Wednesday, October 8, 2014

A Whole New Heart (Kinda), Part 2

My last post about the Osprey's new heart, a 1994 Suzuki 15hp oil injected outboard, ended after my purchase of the engine. Since then I have installed it (with the help of friends) and used it to get to my new port in Everett, WA from Olympia over Labor Day weekend.

The plan was so simple and sweet, wake up drill holes for motor mount, bolt on motor mount, set engine on, and motor away.

Here is what actually happened:

We woke up Saturday morning around 7 or 8 am to the sound of rain, in the PNW who knew! For the next hour and a half we stood in the rain drilling holes and cutting plywood to mount the Suzuki onto the Osprey. Sorry, no pictures here, we were soaked, and focused.

After we got the motor on the boat, it was time to try and start it for the first time. So I cranked. And Cranked. And Cranked. And just as my arms were starting to feel the burn, i could hear the sputtering and popping of the 'ol Zuki trying to roar to life. We finally got her warmed up (it died several times during this process) and put it in gear. Dead.

Again I started cranking. Choke. No choke. Choke. And off it roared again. this time I was able to feather the throttle and off we went.

A few things to be noted about "simply mounting an outboard on you sailboat."

One, the hulls were never designed to hold weight on the back, aka LOTS of flex. This did not allow us to tighten the bolts holding the engine too tight, and it also wore on my nerves during the entire trip as I could imagine my little outboard coming through the transom and sinking my boat.



Two, the engine idle circuit was plugged, therefore we could not go slow, or get into a reverse gear for that matter. This made docking or maneuvering in tight quarters a dubious affair.

Fortunately we were slamming many a Rainier in the name of Poseidon, and we were granted with calm and slightly inebriated waters.....


Next edition, either beef up the transom and clean the idle circuit, or rebuild the inboard.

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