When cruising on a sailboat, having a dinghy is pretty much non-negotiable. If there isn’t a dock or marina, and your boat is anchored or moored, a dinghy is really your only link to land.
Luckily, our boat s/v LAHO came with a West Marine RIB (Rigid Inflatable Boat) dinghy and a 2007 8HP Yamaha Outboard motor.
>>A quick fun fact about us storing our dinghy flipped upside down on deck… Oliver thinks this is his own personal tiny little dog house. Early on, he discovered this shade sanctuary, and we often have to pry him out from under it on hot days and bring him below deck.
^^maiden voyage where we strapped the dinghy on deck + haven’t moved her since.^^
Would you believe we’ve owned our boat for about six months and haven’t even remotely tried using the dinghy since we relocated it from the dinghy davits to the deck during our maiden voyage from St. Pete to Naples in May?
Heck, we don’t even know if the Yamaha outboard motor even works? Time to dust off that dinghy and test the motor too!
So this weekend, Jereme and his buddy Chris got to work testing both. They inflated the dinghy with a foot pump and used the main halyard to lift it off the boat. Good news! The dinghy is in great condition and really just needed to be inflated and cleaned.
Then they got fresh gas for the motor and put the motor on the dinghy. And tried starting it. Nothing! 🙁
After a few attempts at starting it, they gave up and took everything back out of the water.
But have no fear! …Jereme and Chris were not worried in the slightest. They used the halyard again to hoist the motor off the boat. And brought home the outboard to tinker with it in the comfort of our garage.
And after an hour or so of motor-tinkering (and Chris taking one for the team and blowing out the fuel filter, checking the spark plugs, etc.), it worked like a charm! What what! Thank you Chris for your superb expertise! I seriously love when things go this smoothly. The tilt and steering needed to be lubed up as well because they were seized.
^^pretty crafty little setup in the garage!^^
(PS – I just went to cross this off the project list and it wasn’t ever a list item. bummer.)
>>Thanks for visiting LAHOWIND sailing blog! We’d love for you to get to know us and follow our story as we attempt to navigate a whole new world of sailing.
The best thing about making lists is crossing stuff off them! I’ve been known to add things to them just so I can cross them off 😉
Yay! Glad it’s working. Our engine just came in last week – need to do our test run this weekend.
When something is missing from my list, I just add it and then cross through it… No one has to know. 😉
Haha Jennifer! I’m with ya! And usually do the same, but since I had recently publicly posted our “project list” on the blog I wasn’t sure I could get away with that. lol! 😉 Good luck with your test run. -Kim
Ditto Jackie! Why is it so darn satisfying to cross stuff off?! Next time, I’m for sure adding it on after-the-fact. 😉 -Kim
[…] had already done an initial first check of the engine awhile back to see if it would even remotely work, and after some tinkering, it finally did! […]