It's Alive!!!! 2020
 

List your first start for the year here.
Yesterday was a nice day for it, the engine was a bit tough to get fired up at first because I used a lot of fogging oil in December. Once that cleared out and the smoke died off she settled into a very nice idle :D
Today is fill the water tanks and clear the pink antifreeze out day.


https://external-content.duckduckgo....jpg&f=1&nofb=1

The MC was only asleep for about 6 weeks. I winterized just after Xmas. My January was booked up and I was not sure when I would return. Being FW cooled it is just a matter of pulling about 1/2 gallon of pink/RV antifreeze thru the RW side and pumping the very simple domestic fresh water system dry.
I returned and started the A-4 on February 8th. She fired right up, ran fine, revved up and was smooth in gear at the dock. On the 9th I planed to head out sailing for a few days but when I fired her up she was hard to start, would not throttle up, would bog down and die if put in gear. Happened in but forward and reverse. Sounded like a fuel delivery system issue and I suspected the main jet. I have a early, 1965, A-4 and it has the adjustable main jet. This jet/needle valve assembly can get a bit of debris in it and cause issues. Been there done that. I was reaching to check the adjustment and just touched the T to make sure it was still snug. It was and the A-4 began to run smoother so I just let it idle. Things improved and after a few minutes she was back to her normal well running self. What ever it was must of cleared itself.
I ran her for a couple of hours at 1800 RPM, I have the 2 to 1 reduction gear, on the first day of the trip and she was smooth as could be then and for the remainder of the trip.
Heading down again in the next week or so and hoping for a smooth restart.

Dan
S/V Marian Claire

For me it was Feb 1st. In the PNW the temperature gets to freezing but not much more so no drama as it's FWC. It was just open the petcock, close the raw water inlet, pull the choke and crank about 10 secs... Life! Oh, and open the raw water.

Then turn the heater on. :)

I never winterize, but the water get to 46F at the coldest I'm ever measured.

January 1. NYD sail. While sometimes the marina ices over, there was very little "winter" this year. I never did winterize anything. February was more like a normal April.

Really? It's still 42 upstream in The Gorge. High school sailing started last week - they look cold, but seem to be having fun!

Yup, time to go get a new set of Autolite 437's and fire her up! I think mine was winterized about 7 weeks, but I did run the engine on Dec 30 in the event of a NYD sail, but we ended up going on another boat, so I re-winterized just the motor again in early Jan in the event of a cold snap. I am ready to put the sails back on! :cool:

Wow, here in Chicago the A4 sleeps for about 6 - 7 months?

Yep. At month #5 here.

The Gorge gets a lot colder than Gig Harbor, it's that pesky east wind thing. :eek:

From https://www.seatemperature.org/north...or-january.htm

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
°C 7.5 7.4 7.6 7.6 8.1 8.6 10.3 11.7 11.7 10.5 9.1 8.1
°F 45.5 45.3 45.7 45.7 46.6 47.5 50.5 53.1 53.1 50.9 48.4 46.6

... and I grew up in Astoria. But sailing there was tricky will all the sand bars, most of which appear on no charts. Local knowledge was all important. :rolleyes:

Yikes! I am always impressed by what people will do to get out on the water.

Oh sorry, thought I saw Portlandia on your post. Yeah, I always wanted to take my Hobie 16 down to Astoria and explore some of those forbidden zones, but I never did. OTOH, we used to scuba dive 12 months a year up in the Salish sea. Way before we could afford dry suits. I never ran out of air. Just ended the dive when I turned blue...

I'm seriously not expecting to hit my first start till mid to late june, but thats up here in the frozen north + 5 weeks of lockdown for Coronavirus. Otherwise I *might* have started her last weekend.

I started the engine in Mid-March, just before Maryland lockdown and we did a little cruise around the creek. The official season started this past week when Hogan began lifting recreational boating restrictions. I took the boat for a haulout on Monday 5/11, (obviously I cleaned the prop), buffed the hull & spot filled bottom paint, and re-launched on Friday 5/15. We went sailing on 5/16!! As you can see, the trip to the travel lift took a while, but the payoff was worth it (5.8 kts upwind).

similar here in Chicago. The powers to be are estimating the harbor and lakefront parks could open July 1 due to our Covid numbers. Most pull out mid Oct making for a short season and many [maybe me] not bothering to launch this year. More concerning is that the current social distancing rules limit 2 persons to a boat, docked, sailing, motoring or fishing. This hampers an old guy like me with all female crew!

great looking boat: a few questions:
- your hull paint looks amazing; you had it re-done?
- your cokpit paint looks very clean too. Original?
- have you remove the 2 wood handrails on your roof?

Thank you!
I have a 27 from 79, and the exterior appeal is nowhere close to your boat...

Surcouf,
Thanks! The first several years I owned the boat, I was mostly working on the engine and fixing stuff that was failing. The last couple years I am finally getting to work on some cosmetics. (although I did have some hesitation in the engine this week, probably need to pull the carb and clean it.)
- I painted the hull last year with Alexseal (pearl grey). You can still see brush marks up close..I figure a couple more years of compounding will slowly diminish those! ;)
- The part of cockpit you can see is also painted, Alexseal (snow white). I am working on the deck in stages. Most of the non-skid has not been painted and all the cockpit seats are just primered so far.
- I have removed ALL of the wood from the deck. PVC board has replaced the teak at the hatch face + a SS hand rail, and slides/rails for the hatch boards (I actually want to redo these with a SS flat bar of some sort, like newer Catalinas). Once the deck is painted, I am going to install SS handrails along the cabin to replace the teak. I am in the middle of figuring out what to replace the hatch slider rails with (up on the cabin) which keep the hatch from falling out if we flip (one more ongoing project). It sure does look clean though, doesn't it! :D
edit - Attached is a before pic from April 2019 & another pre-launch pic from last week.
(sorry to hijack your thread, Joe!) :o

V V V The list of "it's alive!!!" threads at the bottom of the page under "similar threads" is amusing. V V V

We generally have one per year ;)

We were locked down due to COVID...I did fire the old girl up once a month though. Launch last Sunday morning, fully rigged, water and rum full. Up until now I've sailed 100 nauticle miles...22 nm today in 20 knts...friggin fun. Engine and boat working perfect and tuned in. I've done a little work on anothe guys carb for him and a friend bought a C&C 27 with an atomic 4...I've worked on that one before as well.

....and the beat goes on.

This weekend- fingers crossed!
 

We too have been locked down due to COVID-19, which has also made me feel just a little less interested in many activities other than working from home, but I'm feeling it's time to get the boat in the water!

This is our second year with the A4 and so I'm not sure exactly what to expect after winter layup. We winterized with anti-freeze and now I need to figure out a way to get that stuff out of this RWC engine. The PO said he used two buckets- one with anti-freeze for inlet and outlet, the other with water; when the thermostat opened he switched the inlet over from the anti-freeze bucket to the water bucket until the outlet ran clear. Seems reasonable to me.

I had also fogged the engine, topped off the fuel tank and am hoping it will turn over just like it did when the season ended. I remember my first sailboat with an outboard. I was convinced it couldn't possibly start after sitting for six months, but it fired right up. Hoping this old A4 behaves the same, since I'm new to troubleshooting these motors.

Indy, WELCOME! If you have any trouble firing up the engine (crank for more than 5-10 seconds), make sure to close the raw water intake, and then re-open it when the engine is running. The crank no start, still pumps water into the muffler, and can back up the "hot stack" into the cylinders..the engine needs to run to 'batch' the water out the exhaust.

Thank you very much for the advice. Last year we had trouble when launching due to a near dead battery which wouldn't crank hard enough. So, we did close the seacock....then of course I totally brain cramped and left it closed after switching to the other battery, running the temp up to 200. Don assured me I probably hadn't killed the head gasket or done serious damage and the engine ran fine all year. I probably should have replaced the impeller right after the mishap, but honestly I was just happy to have a running motor. Aside from having to twist myself into a pretzel to get to it, the swap was way easier than expected, quicker than an outboard for sure. Anyway, after a new impeller (I was amazed at how pliant the old one was after three years, according to the PO) and replacing a dried/cracked uptake tube and gasket on the flame arrestor, the old A4 fired up per usual and hummed that sweet music. It's definitely ALIVE.

You may be overthinking this. I just turn on the seacock, plug the coil wire in*, and start the engine. The antifreeze clears itself right out of the exhaust, the first few seconds are pink.
* I always pull the spark plug wire off the coil whenever the seacock is closed or there is some other reason I don't want the engine to run.

Hi Joe,
Thanks for the response. I was under the impression that the antifreeze is locked in the block and won't come out until the thermostat allows water to direct through there. We didn't remove the thermostat or clamp the bypass hose. Also, we are required to capture anti-freeze, hence the bucket. But next time I am fitting a hose to the exhaust (we do this on land).

How are you feeding cooling water to the engine?