat that sailed extremely well.
So you only need the motor for docking and calms.
I don't know much about centaurs, but doubt they go up wind as well as an Impala.

The other thing I would miss, spending any time on board, is the calorifier (which the Imp did not have being a seawater cooled malarkey).
Eating off plates etc that have actually been washed up in hot water is so much more civilised than boats where the tea tastes of bacon.

But I'm more envious of people with the opportunity to sail cheap boats a lot than people who have nice boats but no chance to use them much.
 
lw395 said:
I guess when it was converted, outboard meant two stroke.
These days I would not object to a 4stroke 10hp motor...
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The fuel cost argument against outboard engines for small boats has gone away now pretty much, because 1) all new ones are 4-stroke with consumption not much worse than an equivalent sized diesel, and 2) the ending of most of the tax relief on red diesel.

It's still costly for mobos, but for a small sailing engine it's a tiny extra cost compared to everything else.

There is so easy solution for the lack of water heating though.
 
Bit of synergy here chaps.

We have one bunch of threads running about the depressed state of the boat market and owners 'selling but not rushing to sell', and another about Dylan wanting a centaur with a reliable engine for a period of about 12 months.

Why not try to find a chap with a good centaur just testing the market and offer him a 12 month charter for a reasonable sum. Survey the boat before and after and cover any depreciation as well as running costs and comprehensive insurance. Can't be more than the proposed project cost and although he loses use of the boat for the charter period he gets it back in12 months at no loss to him if he is not sailing it much. maybe you are looking for a person not a boat?

Of course the lack of any similar suggestion so far indicates that I might be being hopeful. But I thought I'd put it up there before I get me coat!

Cheers
 
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