Ever since I bought the sailing dinghy in 2017, the inflatable has taken something of a back seat — as have the Moto Guzzi, the bicycles, the unicycles... I got the Zodiac out for one day in May last year, and I got it out again yesterday — which is twice in a rolling 12 months.
My objective was to test my new (second hand) 3 hp 2 stroke motor.
The Trent, near where I live, has been high for a few weeks now, and at one time it had flooded the carpark at the top of the slipway. It's back down to sensible levels now, although, as I discovered, the current is much faster than normal.
I arrived at the slipway to find another SIBber, setting up his Honwave. We had a friendly natter. I got onto the water a few minutes after him. The new outboard started 4th pull, ticked over nicely, and I set off upstream. I soon overtook the Honwave, which was trolling along at just over idling speed because he was running in a new engine.
Experimenting, I opened up the throttle. The Zodiac made a lot of waves, but went quite briskly. Not actually on the plane, but hardly a slouch. I was pleased.
Around the bend, the current seemed faster and I was making less than walking speed over the ground. I found myself ferry gliding to the inside of each bend hoping to find slower water. It was noisy and a bit tedious. After a while, I pulled up at the bank for a coffee.
As i set off again, I noticed something was missing. Hmmm. I know: the wheels! They should be sticking up, one each side of the engine. That meant... I pulled them up, embarrassed by my schoolboy error. I opened the throttle. My! What a difference it made: the boat got on the plane quite easily. The engine is noisy, but very effective.
I plugged on against the current. A journey to the pub upstream that normally takes me a few minutes looked like it was going to take another hour. Cold and tired, I pulled over again to rest, watch the wildlife, and have another coffee.
The Honwave went past, moving fast through the water, but making slow progress. The crew waved and shouted to check I was OK.
After they'd passed, I pulled out the choke to start the "cold" engine. It spluttered. I pushed the choke back in and it started straight away. I rotated the engine 180 degrees to reverse, and it started to climb out of the water. The anti-tilt wasn't working. (Half an hour with pliers, a hammer and drift, some WD40 and marine grease sorted that out when I got home.)
I decided I'd achieved my main objective, which was to test the engine. I was cold, and progress upstream was slow. I turned back.
A couple of minutes later, the engine started to sputter as if it was running out of fuel. I just made it to the bank, mixed some more fuel and started to pour it into the tank. I should have checked first: the tank was still nearly full, and I ended up spilling some into the river before I realised.
The motor started and ran for a few seconds and cut out again. I checked everything, tried again, same result. After several unsuccessful attempts, I provisionally diagnosed that I'd need to clean the carburettor. I knew the engine had been standing in a shed, unloved, for some time before I had bought it.
Enough was enough. I decided to row. It was easy enough downstream and it was warmer than motoring.
Back at the slipway after about 3 hours on the water. The best part of the trip was salvaging two fenders from the low branches of trees, following the floods. These are a useful thing to have in the sailing dinghy.
Back at home, I put the engine in the water tub and it started first time and ran perfectly.
I ran through everything. My best answer is that when I pushed the choke back in, I had twisted it as well without thinking. It's a combined choke and petrol tap. My previous 2 stroke 3 hp had a separate fuel tap and choke. I reckon I'd started the engine with the fuel tap off, run the carb dry, and then been checking by turning the fuel tap in the wrong direction!
Well, this shows me three things: the genuine value of a "shakedown" trip at the start of the season; the good sense of setting off upstream when testing a ew engine; and how easy it is to make mistakes and assumptions when using unfamiliar equipment. I've owned half a dozen outboards of different makes and sizes, but this is the first one with this particular combined fuel tap and choke knob.
And I'm out of practice. At one time, I was using the inflatable regularly for dive trips, and everything came naturally. I realise now that most of that experience was over 20 years ago, and since then it's been only once or twice a year.
I'm very pleased with the engine, and annoyed with myself, but sporting enough to share the story in case it's helpful. After all, humans are famous for learning from other people's mistakes.
spy-sea-one
