Outboard check and quick sail

It had occurred to me that I hadn’t tried to start the outboard since Brian and I had been out on Dragonfly back in June.  So I went paddled out last Friday to try it out.  The motor started right up and I was able to keep it at fast idle by playing with the warm-up lever.  Unfortunately, I would not idle when I depressed the warm-up lever.  I need to figure out how to adjust the idle – it is probably some screw or something on the carburetor.

However, it was clear that I could have put it in gear and we would have gone forward – which is what the motor is for, right?  The wind down at the beach has been very reliable and I have been sailing off the mooring all summer – so I’m sure the next time I use the motor will be the day we take Dragonfly up the river for haul-out.

I took a 30-minute sail before heading back to shore.  Nice.

Sails

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Originally uploaded by rick_barr

Wind: South, 8 knots. Gusts 10 knots.

Another solo sail on a hazy day. Five long tacks across the upper bay to Rocky Point in Warwick. I’m learning to maintain hull speed during tacks by not turning so tightly. An Electra doesn’t spin around like a J/24!

Coming home I tried wing-and-wing, but the wind was light and inconsistent and I kept losing the jib. I made more progress by altering course south of Conimicut Light and made it all the way to the mooring on a single broad reach.

The photo was taking by me while at the tiller. This is another phone to Flickr to WordPress picture. Pretty easy!