SibLim update

  • 23 Jan 2021 09:19
    Reply # 9958964 on 4315719

    Having once owned the engine that Annie now has which she obtained via the fella I sold it to, (she knows my views on it) all I can say is - please put it in the nearest dumpster and get a late model version Mercury or Tohatsu, with an extra long shaft and a low pitch prop for displacement hulls.

    That Nissan you have gave me nothing but trouble - I got it serviced about three times one year, and it still gave me constant issues.

    As a loyal servant to the promotion of Junk Rig, and having done so much to put the rig on the map with her books and voyages  - I think the JRA should put a blinking "Go fund Annie a new outboard" campaign together.  I will flick a few $ towards it!

    Annie being a proud Liverpudlian will no doubt scoff at such charity - and I am sort of joking...but I am not sort of joking at the same time.

    Annie - your boat is fantastic, (and I even like the pink) you have done a great thing the past five years building your labour of love - please reward yourself and get a nice spanking new Outboard that will start first or second pull each and every time you need it.  You may never need it, but maybe one day you will.
    I will be extremely distressed if on a windless day you end up on the beach with the useless outboard I inadvertently sold you via a third party being the culprit. I know you are a great sailor, so please do not take this as any slight on your sailing skills whatsoever.  It will likely never happen, but I will forever curse myself if it did.


    Edit: I should also add that in recent years four stroke technology has got even better in that the pollution emitted into the environment is much less than that 10+ year old Nissan.
    Just a thought to chew on :-)



    Last modified: 23 Jan 2021 09:42 | Anonymous member
  • 23 Jan 2021 08:18
    Reply # 9957849 on 4315719

    I got the same kind of symptoms with my Tohatsu, Annie. I finally decided that it was down to the remote tank being somewhat lower than the carb, and the fuel pump was not being effective enough at lifting fuel. Hence the need for a lot of squeezes of the bulb, and multiple pulls of the cord to get it started, and sometimes a stall when it was idling on standby for too long as I manoeuvred under sail. It would start readily enough once the carb was full. I came to the view that if I'd kept using the Tohatsu instead of going electric (with much joy and relief), I'd have to raise the tank to be level with the motor. I also got the same propensity to rotate when using the rudder to steer, and David Th's fix for that sounds good. 

  • 23 Jan 2021 07:02
    Reply # 9956067 on 4315719

    It's not the engine that's the issue, David, so much as my attitude towards them.  On my own boats, I haven't tolerated an unreliable engine and I am making a fair bit of effort to beguile this one into cooperating.  I also think it is going to, but if it proves to be unpredictable,  it will be replaced as soon as I have funds to do so.  However, at the back of my mind is always the plastic bag or length of floating line that can wrap around the propeller of the best of engines and render it useless.  What I really need is a long, calm period to give it a good run, as you say.  I'm sure we would both be the happier for it!

  • 23 Jan 2021 04:46
    Reply # 9952609 on 9947599
    Deleted user
    Annie wrote:

    Good advice, Arne, but I have an irrational distrust of engines and never like to rely on one.  The Nissan I have at the moment, appears to have had a few issues during its life and is only just beginning to get the idea that it's supposed to keep going for more than a few seconds without being watched constantly.  I have run it several times for about 15 minutes and today it idled readily, if a trifle erratically, and didn't once stall.  I think with regular running, kind words and clean petrol it will come right!  One slight issue is that once in gear, it wants to turn itself to port so that to sends the boat off to starboard.  I have tried tightening the friction knob, but it's as tight as I can get it.  Have you any suggestions?  I have had no problem starting it, although it usually needs up to 8 tugs to get the message.


    I think that if one is going to have an engine on a boat that it needs to be worthy of, and able to be regarded as a trustworthy source of a secondary means of propulsion. Because sooner or later you may need it to get yourself out of a tight spot where sailing just is not going to do it. Engines like to be used, it is when they are not used that trouble sets in. So my advice would be to embrace the engine as a viable back up, and make use of it, give it some work to do, including some long running under fuller throttle settings, and become totally familiar with how it works, and it's idiosyncrasies. This is to ensure that when you really need that engine it is there and can do the hard work. Also if it has not been done recently it might be worthwhile replacing both the spark plug and the fuel filter, those two things can make a big difference but cost almost nothing. If the engine cannot be relied on then it probably should not be on the boat taking up space and adding to the weight. Good luck with it!  

    Regarding the engine wanting to turn by itself, on 'Footprints' I fitted a simple locking plate bolted onto the front of the engine to prevent it turning as the engine always needed to be in the fore and aft position.

    Last modified: 23 Jan 2021 05:18 | Deleted user
  • 23 Jan 2021 01:29
    Reply # 9947599 on 4315719

    Good advice, Arne, but I have an irrational distrust of engines and never like to rely on one.  The Nissan I have at the moment, appears to have had a few issues during its life and is only just beginning to get the idea that it's supposed to keep going for more than a few seconds without being watched constantly.  I have run it several times for about 15 minutes and today it idled readily, if a trifle erratically, and didn't once stall.  I think with regular running, kind words and clean petrol it will come right!  One slight issue is that once in gear, it wants to turn itself to port so that to sends the boat off to starboard.  I have tried tightening the friction knob, but it's as tight as I can get it.  Have you any suggestions?  I have had no problem starting it, although it usually needs up to 8 tugs to get the message.

    By the way, do you have any idea why the instructions tell you to put it in forward gear before tilting it up?

    I made a 3.5 mile voyage today.  The lee helm is there and worse on starboard, I do believe.  However, I have hauled the boom aft and could haul in the LHP more effectively than last week.  I am pretty sure that simply reducing the balance will eliminate it, except possibly for very light airs.  I hope I don't have to get rid of too much - at present, gybes are delightfully 'soft'.  I am hoping it will go completely calm this evening and/or tomorrow morning to let me make the adjustments I want to the sail.

  • 22 Jan 2021 17:35
    Reply # 9935537 on 4315719
    Anonymous member (Administrator)

    What about the engine?

    Annie.
    You mention that you want to be able to sail the anchor out. Would it be an idea to use the outboard engine as a stopgap solution? Your engine is the same as mine on Ingeborg; a 1-cylinder, 6hp , 4-stroke Tohatsu. After a bit warmup, they can run forever on idle speed without choking (unlike a 2-stroke) or burning the exhaust-valve (diesels). What if you put the engine in gear at low setting, and then just go forward to take in the slack of the anchor line (chain). Fanshi will probably tack her way, just as Fantail did, and soon (with a bit luck) the anchor can be hauled up.

    Starting the engine each time you are to haul up the anchor may not be your style, but may make sense until you get the sail sorted. Btw, the fuel consumption will be miserable, and anyway, it may even be good for the engine to be started and run warm at regular basis. You then even have a warmed up engine at hand in case ‘something happens’.

    Anyway, good luck.
    Arne


  • 21 Jan 2021 20:05
    Reply # 9903060 on 4315719

    Thank you for all your kind comments.  The past five years have certainly been testing and at times exhausting, but for me and for what I was trying to achieve, they have been worth it.  When it hasn't been blowing half a gale, I've even managed to get a glimpse of what it was all for!

    I didn't judge the lee helm simply from going to windward: I am well aware that wth bilgeboards being part of the equation there is a lot that could affect this point of sailing.  However, the lee helm was also apparent and thus indisputable, with the wind free.

    I can't really relax and forget about it, because I live at anchor: I don't like the idea that I can't sail the anchor out as long as the boat sheers to leeward rather than helping me by tacking it out.  Since I sailed down the harbour, we have had constant, fresh winds and it's been impossible to do anything to the sail.  It's also been impossible really to relax :-{  However, although it is still too breezy to raise the sail and work on it, we are promised light winds and I am hoping for a calm period of a couple of hours or so to make my first adjustments. 

    I plan to move the sling forward about 100 mm, put a standing yard parrel from the yard down to the second batten down, add an extra batten to the luff hauling parrel and replace the tack parrel with a standing one from boom to the batten above it.  I hope to bring the luff back about 300mm by these methods.  I don't have many extra blocks and at this stage am disinclined to drill more holes in my boat for blocks and cleats for a THP anyway, untill I see whether the above modifications improve things.  I have already altered the lead for the LHP.  There was a brief period of calm yesterday morning, which enabled me to haul the sail up and try out the LHP as presently set up.  It hauls that part of the sail well aft - too much so if anything resulting in a concave luff.  However, the wind filled in before I could try anything else.  We have had lots of days with barely a breeze this summer (when I wouldn't have minded one to cool me down!): typical that we should now have 5 days in a row where the wind barely drops below a fresh F4! 

    I have lots of nice little pottering jobs I want to do on deck, in light breezes and warm sunshine and am feeling a bit frustrated, to say the least.  Ah well, no doubt the enforced idleness has done me good: I can't even do much in the way of writing emails, with the very poor Interent signal here.  I've lost this page several times while typing this!  On the other hand, I have a lovely view and am floating in water that is almost a Bahamian blue when the sun comes out: it's a lot better than being in an industrail area and inconceivaby better than being in a shed in an industrial area!!

    By the way, a thousand thanks to my friends who have gone to the trouble of posting photos and video on this thread.  I gather the videos are a lot of fun: I have yet to manage to download one!

  • 21 Jan 2021 14:29
    Reply # 9893838 on 4315719

    Congratulations everyone.

    From conception, designing, resourcing and the labour of building to delivery it's been a great project with a most interesting end result. Now you have the interesting challenge of tuning to end with a mature cruising vessel. Once again you are a great inspiration to the Junk Rig community Annie.


  • 20 Jan 2021 21:27
    Reply # 9885431 on 4315719

    FanShi looks fantastic and congratulations.

    I would just like to say thank you for sharing the experience of her construction. I have been following your posts right from the start. Looking forward to the nearly weekly updates. Sharing the experience must have taken a good deal of time on top of everything else. It has been a very interesting and educational experience, following your progress. I'm going to miss the updates but very much hope you enjoy the results from your impressive project.

  • 20 Jan 2021 09:18
    Reply # 9884007 on 9876576
    Anonymous wrote:
    Anonymous wrote:

    Apologies for the delayed photographs. Fan Shi is truly a work of art and skims along very nicely in those light conditions. What a festival of sails and colour on the Saturday. Congratulations to both Annie and David, Fan Shi looks like she was never not in the water; a little home, very much at home on the sea! 

    Excellent photographs Roger!

    Looks like a bit of a 'Junk Armada' invading the Whangarei River.

    Thank you Zane, indeed it was; something of a Fan Fare to say the least!
       " ...there is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing as simply messing about in junk-rigged boats" 
                                                               - the Chinese Water Rat

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