Alistair Tyrrell

15 Sept 2019 Sunny and very warm for mid September and Morgan was keen to come sailing again. With my friend Jonathan also aboard we set out at 1100 for the annual charity race.  There was a strong incoming flood tide as we left the river and we had the engine on full power for 15 minutes or so to get us out but it ran just fine. Once out at sea there was a light SW wind and sunshine. We motored all the way to the start line east of the harbour setting the mainsail and genoa as we went along, keen to get up-tide of the line in case the wind dropped further. A lot of boats were out including a few from our neighbouring club AYAC coming to join the fun. About 20 dinghies and 10 cruisers racing together. The dinghies started first at 1200 with our start 5 mins later. We got nicely lined up on starboard approaching the line at one minute to go but we were a little late and almost last across the line to start the race. Despite being a lovely day we didn't seem to get Bay Leaf into ...

1st Sept 2019 Since the last trip, when the engine stopped, we've spent ages (myself and several friends at the club) trying to work out what was wrong. Initally I thought I was just out of diesel so I got 20 litres from Tescos and poured it in. Wouldn't start. Then we thought there was an airlock or blocked filter so spent a week or two pumping and bleeding and opening the diesel injectors and trying over and over. No good. Eventually it became clear the the very old diesel in the 45 year old steel tank had gone off or got dirty and blocked the pipe as it exits the tank. So my friend John spent a morning manually pumping the diesel back out into a plastic drum and tried various ways to unblock the pipes but again no good. So there I sat with a big drum full of dodgy diesel and nothing working. The idea eventually came to simply abandon that metal tank for now and I went and got a 12 litre portable plastic tank. Plenty of room under the cockpit floor so I lashed it down, co...