My Motor Saga

I was finally ready to take her out for the first time

The rigging was up and checked, the sail was on and checked. My smallest jib was ready to be put on. The main sheet was happily attached to the floor. It was a beautiful day with a gentle wind, I was ready!!

The Tanzer 22 Motor Saga Continues Our club is protected by a hill and so there is often not much wind to get out, so we use motors to get out to the lake out of the breakwater. The motor that came with the boat was a bit tired, but mainly I don't have much experience with outboards. This is a long winded way of saying that I simply could not get the motor going. I pulled, I choked, I pulled, I flooded, I waited, I pulled, nothing doing. The motor was old but had been serviced. Nevertheless I simply could not start it. Since I like to have a bit of a safety margin I was worried. I decided to go for broke and replace the motor. This again was a concentrated learning experience. I finally settled on a 6 horse power Mercury 4 stroke. It was interesting to find out that Nissan, Tohatsu and Mercury 4, 5, and 6 horse power are essentially the same motor except for the decals. They use the same block for the 3 powers and change the carburator. This means that the weight is the same for these as well. Price is different based on brand and probably service.

I found a Mercury on sale at the end of the season for the same price as Tohatsu and Nissan and took it home. I put it on the motor mount, tied it to the boat, put on the key and checked that everything was fine. I had installed the mainsail and was finally ready to take my little boat out for its first SAIL finally!! The motor started like a charm, I released the mooring, put the motor on forward, it jerked and broke the motor mount plate throwing the running motor down in the water still running. Luckily I had tied the motor to the railing so it didn't sink to the bottom of the lake. It just dangled on the back of the boat making a big fuss. The plate was a piece of 2x8 lumber but the grain ran horizontally, it had a big knot and the attaching bolts/nuts had been countersunk deeply. This made a very weak spot that snapped when the engine jerked forward Lots of noise, frothing and a nasty jerk on my wrist, but no real damage. I got the motor stopped, brought it into the boat and ran to drop the anchor because the boat was drifting towards the fancy Yacht at the Boulevard club. I was pretty quivery by this time! [All you want to know about anchors article]

New motor with broken plate Lucky for me I had tied it to the boat!

Broken plate on motor mount

I had my cell phone with me so I called information (provided by a Bell Company). There were 2 numbers for the boat club but they REFUSED to give me both, they would only give me one. I explained it was an emergency, and asked to speak to her supervisor. He also refused to give me the 2 numbers. I was at this point being pushed towards other moored boats. Slowly because I had had a chance to get my anchor out but it was by this time quite windy and the anchor had not had enough space to bite in. I was also injured. BELL people also refused to identify themselves, fearing quite correctly that I would complain. I WILL NEVER IN MY LIFE USE BELL CANADA FOR ANY SERVICE WHATSOEVER. This is not my first bad experience with them, they misrepresented a cell phone and a plan when I needed my first Cell Phone. They had also been removing money monthly for my partner's account for web service that they have not provided for YEARS. ... OK that's it for the rant.

Luckily for me, the number they gave me connected to a person. There are not many people at the club during the day and often the phone is answered by voicemail. I got some help to get the boat back to its mooring and managed to settle myself.

I was lucky in my bad luck!

I get a new motor bracket

I now had a healthy respect for the force of a 4 stroke 6HP engine and the old motor bracket looked pretty puny. It was original and that means about 30 years old. So I decided to replace it with a mount that was designed to take the higher stress imposed by the new 4 stroke motors. I had chosen a 4 stroke because of environmental concerns.

My old mount was also very stiff and a bit tricky to lower and raise. So off I go to the fancy boat boutique for a new motor mount.

Installing the new motor mount means squeezing myself under the floor into the locker once again (I had spent a claustrophobic afternoon re attaching a bracket connecting the main sheet to the floor ) and wiggling myself under the floor once again. The bolts holding the old mount were quite solidly imbedded and it was tricky to get the old mount off. I also had to prepare an extention to the little wooden wedge that compensates for the tumble home angle of the transom.

New motor bracket

All this I was doing with jolly waves rocking the boat at the mooring. Without a motor I could not get the boat to the dock.

Finally got the new bracket installed, huffed the new motor onto the bracket, and tightened everything. I tied the motor to the boat and got my anchor ready.

I went for lunch, fully anticipating that I would take my boat for its first sail in the beautiful afternoon breeze. I came back to the boat, put the key on, choked the motor, pulled the crank, and pulled, and pulled ...

Starting the Motor

I tried everything to get this motor started, following the instructions to the letter; Went online, read the manual, asked for advice. The motor was never near the water when the mounting plate broke, so it did not get wet. The gas was brand new with stabilizer and water remover stuff.
I tried on several occasions, as did a few helpful souls who took pity on me.

This went on for a couple of days. Just when I had resigned myself to hauling the motor back to shore in my little Skerry (being used as a rowboat this time) and bringing it back to the dealership, it started!! Tell me there is not an imp living in that motor.

After that comedy, it started on first or second pull every time. In hindsight I'm wondering if the really hot weather, combined with the sun shining on the cowling, could have caused a vapor block, or some other mysterious problem.

If you're wondering, I eventually got the little boat out and SAILING, and what a rush that was, even if there was only about 4 knots of wind.

NOW I have a sailboat.

I managed to get out a few times
and am gradually gaining confidence. The last time I actually put a regular jib up. Up till then I had only dared use the storm jib. It also came with a huge Genoa, much larger than the mainsail, but I have not had the chance or guts to use it yet.

I am now in the same boat (pun intended) as other Tanzer 22 owners. There is work to be done on the boat!

I had a survey done and got myself a TO DO list

According to the surveyor Michel Goudeseune the deficiencies he identified are pretty common to Tanzers22 and would make a good list of things to check when buying a boat.