Small Boat Ownership - How to Pre-Warm and Outboard
As a beach launching small boat angler, one niggling problem I run into from time to time is the worry of having the boat either rolled or swamped when attempting a high water launch in less than perfect conditions. Worse still, if the water comes up to a sea defence wall as it does where I fish, is trying to keep the hull away from the slip, the stone work, or groynes. Concrete and fibreglass do not go well together. Even in settled conditions, at high water there is often some swell activity along the edge. With a bit of wind pushing in behind it, large waves can turn easily for a couple of hundred yards out. Yet beyond that it can be perfectly fishable, if only you can get the boat out safely to it.
The trick it not to waste time once the boat leaves the trailer, and to keep the boat moving slowly bow on out through the waves which might at times roll over the cuddy top. You have to keep your nerve. If you hang around, or don’t give the engine exactly the right measure of power to keep the bow pointing towards and slowly progressing through the incoming waves, they will eventually turn the boat beam, and if they are big enough, either roll it or swamp it depending on water depth or swell size. Standing in the water trying to hold the boat while your mate takes the trailer back can be a nigh on impossible nightmare. Either get somebody else to park it up for you, or simply leave it on the beach at the high water mark. Whatever you do, it needs to be a quick, slick, precision operation, or you can end up paying a high price.
But what if your engine won’t start. Worse still, what if it does start then cuts out three or four breakers out to sea because it is still cold. This would be a particularly dangerous situation. Not far enough out to get beyond the breakers and comfort, but too far out to end up in the water. I have seen it happen so many times as well as having been on the receiving end occasionally too. Not only is it not funny, it can be extremely worrying. So how do you get around this particular problem. Outboard reliability is only part of the answer. Some engines take longer than others to get warm. It’s all very well putting in from mid tide down under dodgy conditions. You can let the engine warm up while you hold the boat as the trailer is taken back. But at high water that simply won’t be possible.
The other option is to give your outboard a good warm up run before slipping the boat off the trailer. At home, an outboard can be run up in the driveway without any problems because you can connect a mains water supply via a muffler to the coolant water uptake at the base of the outboard leg. At the top of some distant slipway this is rarely possible, which can be a dilemma – damned if you don’t and damned if you do. If you run the engine without coolant you run the risk of doing all sorts of damage, particularly if you need to give it a lengthy run to get the thing warmed up properly. The biggest potential problem outside of over heating is frictional damage to the blades of the impeller. This can lead to overheating problems later out at sea.
You could of course carry your own independent water supply with you. This is not as far-fetched as it might sound. I tested the idea with a short length of hose connecting the flushing muffler to a watering can to see how effective the cooling system uptake would be under gravity feed. It appeared to work reasonably well. Next stage was to fit a hose lock connection to a barrel cap to which I could connect the muffler hose. You either fill the barrel with water at home before setting out, or with buckets of seawater if you find you need it on arrival. When full, stand the barrel up in the rear splash well of the boat close to the engine, and let gravity do its stuff.
To save on space in the boat by minimising the amount of kit that needs to be carried, I employ the same barrel I also use as a buoy for my Alderney ring system. The hose lock connection is fitted to a spare cap allowing the barrel to have dual usage by switching the two as required. If I suspect that a slip top warm up might be needed, I prefer to carry the water with me with the sealed cap in place. Then on arrival, if I find the warm up procedure is not required, the water can be released while the boat is being made ready, leaving the barrel empty for lifting the anchor later on in the day. When full, my barrel gives a good 10 minutes warm up time with the throttle on tick over, which should be ample.