"Nice Piece in the Paper"

If I had a pound for everyone that had said that to me in the last two weeks, I'd have enough money for a bacon butty and a cup of tea.

 

Thanks to Gill Kay at the Jersey Evening Post for the article and if any other Jersey boat owners out there would like a similar write up, please contact her at the JEP.

Mercury 2.5hp 2 Stroke Impeller Replacement - Or Is it?

Well, this was meant to be about replacing the faulty impeller on my Mercury 2.5hp two stroke.

I found where it was located via the excellent boats.net website:

Before Removal

Getting some help

There certainly wasn't any water coming out of what I thought was the drain pipe. I duly purchased a new impeller from Gallichan Marine in St Aubin for around £15. However, when I finally got round to having a look at the engine, guess what...impeller was in perfect condition:

So, it must be a blockage in the tube somewhere. I wasn't sure exactly where the water was meant to come out until I found this video which clearly shows the drain pipe draining, unlike mine:



 I tried squirting water up from the bottom with a syringe and from the top down the drain pipe and it was VERY blocked. However, a few minutes poking around with the end of a safety pin seemed to do the trick:

Then it was time to try the engine out..

No..Properly!

I wish that were the end of the story, however on leaving above beautiful secret beach I managed to bump the prop on the bottom and bust the shear pin. "Not a problem", I thought, "there's spares under the cowling." Mercury ain't Honda. So it was a very long, slow row back, against wind and tide. 

I've since ordered 5 shear pins and 2 splits for £12 from ebay (genuine Mercury), which WILL live under the cowling!

Mystery Seawych

I found this lying on Bonne Nuit Beach...

A 'wych with no name.

Is a new Jersey Seawych or just moved from somewhere else?