Where should i spend my summer?
- Thread starter Reggiemiah
- Start date
I don't know a lot about outboard motors, but i was a mechanic for 4 years so i don't think I'll have too much trouble in this department. I also have plenty of tools to bring. I've also been driving boats my whole life.
Main things I'm new to here are sailing and river etiquette
Where to summer?
If you are doing #4, going out of Superior I would do the North Channel; one of the most beautiful cruising grounds of the world... then onto Georgian Bay, the Bruce peninsula. I would then do the Trent-Severn instead of Erie and Ontario. This brings you through rural Ontario and is river cruising in moderate climes even in summer.
Coming out at Kingston (raise mast) I would cruise the Thousand Islands area and then down the St-Lawrence as you have shown... Your trip seems to end right smack in the middle of nowhere! What do you want to do from there? Leave the boat for the winter? Or take a right just after Montreal, cruise down the Richelieu, Lake Champlain and the Hudson to NY and the ICW to Florida, hang a left and winter in the Bahamas?
I've done all that more than once in a 26, 38 and 31 footer(s). Different stages of life different budgets and different time constraints: loved all of it.
Have fun, Merry Christmas
Pierre
If you are doing #4, going out of Superior I would do the North Channel; one of the most beautiful cruising grounds of the world... then onto Georgian Bay, the Bruce peninsula. I would then do the Trent-Severn instead of Erie and Ontario. This brings you through rural Ontario and is river cruising in moderate climes even in summer.
Coming out at Kingston (raise mast) I would cruise the Thousand Islands area and then down the St-Lawrence as you have shown... Your trip seems to end right smack in the middle of nowhere! What do you want to do from there? Leave the boat for the winter? Or take a right just after Montreal, cruise down the Richelieu, Lake Champlain and the Hudson to NY and the ICW to Florida, hang a left and winter in the Bahamas?
I've done all that more than once in a 26, 38 and 31 footer(s). Different stages of life different budgets and different time constraints: loved all of it.
Have fun, Merry Christmas
Pierre
Protip: Spend the VAST majority of you time and budget on making sure your primary systems work and do not break down, and not on creating redundant systems. They simply take up space, time, and money. This is true on any boat, and especially true on a 25 footer. I'd think that having TWO outboards on a 25 footer would be total overkill. Dinghy? Row. When we do multi-week cruises on Lake Superior, we take our small but high-quality inflatable, and oars. We leave the Walker Bay 10 and its outboard in Bayfield.
Bridge to Bridge is ch 13, that will be how you comm with tows.
Locks are on ch 9 and you must comm with them to lock thru.
So you need to comm with both easily. I preferred having 2 radios so I didnt miss anything. You might have to make do with a scanning VHF radio.
Do some research on what it means when you hear a tow ask for a "one whistle pass" or "see you on 2 whistles". Its important.
Locks are on ch 9 and you must comm with them to lock thru.
So you need to comm with both easily. I preferred having 2 radios so I didnt miss anything. You might have to make do with a scanning VHF radio.
Do some research on what it means when you hear a tow ask for a "one whistle pass" or "see you on 2 whistles". Its important.
I would agree with much of what you say here if I were cruising on the Lakes. When we first bought our boat in 1985 it came with a new engine and it proved to be unreliable(repeated electronic ignition failure). So much that we spent one week in the Apostles engineless, two weeks in the North Channel/Georgian Bay engineless, and the straw that broke the camels back.....rowing into Silver Islet...at night...in the fog on a dead calm Superior night
(we always carry an 8 foot oar aboard). We chucked the motor after that. That just points out what I said before about engine failure on the Lakes being an inconvenience. An engine for the dinghy is not a necessity on the Lakes and I have never had one but there were times when it would have allowed us to explore areas that were just out of reach or to take advantage of the great fishing in the Slate Islands trolling in the dinghy.
The River is different. You are dealing with current, narrow channels, barge traffic, and locks and spillways. Reggie has an older two stroke motor that he knows little of it's running history. If someone can make this guaranteed "not to break down" I would take my hat off to them. If this were a newer Honda 4stroke I might have more faith. What happens if you breakdown miles from the nearest town? The channel is narrow, you can't sail due to the current, you can't go upriver or down. Without an alternate method of propulsion you're stuck. Quite possibly you can make repairs but it takes time...what if a barge train is coming? I don't want to sound like an alarmist talking about what ifs but you have to be prepared for this because the downside can be serious. Plus if you want to anchor out on the river and do some exploring a dinghy and small motor are almost required due to the current so it's not really redundant. The current is a moving target and some places it may be minimal and others much stronger.
I suppose one could plan the trip to stay overnight in marinas or the town dock making the dinghy less necessary. Once out of Minnesota/Wisconsin the marinas tend to cater to fishing boats/powerboats but smaller sailboats should still be able to access these places...they may have shallow entrances of 3-5 feet. Towns are spaced often enough.
My wife's family has always lived on the River south of Wabasha just off the main channel on the West Newton Chute. My brother and I one time took the canoe out exploring some backwater areas and foolishly went downstream. It took all of our effort paddling furiously to get back to the house upriver. How could you do this with a cheap inflatable with crappy oars? Let that be a lesson...on this trip if you go out exploring...do it upriver.
I would agree with much of what you say here if I were cruising on the Lakes. When we first bought our boat in 1985 it came with a new engine and it proved to be unreliable(repeated electronic ignition failure)..... How could you do this with a cheap inflatable with crappy oars? Let that be a lesson...on this trip if you go out exploring...do it upriver.
the motor is most definitely my main concern at this point.
here is what i have: http://i.imgur.com/5vDfZT5.jpg
an old 9.9 Evinrude yachtwin. i'm guessing early 90's??
does anyone know the good/bads of this outboard, or specifically what parts tend to break down? my biggest fear, like srust58 said, is breaking down miles form the nearest town under a strong current.
my options are either:
1. fix this one up as good as can be, bring some spare parts and cross my fingers.
2. sell it and buy a newer more reliable motor. i'm thinking that'll run me an extra 1,000. i don't want to go this route unless i find a good deal, but i'll wait to see what i can find out about the reliability of the one i have.
3. my dad does have an old johnson 9.9 short shaft. (not sure of the year or model). if i find a good little dingy i could go that route.
i know this is really a toss up, and there's always going to be some risk. i'm just going through my thought process and looking for any input.
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i also have an update on my route.
my guess is i'll leave early june, but we'll see what the current is like at that point.
i'm going to drop the boat in at still water MN. it's very wide and the water moves pretty slow. i figured it would be a nice spot to play around in. get used to the boat, and it's capabilities. this will give me 20 miles of the st. croix river before meeting up with the mississippi. i assume the barge traffic will be little to none, the current pretty slow, and for the most part the river is very wide. around a half a mile. there is even lake st. croix which is more than a mile wide. this should be a good spot to get some sailing in. from there it's the tenn-tom route, and onto mobile bay. http://i.imgur.com/XnHdVW3.png
I don't have any experience with that model of motor but two strokes are simple and reliable if they are in good shape. It should start on three or less pulls. As I said before install a new impellar and carry a spare, replace the starter rope, rebuild the carbs, do a compression test. On my trip last summer I had a few issues....broken starter rope and a rubber gasket in the carb started leaking (ethanol?). The leak happened early in the trip so I fixed that but the starter rope broke on the last morning so I just did without as it's kind of a pain to replace when the motor is hanging over the water...with parts just waiting to jump overboard.
The old Johnson 9.9 will be too heavy and too much power for a dinghy. My Achilles specs a 6 hp as maximum. I have put the 7.5 Merc on it but I can tell it's a bit stressed when I open it up. If you look at one of the previous photos you can see the Achilles with the small Merc engine on it. If I remember it was a 2 hp and my friend carried it clamped onto the stern rail.....he had the same boat as yours. Depending on what you end up with for a dinghy it would be possible to leave it mounted on the dinghy while you tow it. There are just a few places where you have a chance of encountering waves of any size.
We sailed on the St Croix several times but that was many years ago. It just got too busy with powerboats/jetskis/etc. At the time they even started to impose expensive parking fees to try and keep the numbers down. That was back in the late 80's and early 90's. Have not been back since so I don't know what it's like now but it was a decent sailing area. If you are still living in Stillwater being close to the boat has it's advantages on the St Croix. The current is pretty much a non-issue. I don't know if the barges go up that far...I don't remember seeing any in my time there.
Pepin might be a better choice for sailing conditions...some kick ass waves and the wind always seems to blow there....just bigger all around with the chance to experience heavier conditions that you will see on the St Croix.
The old Johnson 9.9 will be too heavy and too much power for a dinghy. My Achilles specs a 6 hp as maximum. I have put the 7.5 Merc on it but I can tell it's a bit stressed when I open it up. If you look at one of the previous photos you can see the Achilles with the small Merc engine on it. If I remember it was a 2 hp and my friend carried it clamped onto the stern rail.....he had the same boat as yours. Depending on what you end up with for a dinghy it would be possible to leave it mounted on the dinghy while you tow it. There are just a few places where you have a chance of encountering waves of any size.
We sailed on the St Croix several times but that was many years ago. It just got too busy with powerboats/jetskis/etc. At the time they even started to impose expensive parking fees to try and keep the numbers down. That was back in the late 80's and early 90's. Have not been back since so I don't know what it's like now but it was a decent sailing area. If you are still living in Stillwater being close to the boat has it's advantages on the St Croix. The current is pretty much a non-issue. I don't know if the barges go up that far...I don't remember seeing any in my time there.
Pepin might be a better choice for sailing conditions...some kick ass waves and the wind always seems to blow there....just bigger all around with the chance to experience heavier conditions that you will see on the St Croix.
I did think about maybe picking up one of these little guys just as an emergency back up.http://minneapolis.craigslist.org/wsh/boa/4817112863.html
It probably wouldn't push the o'day very well, but it would beat paddling. Thoughts?
It probably wouldn't push the o'day very well, but it would beat paddling. Thoughts?
Reggiemiah
I've owned one of those (see pic). They are dollar for dollar one of the best outboards out there. Many people here will disagree but I've owned one and wish I had kept mine. Mine started on the first pull 90% of the time and always by the third. Pushed the hell out of my boat. They have a high thrust prop. They are air cooled so no impeller to go bad, no worries about sucking up muck.... easy to repair, the carb is easy to service etc etc.
On the down side they are load and vibrate like hell.
Attachments
So I've heard. I wouldn't plan on using it at all, it would just ease my mind. How big and heavy is it? Finding a place to store it on board could be a bit of a problem. (this is probably just another question that I'll have to answer next spring when i get everything cleaned out and put together.)
It is only a 5hp. So not so big or heavy. I could carry mine in one hand. They are the Chevette of outboards.
For me the noise and vibration would be unbearable for that B&S outboard. Think snow blower.
The typical outboard uses the water not only to cool but to also help quiet the exhaust. My advice is to look at this in a slightly different way. Not as an emergency backup that you may not use but as a motor for the dinghy that you will use on a regular basis. That will be it's primary purpose so it needs to be weight and size appropriate. If you can leave the motor on the dinghy while towing it you may be able to get something a bit larger....say 4-5 hp. If you have to carry the motor clamped to the stern rail you may need something smaller...2-3 hp. The type of dinghy will also determine what size motor you can go with. If you do have any main engine problems then you can lash the dinghy to the stern quarter and use it as a push boat...that may be the most effective way since it will probably be a short shaft motor. It does not need to be big enough to push you upstream for 50 miles...just enough to get you out of the way of an oncoming barge or to the next town, lock, or suitable anchorage to effect repairs.
That's pretty much what I'm thinking. Although I'm not too worried about the noise sense I'm not planning on using it much. The low price and reliability is what's catching my eye. The Guy said he'd sell it for 350. If i can find a good dingy i would like to go that route. However, i haven't found anything yet. Maybe something will turn up in the next few months. If not I'll go without. Maybe just bring a small kayak. It all depends on what i can find.For me the noise and vibration would be unbearable for that B&S outboard. Think snow blower.