Man, oh, man!

[Eddie Offermann]

So it's been a LONG time in coming, mostly involving me waiting and handing over stacks of bills...

But we finally took SoNice out for a spin!

It was just a quick one. A few minutes to circle Alamitos Bay to check engine vibration & alignment, RPMs, shifting and throttle - making sure that things were in order.

There's still an issue with the exhaust cooling - it's leaky - so we're going back to another sleeve we have, I believe.

I'll be losing use of the drawer under the dinette, at least as a drawer: we have to notch out a small area for the other sleeve because the height of the new engine and where the exhaust manifold comes out. That area will still have a 'lid' so can still be used as storage space.

As for the engine, we went with the Waukesha 180DLC I'd talked about earlier. We don't really know the HP of it - while the engine itself has plenty of available parts for it, there isn't a lot of information specifically about this engine. She has no trouble whatsoever moving SoNice around, though. I found one reference that suggested she was about 60HP, though my mechanic thinks it may be closer to 100. There's a whole LOT of torque in this engine and she moves along at a comfortable speed when idling in gear. I have yet to see how much she'll open up if I really hit the juice.

I quickly settled in to the typical Newporter maneuvering position - standing on the Cleopatra and steering with my foot. She likes to turn to port while in reverse, not so much starboard. That's going to make a big impact on where I pick to slip her when I move her back up to Marina Del Rey.

I'm thinking that July 4th weekend may be my first real sail on her. We're so close to having everything installed and working and ready to go.

[Hans Petrie]

That makes sense.  I have had to motor into weather on some lee shores (Point Sal - just South of Avila beach comes to mind).  I had done an all nighter solo from Santa Barbara and was tired and thinking I was just so close to the anchorage in Avila (I was just south of Pismo beach).  I rounded point Sal with not a lot of room between me and the rocky cliffs.  The wind and waves picked up (like they are prone to do).  So I found myself climbing some pretty steep sloppy chop as it pounded the cliffs.  In retrospect I was way way to close to the cliffs as if something had broken I would have been lost.  I was motor sailing due to the fact that it was late and I was tired and didn't feel like sailing in the wrong direction for ages and then tack back.  It was fairly slow going for me so that extra power would have come in handy.  The steep waves seem to rob the boat of all forward momentum motoring into them.  The sail was up more for stability than anything else as I was pointed far too high to get any power from it.  I was doing exactly ONE KNOT velocity made good.  Probably not the most seamanly choices I could have made but I after two solid days I dropped the hook in front of the Polytechnic pier and crashed hard.  I don't know if I have ever been so tired.  More power!  More crew!  More sleep!  Any of those would have made been a smarter move for me.

 

 

 

 

 

[Eddie Offermann]

I'm really counting on that extra power for when I'm heading into weather or otherwise unfavorable conditions for safety sake. Maneuvering in the marina, I scarcely came out of idle.

[Hans Petrie]

About 7 knots is what I have been able to get under full power with a Perkins M50.  I usually run about 4.5 to 5 knots under power since it uses half the fuel as going 7 knots.  9 knots is the most I was ever able to get under sail - this is very rare and I attribute it to a favorable current.  Also, I don't have any kind of fancy folding prop or anything - the prop spins backwards quite fast under sail and must contribute a lot of drag.  I'm not sure what the hull speed of the Newporter 40 is but must be around 7.5 to 8 knots.