Hi from New Owner/Engine advice?

[TyroSailor]

Experience is that which would have been most useful five minutes before you acquired it.

I had a similar experience first time out in Tyro. We'd sailed downwind from the Itchen as far as Hamble Point. I then failed several times to start the engine (turned out the starter motor was faulty) including by cranking, while my complete beginner other half kept a lookout - I'd hove to. No luck so we headed for home, now on a beat of course. (She sailed beautifully with two reefs and half the jib btw). There was no chance at all of getting into my berth so I had to sail onto a hammerhead - good job she handles well!
And when it was shallow, I cut a pair of tramlines in the mud with my keels!

We live and learn.

[Uncle Albert]

Again well done for getting back to that point. Centaur keels also double as a plough from time to time here on the east coast mud. I have been successful over the past 5 years in making a 'lagoon' and 'canal' from my swinging mooring to deeper water, by trying to leave just that little bit too early and stirring the mud up. Float now some 5 minutes ahead of my colleague who draws a similar draft

Knowledge is of course born of experience. Sometimes we do not get enough experience, like today.

Planning to haul out onto my trailer and be put into the club yard. Had planned to do it yesterday but experience told me that 17 knots of wind on the stern quarter would not be tenable. So postponed till today which started off with no wind (ideal), but when enough water was present wind had piped up to 15 knots. Gave it a go as the next three opportunity days on this tide cycle have 'orrible forecasts. Two attempts later and with a slight bend to one of the docking bars I cancelled so as to wait for 2 weeks for enough water.

So there is experience ......................don't try to haul out at anything over a wind speed of next to nothing due to high windage of a Centaur.

Unc

[TyroSailor]

Oh dear!

Still at least she survives to fight another day.

Tyro's due to be lifted out on 25th but that should be more or less non-weather dependent, barring gales. The mast is down and I need to take the Rotostay foil to bits so I can get it in the car and round to the riggers.
Any thoughts on rigging a tarpaulin as a tent for the winter?

[aquaplane]

Well done for getting out there and having a go. The chap who never makes any mistakes (read- has learning experiences) never does anything.

I try to do the hard stuff first, up wind into tide, then it's easier to get home if anything breaks or it's difficult to make progress, that's as a result of one of my own "learning experiences".

[TyroSailor]

'Do the hard bit first' is certainly wise counsel. Until the wind changes, that is, and you have a beat both ways! But there's a difference between five miles upwind in Southampton Water in a bracing breeze on a sunny June afternoon and a sixty mile slog back across the Channel in a northerly gale on a filthy night when you have to be home the next day.

The annoying thing about mistakes is that there's always someone watching, and when you execute a perfectly timed manoeuvre they've all gone.

I, too, float sooner than my neighbours. I got the berth cheaply because it's in a 'hole' and the boat leans a few degrees when it dries out. But it's only for a couple of hours at LWS and some of the time I'm asleep. And there's the advantage that the 'hole' is actually a stream coming out from under the harbour wall, so the hull gets washed by fresh water twice a day, which ought to limit the growth of marine organisms. Time will tell, when she comes out in a couple of weeks.