[Public-List] Roar...

[Gordon Laco]

Hello gang, 

If any of you heard a roar followed by yodelling, well that was me.  


SURPRISE goes in the water on Friday this week and I’ve done nothing to prepare for that but for throwing the tarp off and of course my chainplate repair.  Two weeks ago work on her ground to a halt when I went into hospital for hernia surgery, which I’m recovering from now.  I was rushing a bit to get the part of the job requiring heavy lifting and contortions done before going in but I’ve not even climbed the ladder to go aboard her since 14 April when I went into dry dock for my own minor hull repair.

So there I was yesterday, leaving the house with my wifes reminder NOT to do anything stupid and hurt myself.  Up the ladder I went with no difficulty and I got the battery charger going to top up the batteries before the test start of the engine.  I have no reason to expect SURPRISE’s Atomic IV won’t pass the spring pre-launch test start up, but in the past years things have happened.  

One year it spun enthusiastically on its starter, but I couldn’t get a spark. I was imagining all kinds of dire expensive ills, till I noticed a black wire hanging down over the engine that looked like it was once attached to something.  Ah… it fell off the coil.  Once replace, presto, no problem.  Condensed gasoline in the carb caused trouble a couple of times, but I’m pretty good at whipping the carb off and cleaning it.  And of course we’ve developed water in the fuel tanks twice.  The source of that was the filler caps for both tanks;  they’re watertight for normal conditions but not for a month under a puddle, which twice happened due to the boat being unaccountably moved during winter storage and set down at an awkward angle which prevented normal deck drainage.  

So there I was yesterday… batteries topped up, the squirt of carburetor solvent in the carb a couple of hours old, fuel on, transmission in nootch (neutral) choke pulled… deep breath and press the starter.  The engine spun, I ‘fluttered’ the throttle rapidly from 1/2 to closed to full to 1/2 again twice while the starter spun the engine and the it roared.   I had the cooling intake dipped in a bucket of water down in the cabin, so I let it settle down to a high idle.  Oil pressure - good.  Ammeter - strong positive. Exhaust - spitting water and just an initial puff of smoke as the winter fogging oil burned off  I shut it down and the next sound was me uttering a yodel.  

I’m not doing anything else on the boat before launch but for a coat of varnish on the spreaders and one lap of the same around the cap rails.  It rained a few times so that’s all the deck washing she’s going to get this year.  I’ve got friends lined up to do the handling work when we raise the stick Friday evening when we motor around from the marina to our sailing club’s mast crane…after making certain the coin is still in the mast step.  15 minutes there and then back to H1, our dock at the club.  Bring on 2022.  


Gordon Laco
www.gordonlaco.com
426 Surprise