Sea trials for the Outboard

15 Nautical Miles

Today was sea trial for the new Honda outboard we fitted yesterday. The plan was to motor round to the other side of the harbour, drop anchor (to test anchor system). Weigh anchor and sail, testing the autopilot and the mizzen sail, check hove to... and return before 3pm... and... have a good time.

The new Honda started flawlessly, and took us out of the berth easily, and then the boat skewed strangely... we found that the trop line from the mooring line had en-cycled the outboard shaft (not the prop-shaft fortunately). Once free King Malu responded happily and we motored round.

It was beautiful dropping anchor in crystal clear water and seeing the anchor chain dropped across the sea floor. We do need some markers for the anchor chain to work out exactly how much we have payed out. Tim, Jacob and Mick went for a swim and then we tided the boat and set sail.

Working out which tankers were at anchor proved interesting. Sometimes even with binoculars it was difficult to see the anchor chains and impossible to see the black ball from the for'ard mast. I think AIS is a 'must have' in busy waterways.

The autopilot did its thing correctly, very smoothly but at times didn't hold course to wind as well as I would have liked.

Early on I was unhappy that it could hold a better course than I could manual steering, but this wasn't always the case and at other times I was slightly frustrated with the way it held course and I could hold the course better.

Part of today was learning more of the new boat handling - we put up the mizzen sail and we wondered if some of the handling differences are due to the mizzen sail.

The mizzen has a very big roach and setting this sail was not quite as easy as I think we expected.

After we had passed one of the tankers we went into the wind to try to furl the main sail. We quickly learnt that it's tonnes easier doing this with the motor running and you you are moving through the water.

'3 degrees to port Mr Helmsman...' On the way back to port Jacob had a go at helming this much bigger yacht than the 16 foot Wayfarer he normally sails with me.

Mick asked, 'So are you both happy with the new motor?'

'I'll tell you when we are in the marina...'

The wind was gusting about 20 knots but the Honda allowed us about 2 knots into the wind at about 2/3 throttle and 5 knots when we turned.

We were deliberately not pushing the engine as its new. The wind was much higher coming into the marina than we have done before, but the outboard performed beautifully with reverse thrust to slow us to a stop without touching the quay.

Walking back to the car along the quay Tim said, 'In answer to your question... 99.9%'

All in all we are both very pleased with the new motor... this is the third motor we have worked on to try to get King Malu sailing... had the first one worked we would be where we are today but six months ago.