I went out to the boat a couple weeks ago. The weather seemed perfect….at least while I was on the drive out there. It was sunny and a couple of clouds with about 7 mph wind.

Shortly after I arrived at the marina, though, a calmness took over and no wind graced the area at all!

I decided to just run the new motor for a bit to work on the break-in period. According to the Tohatsu user’s manual, the first 10 minutes of run-time should be at idle speed, then up to 2 hours it should not exceed 1/2 throttle. From 2 to 3 hours it calls for no more than 3/4 throttle, then after 3 hours it can be used as desired.

So I started the motor, and immediately felt the relief of having a reliable motor. I already had a half hour on the motor, so I let it warm up for a few minutes, then put it in forward gear while at the slip and eased the throttle up to about 1/4 throttle. I let it “test the dock lines” for a about 15 minutes, then did the same thing in reverse gear.

While all this was happening, I decided to do some cleaning up in the cabin and was buzzed several times by a mud dauber wasp. Although these wasps look VERY menacing, I know from experience they’re not aggressive at all and usually won’t bother me, I didn’t want it on the boat. At one point, I finally found where it was actively building a nest. I waited until it flew back outside to [presumably] get more dirt for it’s nest, then I took the nest and fed it to the fish. It returned a few minutes later and wasn’t able to locate the nest, so thankfully it flew away.

Karma enjoyed hanging out in the cockpit while I was working inside. Several ducks came up to the stern, hoping for a treat that I didn’t have. But I did snap a pretty good photo of Karma posing with the ducks!

Finally, the wind picked up a little, so I prepared everything for sailing and left the harbor. Once I got out in the open, I raised the sails and got about 3 minutes of wind before it stopped completely. The lake was like glass. Hardly a ripple. I decided since I was out already, I might as well do some more break-in of the motor. I motored around for a while, then headed back to the slip. On the way back in, I passed the 2 hour mark, so I throttled up to 3/4 throttle. Surprisingly I didn’t see much of a difference between 1/2 and 3/4 throttle. I think even at 1/2 throttle I was approaching my boat’s hull speed, so I guess the additional throttle didn’t do much. I’m really pleased at the performance of this Tohatsu motor. It seems like this new 6 hp motor is putting out at least as much [if not more] power than the previous 36 year old 9.9 hp.

Siochana,

Mike

Here’s some photos:

Mud Dauber

Mud dauber building it’s nest in my V-Berth.

Karma posing with the ducks

Karma posing with the ducks

No wind at all! The only ripples come from my boat motoring.

No wind at all! The only ripples come from my boat motoring.