"D-unit" cof42_AT_embarqmail.com wrote in message
...

"Wayne.B" wrote in message
...
Happiness is heading south on the boat after a long cruise north this
summer. We are presently off the coast of Myrtle Beach, SC doing a
very leisurely 7 knots at our single engine, super economy speed,
carefully timed to get us into Fernandina Beach, Florida just after
sunrise on Tuesday. It will be good to be back in warm sunny weather
again. Last night it was two heaters on the flybridge with the
enclosure zipped up. Tonight it's a lot warmer and calmer. Thanks to
the magic of a Sprint USB air card I'm able to keep one eye on the
radar and surf the internet with the other. Our faithful autopilot is
steering dead straight courses through it all.

The last of the mechanical work on the port engine and stbd tranny was
finished up around noon time on Friday. We went out for a quick sea
trial (actually the second one) with the mechanics on board, declared
everything working, returned to the dock, returned the rental car,
made a substantial contribution to the North Carolina Detroit Diesel
health and welfare fund, and started heading south again.

Not having much time left on Friday we made a short run about halfway
down Pamlico Sound, behind the Outer Banks. Pamlico is a beautiful,
shallow, and nearly desolate body of water, especially this time of
year. The weather was sunny and crisp with the nighttime temperatures
down in the low 40s. We anchored out in a totally deserted cove near
the mouth of the Long Shoal River, arriving just after sunset. It was
like we were a million miles from anywhere with no shore lights, and
no cell phone or internet service. I used the SSB radio to send up a
position report, get the latest weather maps and then we retired to
the comfort of the aft cabin and electric blanket. It would have been
very chilly without it.

Saturday morning we got underway just after sunrise on another bright
crisp day. We proceeded down the remaining half of Pamlico Sound,
made a turn westward into the Neuse River, rejoined the ICW, and
popped out into the Atlantic just before sunset after a scenic run
down Adams Creek into Beaufort, NC. Coming onto the ocean at sunset
we were greeted by a nasty set of 4 to 5 ft short interval waves as
the outgoing tide met the incoming sou'wester. Our original plan was
to head directly offshore from Beaufort to the Cape Fear Shoals
cut-through channel, and keep going south from there. It turned out
to be a dark and stormy night however as the sou'wester persisted
longer than forecast, and the choppy little 4 to 5 footers morphed
into nasty five to sixes that were right in our teeth. It was
definitely a "high transom" kind of night for those who follow the
running jokes and jibes on "rec.boats".

After a few hours of bashing and crashing we switched to Plan B and
altered course to Masonboro Inlet, a little south of Wilmington, NC.
Fortunately we had also gone through Masonboro on the trip north so I
had a good track line and saved way points to help us through the
breakwaters in the dark. The seas flattened out as we approched the
coast and everything went well at the inlet as we arrived at 2:00AM.
Sometimes your good, sometimes your lucky, and sometimes your good and
lucky. Whatever it was, we found a good place to anchor for the night
not too far from a smallish cruising sailboat, the only other occupant
of the cove. We grabbed 4 hours of well needed sleep and got underway
again early this morning. Mrs B recognized the name on the cruising
sailboat as the one she had heard calling USCG for navigational
assistance the night before. As we speak, the same sailboat is
aground somewhere near Cape Fear Shoals, taking on water, and getting
help from USCG and SeaTow. Hopefully they're OK but it doesn't sound
good from what we can hear on the VHF.

Meanwhile we'll go by Georgetown and Winyah Bay later tonight, and
Charleston somtime tomorrow. We'll turn ito Charleston if we get too
tired or the weather deteriorates but right now things are looking
good for a non-stop passage into northern Florida. We're standing 3
hour watches, seeing each other mostly at meal time.

Good report mate...

Im taking my daughter to Orlando for Thanksgiving (and the week after)
from NC. We're heading out around 3am Wednesday morn. The trip
should take about 12 hours, pulling a 10,000lb 5th wheel.

Im looking forward to putting the shorts back on sometime around noon
on Wednesday..... somewhere in Ga.

Yes..the Pamlico sound is a treasure for sure.


db




Great report Wayne. You are sure making me less restless (not!) here in the
frozen north working 'till I cast off again this February.

Fogive my ignorance. Your GB...works okay to shut down an engine and run on
a single engine, rather than throttle back both? Does the drag of the
stationary prop still make it worth it?

Thanks again for the report Wayne.

Glenn.

On Tue, 20 Nov 2007 04:02:00 GMT, "Glenn \(s/v Seawing\)"
wrote:

Fogive my ignorance. Your GB...works okay to shut down an engine and run on
a single engine, rather than throttle back both? Does the drag of the
stationary prop still make it worth it?

Good question. If you throttle back both engines to run at or below 7
knots, they end up running barely above idle speed which is bad for
them over an extended time. By running a single engine you can keep
it at an RPM range where it is developing a half way decent amount of
power. I still rev it up once in a while for 10 minutes or so.

The other issue with single engine is wear and tear on the
freewheeling transmission. The trannys depend on the engine running
for cooling and lubrication. The manufacturer says that it is OK to
let them freewheel at slow speeds but recommends starting the engine
every two hours for a few minutes.

Economy improves mostly as a result of slower speed. Once you get
above 1 x SQRT(LWL) increased speed results in exponentially higher
hull drag as more energy goes into the wake.

Wayne.B wrote:

The other issue with single engine is wear and tear on the
freewheeling transmission.

Why let it freewheel, a freewheeling prop generates more drag than a
stationary one?

Cheers
Marty

"Wayne.B" wrote in message
...


I still rev it up once in a while to wake a small boat.


Oiy!.

On Tue, 20 Nov 2007 07:56:28 -0500, Martin Baxter
wrote:

Wayne.B wrote:

The other issue with single engine is wear and tear on the
freewheeling transmission.

Why let it freewheel, a freewheeling prop generates more drag than a
stationary one?

Cheers
Marty

That's true but it's not that easy to safely stop a 30 inch prop on a
2 1/2 inch shaft from free wheeling. This topic gets a fair amount of
discussion in the trawler groups. People have tried various jerry
rigged schemes like pipe wrenches and wrapped lines on the shaft tied
off to engine mounts but neither of those schemes holds much appeal
for me, and it is very advantageous to have the idle engine quickly
available for maneuvering. Everything's a trade off. There is no
disputing the fuel save however even though it may not be fully
optimal. We arrived in Florida at 5:00AM this morning after 2 1/2
days off shore. The fuel saved by running slow speed, single engine
was in the neighborhood of 150 gallons.

The other thing we've done that has saved significant amounts of fuel
is to install high output alternators on both engines, and couple them
to the house bank with battery combiners. The saving comes from
reduced generator run time since we can now use the inverter for
routine AC needs when underway without discharging the house bank. The
reduced generator time also lowers maintenance and replacement costs.

On Mon, 19 Nov 2007 09:59:04 -0800, "Capt. JG"
wrote:

Heh... actually, he's right. The time spent sailing doesn't count against
your lifespan.

And I've already spent enough time sailing to roll my clock back to
teenage years. I was reluctant to go back beyond that. :-)

"Wayne.B" wrote in message
...

Why let it freewheel, a freewheeling prop generates more drag than a
stationary one?

Cheers
Marty

That's true but it's not that easy to safely stop a 30 inch prop on a
2 1/2 inch shaft from free wheeling. This topic gets a fair amount of
discussion in the trawler groups. People have tried various jerry
rigged schemes like pipe wrenches and wrapped lines on the shaft tied
off to engine mounts but neither of those schemes holds much appeal
for me, and it is very advantageous to have the idle engine quickly
available for maneuvering. Everything's a trade off. There is no
disputing the fuel save however even though it may not be fully
optimal. We arrived in Florida at 5:00AM this morning after 2 1/2
days off shore. The fuel saved by running slow speed, single engine
was in the neighborhood of 150 gallons.

The other thing we've done that has saved significant amounts of fuel
is to install high output alternators on both engines, and couple them
to the house bank with battery combiners. The saving comes from
reduced generator run time since we can now use the inverter for
routine AC needs when underway without discharging the house bank. The
reduced generator time also lowers maintenance and replacement costs.


Wayne, you have the wrong GB. :-)

(I run at 7.5 kts on a single, 120hp diesel, burning less than 2 gph)

Eisboch

Wayne.B wrote:
On Tue, 20 Nov 2007 07:56:28 -0500, Martin Baxter
wrote:

Wayne.B wrote:
The other issue with single engine is wear and tear on the
freewheeling transmission.
Why let it freewheel, a freewheeling prop generates more drag than a
stationary one?

Cheers
Marty

That's true but it's not that easy to safely stop a 30 inch prop on a
2 1/2 inch shaft from free wheeling. This topic gets a fair amount of
discussion in the trawler groups. People have tried various jerry
rigged schemes like pipe wrenches and wrapped lines on the shaft tied
off to engine mounts but neither of those schemes holds much appeal
for me, and it is very advantageous to have the idle engine quickly
available for maneuvering.

Forgive my ignorance, I'm just not familiar with something this big. I
would think that you could just leave the tranny in gear and stop the
motor, or is there sufficient torque generated to turn the motor over?

Cheers
Marty
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On Tue, 20 Nov 2007 12:22:05 -0500, "Eisboch" wrote:

Wayne, you have the wrong GB. :-)

(I run at 7.5 kts on a single, 120hp diesel, burning less than 2 gph)

Maybe so but I can't see us out cruising for 5 and 6 months at a time
on a 36. That was our retirement model, 6 months in Florida and 6
months north on the boat. As it is, the 49 is completely loaded with
"stuff". My wife just can not understand the concept of traveling
light.

She *really* wanted a triple cabin boat, allegedly so there would be
room for grandchildren and their parents. This lead to some
interesting conversations with brokers when they'd ask how many
grandchildren we had. The answer was, and still is, zero. Both sons
got married this year however so that's a start. :-)

On Tue, 20 Nov 2007 12:22:40 -0500, Martin Baxter
wrote:

Forgive my ignorance, I'm just not familiar with something this big. I
would think that you could just leave the tranny in gear and stop the
motor, or is there sufficient torque generated to turn the motor over?

The tranny is hydraulically actuated internally with its own pump
driven by the engine. With the engine off there is no pressure to
keep the clutches engaged. As long as the transmission is in gear
however, it is impossible to shut the engine down because of the prop
rotation being passed through. It's quite possible that there would
be enough torque to restart the engine if it did not disengage but
there is no way to find out.