Engine issues (yet again!)

Engine issues (yet again!)

Last summer we had a wonderful few days away on Goshawk (recounted in my post, “2024’s “Epic Voyage”,”) where, apart from a minor issue with the radio, Goshawk performed brilliantly throughout. We were all thrilled that we had a fully functioning boat (almost!).

That, unsurprisingly, was not to last…

A couple of days later, my friends Clive and Stephen popped up for the day, with a particular desire to go for a trip aboard Goshawk. Stephen is a particularly useful guy to know, and has helped me a great deal with maintenance onboard. Clive is less useful.

We got ourselves out to the boat on a gloriously sunny day with a generous breeze – perfect for a quick trip up and down the river. With Stephen’s help I got Goshawk ready – engine checked, sails ready, mooring ready to drop. The main went up, Stephen went up forward ready to slip the mooring, and I started the engine. My gut told me that we were going backwards, but I decided that this must just be the tide taking us. Stephen dropped the mooring and, before I sheeted in, I revved up the engine to take us out of the moored boats. As I revved up it seemed like Goshawk was going backwards. I asked Stephen and Clive, and both were of the opinion that we were going backwards. I dropped the engine into neutral, but it still felt like we were in reverse. I put the engine in reverse and, funnily enough, we went backwards. Into neutral, backwards. Into forward, backwards. Ah.

I cut the engine, sheeted in the main, unfurled the jib, and we sailed, preferring to forget about the engine for the time being.

We had a great sail – the conditions were pretty much perfect. At the back of my mind, though, I was aware that I would have to approach the mooring under sail, with two novice crew, which would not be fun.

As we returned, I lined myself up perfectly to pick up the mooring, but then a huge gin palace thing motored up and picked up a mooring right across my path, which was not especially helpful (or kind). Unfortunately we lost our position, and needed help from shore to get back to the mooring. Not my finest hour.

Over the next couple of weeks I tried to establish what the problem was with the engine, and how I might resolve it. It seemed clear that the issue was with the gearbox, but beyond that, there was little I could do without some expert help.

Usually Goshawk over-winters on the hard at Titchmarsh Marina. This is a great place to be, but from our mooring requires a sailing down the Stour, through Harwich Harbour, out into the North Sea (briefly) before dropped the sails and motoring up the Twizzle to the marina. Clearly this was going to be problematic this year. We had no engine the previous year, and my brother kindly towed us up the Twizzle, but it seemed a bit much to ask him to do the same for the second year. Instead, I booked a spot at Mistley Marine, which would necessitate just a short sail up the Stour, with much less manoeuvring required.

So it was that at the end of the season, we sailed to Mistley, then reversed into Mistley marine – almost perfectly.

And that is where Goshawk has been ever since!