Oar Stowage

 I have a pair of two piece, fibreglass, Sawyer oar for auxiliary propulsion (along with a telescopic paddle, 2.3 hp Honda motor, sail).  I am not super keen on sailing but better than paddling and I was able to sustain a 1-1.5 knots.  The oars themselves are awkward to stow either in two part of deployed mode.  In deployed mode I usually leave the oars in the oarlocks and stick the blade end out over the stern where they sometimes tangle with the mainsheet.  

If I bring them along I usually break the oars down and tuck them under the coamings on the seat tops but in this mode they do stick out and interfere with sitting.  

Consequently I usually don't bring them along.  Earlier this year I did a three night trip with Jean-Francois to test out the new cockpit tent.  too much hassle to bring the oars so they stayed in the garage.  As luck would have it I had motor troubles and little wind so I was thinking the oars may have come in handy.  Made it home ok.  

I heard some guys cut away a little of the plywood framing under the coamings to allow the oars to fit further back.  I did this with a hole saw and used two bungie toggles on each to hold the oars securely.  Presto!  

The oars are out of the way but come along on every trip so they are there if needed!

Motor

I purchased a new Honda 2.3 hp outboard more for Fib when she was new.  The motor ran flawlessly.  I know that these little four strokes are very sensitive to fuel with tiny jets and all that.  

Fuel should be fresh, ethanol free and clean. 

I only used fresh Chevron premium ethanol free gas that I filtered through a coffee filter.  at the end of a voyage I would always run the motor with the carb valve closed until it died to empty the carb of any fuel.  The screw drain on the carb I managed to strip so could no longer drain carb that way.

I was meticulous about this.  Until last summer at the end of our Desolation Sound cruise.  I think in the hecticness of recovering our boats at the windy ramp I forgot to drain the carb.  Probably thinking no big deal as I would be out again sailing soon.  Nope.  As things went we were busy with travels and home thing so the motor sat in the garage.  I did think to drain the tank but not the carb.  Old fuel in the carb will 'varnish' and cause havoc with these small things.

Forward to this June when Jean-Francois and I were heading out I had a difficult time starting the motor.  Even after a season of sitting it normally fired right up with one or two pulls.  It ran roughly and stalled frequently.  In the end I needed to run it with the choke half out to run at all.  Definitely dirty carb symptoms.  

Looked at some YouTube vidsof doing the work myself but in the end I delivered it to the Honda shop in Burnaby (where motor was purchased) for the work as well as doing the oil changes.

Fairly hefty price tag but happy with the work and motor run like new again.   

It seems that during the last year all gas companies have been mandated to include ethanol in the gasoline.   The only way it seems I can get ethanol free gas is to purchase the high quality, super stable four cycle fuel off the shelf.  I found some at my local Home Hardware at $26 for 3.25 litres which is ok for the small amount I use and the peace of mind.

Otter Proofing

I am lucky to have a generous friend who owns a large sailboat and has a private dock within Gibsons Harbour.  He only uses the one side of his dock and said that I was welcome to use the other side which happens to dry out at super low tides.  

Great - it a Scamp.  No problem.

The harbour hosts a population of river otters who like to jump aboard docked boats and poop.  According to another friend a simple deterrent can be enough to put them off.  I now stretch some light plastic fencing across the cockpit when leaving Fib.  

So far, so good.

A Short Cruise Around Home

Day 1 started off a bit of a drizzly morning while Jean-Francois and I worked on installing the new tent.  Fortunately we had the garage to work in.  After lunch we loaded up and drove the ten minutes to Gibsons Marina boat launch where, every though it was a summer Sunday, the weather seemed to keep things pretty quiet there.  We rigged our boats and I returned my trailer to home while Jean-Francois found some street parking and paid our launch ramp fees.

Launched and ready to go!

Boats in the water, ready to go and my normally super reliable Honda 2.3 hp outboard refused to start.  Eventually it did but ran pretty rough and managed to choke out just as we were leaving the breakwater.  Eventually got if running and out of the marina where we were able to raise sails and potter around a bit before tying up at Plumper Cove (where I can see my house so no great expedition yet).  Pleasant evening chatting on the dock and cooking up some dinner.  Then off to bed under my awesome new cockpit tent.

Day 2 was all about fluky light winds and fluky motor which seemed to run best at half choke.  By the end of the day we dropped anchor at Halkett Bay Marine Park.  We were the only ones there which is wild considering it is June and so close to Vancouver.

Nasty clouds over Mt. Elfinstone

Dodging the ferries

Day 3 started early and we ghosted our way out of Halkett Bay under light or non existent winds.   Saw a cool herring ball and a couple of huge sea lions checking it out.  Out in the sound we sailed and paddled until a point where I fired up the Honda and headed homewards while Jean-Francois planned to sail around Keats and overnight at Plumper before hauling out and heading home early the next day.  Just south of Keats I caught a nice breeze and had fun tacking my way into Shoal Channel and eventually tacked right into a slip at Pumpers where I made up a bite of lunch.  After lounging around there awhile I motored back to the marina.  Our friends have a private dock inside the breakwater that they use one side of for their large sailboat and said we were welcome to use the other side as much as we like.  The only issue is that the slip can dry out at super low tides.  No problem with a Scamp.  So nice to be able to leave Fib in water.  I emptied the boat and brought the motor along when Lisa picked me up there.

Where's the wind?

Fib with Gambier Island in the background

Sweet little docking set up.  

Cockpit Tent - A Real One!

I have done several overnight and multi-night trips in my little Scamp and with each one I improve my setup.

I started with a fairly crude boom tent that I was never happy with and always had in mind to make a better fitting and functioning one.  

I priced out the Sunbrella fabric, asked Lisa if she could give me a hand with the sewing and fabricated a couple of three piece supports that would be mounted in the existing and a second set (further aft) oarlock mounts.  The extended boat hook would become the ridge pole.   It was not a bad idea but It just wasn't catching me so I ditched the project.

I had four of these little brackets welded up to allow the tent frame to be mounted into the oar locks

Frames in place and boat hook ridgepole in place

Remembering that Jean-Francois had a great little cockpit tent of his own design and fabrication on our Desolation Sound cruise last year and that he had mentioned that he would like to get into the business of selling these, I reached out.   Jean-Francois was happy to help me out and excited for his first sale.  He had learned tons on his first model and keen to do another one.   We picked out the Sunbrella fabric and trim colours and he went to work.

In late June Jean-Francois drove down from his home in Nelson  to our place and brought his Scamp along for fun.  We spent a morning carefully measuring, installing and photographing the tent installation and because of the standard dimensions of Scamps it fit perfectly.

The tent spread out on the floor with Benny checking quality control (he passed it).

Jean-Francois installing the stainless steel snap mounts

All fitted - Time to try it out!