not literally.....lots of people have suggested that I dump the slug and buy a boat that would run well with an outboard
Suggest you pull Volvo out of Slug, plug prop shaft and hang a 4 stroke o/b off the stern. Easy to mount in center as rudder is hung underneath!!
Correction rudder not underneath bur I think out board option on slug would be most economic choice
Dylan,
Am enjoying all of your newly posted vlogs, scuttlebutt, and written blogs very much.
Hell, no, don’t get rid of your boat. It’s a great boat. You are positively balletic in the skillful way you tack it up narrow channels.
Just bite the bullet and get four new engine mounts installed. Cheaper than getting a four stroke engine hanging off the stern and kicking up out of the water just when you need it most, in a confused chop entering a harbor.
Don’t sell your boat unless a great deal on a Centaur comes your way, since that’s what you really would like to get next.
Of course, though, my advice is to do whatever you feel like doing and just follow the adventure wherever it takes you. It’s a grand voyage all around. We thank you for letting us enjoy it with you so very much.
I like the way you start your pieces by zooming into England from outer space. It gives viewers like me, who’ve never been there, some much needed context as to where you are.
Keep going. We’re all enjoying the experiences.
More photos of your fan’s, and others seen along the way that strike you as interesting, boats, please, when you get the chance. I hesitate to ask as I am truly amazed at how you find any of the time to do any of this at all: the videos, the photos, the scripts and editing, the website, the actual sailing and boating, and a whole other life and career to support the whole deal.
You’re right, Glenn Campbell should’ve stuck to belting out his great version of “Southern Nights.”
Thanks for all,
Ed
Good plan…it would definately come clear of the water in rough weather – escially on one tack. I am told that motorsailing is only possible on one tack….
There would certainly be a lot of work in bringing this one around though
D
Hey Dylan,
Sea Wych, hmmm, no, id not. Dont agree about their sailing abilities, had one never again. If you would love a Westerly id go for a Westerly (or a MacWester). You’ed be surprised who cheep they are now. Best of luck ether way.
Regards
Philip
Had a westerly pageant with stateroom, ballroom, snooker room and headroom too. Engine died and I put a 9HP outboard on the transom. It was quiet and when the sea was flat and no wind it worked well. In all other conditions, terrible. I sold the boat within 3 months of that. Now have a beautiful Cornish shrimper with no need of anything but a small light OB for occasional use- bliss. Dylan, if you can buy a new boat the Pageant is a treasure.
after having had the inboard…. I would hate to lose it
But on the other hand it has cost me a lot of money and just as importantly a lot of great sailing days.
I also like the fact that you can sail the slug in 2 feet of water
it allows me to get close to the edge
amazingly my neighbours 18 year odl daughter – a feisty engineering student wants to take alook at the boat in the morning. If she spent some time fixing it up that would make me very happy indeed
we shall see – first I need to get the engine mounts fixed
Dylan
I had a long shaft outboard on a 22ft keel boat mounted on a rise and fall bracket and never experienced rough water issues. The spring loaded bracket made it easy to raise and lower the engine as conditions demanded.
I know you’d only sail if you could get away with it, but lets face it, there are times when you will be running that outboard all day. Screaming little outboards are horribly annoying for long periods (get some decent earplugs and forget trying to talk to the camera like you sometimes do when motoring!) I reckon you should bite the bullet and beg Jill’s permission to buy another boat, and hopefully not something that will require 6 months work and heaps of money to fix up like what you have just shown us! Now the slug is famous you may just get your money back on it on Fleabay which would help towards buying something nice.
How did you know that Jill is in charge of the family finances
However, there is no strategic reserve to buy bigger or better.
I can and have lived with outboards – you are correct the noise can be pretty terrible
but it is dealing with the rough stuff at the overfalls and bars that bothers me.
I am not sure I would have got out of Wells that day with an outboard hanging on the transom
A modern four stroke will be much easier on your ears than the volvo. Virtually no vibration to deal with either. With the volvo and gear gone it ought to weigh less with less moment – even hung over the transom. ANother approach is a pivoting bracket that mounts on either side of the cockpit, such as Yves Gelineau used on his Alberg 30 on a circumnavigation.
I’d go with a 9.9HP and a power-pitched 3 or 4 blade prop. You could get hull speed at approx 1500 RPM and have enormous punch in chop.
On the other hand, look at all the expenses you’d need to duplicate to get the new boat into the same shape the slug is in. And the time to get it all in good nick. Hard call Dylan, but unless the engine’s internal parts are suspect I’d keep the volvo, especially since you’ve got the power train mostly sorted out and paid for.
Dylan, my son,
Don’t take this the wrong way, but it is my understanding that this voyage of yours is only possible because you’re doing it on the cheap. All this advice to get an outboard, a nice 4 stroke, maybe a 9.9 hp, well I don’t know what British prices are like, but over here, across the pond, a 9.9 hp Mercury, will cost you $3,000 – $3,500 or 1,800- 2,000 sterling. Forget the outboard, they really don’t work that well, when you really need them on a sailboat. Find yourself a nice friendly mechanic, along the lines of that machinist chap from KISS who help you out with your stern bearing. Treat this mechanic, your new best friend, to a pint or three and tell him your tale of woe. Pull the Volvo and have him give a good going over and then remount it, and git on your way. Time it tis a wasting.
AL H.
Dylan,
as long as you’re filming it, I don’t care what you do. Just watching someone play with boats is enough for me.
All the best,
Gavan
Noooo. Don’t do it.
You like to sail more than you like to fix things. Sometimes free is the most expensive thing ever.
Maybe you should replace the slug. But this is not the boat.
-Glenn K.
Take the Boat for free and spend some time cleaning it up. Then sell it or trade it to offset the cost of fixing the Slug!
Dazz
Could there really be a marriage somewhere in the world where SWMBO is not the Finance Minister!?!
Strategic reserve = Fleabay off the Slug, beg borrow or steal a few more grand, seems to be plenty of cheap and very nice boats over there…
Dylan, the Slug is the answer. Fix ‘er. The Sea Witch equals $$$ and misery.
Lord have mercy! I don’t think a boat called “Kyrie” is the one for you, Dylan!
While I do understand the temptation to boat-jump (don’t we all get that urge at one point or another?), I’d suggest to stick with the slug for now. Get the engine mounts fixed and be on your merry way–till the next glitch, of course…
The new boat would cost you a fortune in time and money to fix up. The stitching in the sails is probably shot too. Fix the slug and then look around at leisure to find a new boat if you really want a change. The summer is slipping by!
+1 for fixing the slug. Take the eager engineering student’s offer of giving it a proper once over. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from my troubles with Nervous Tension is that outboards are great because you can just whip them off and stick another one on; if you have another to go on there… more £££…
Still, you know all this. These comments have to be more about reassuring a man who’s spent a small fortune rebuilding a knackered old system in the past year that he’s nearly there, than some flight of fancy about new boats and magical engines which never break down or eat money.
Hi Dylan – That Seawitch looks pretty much like my 20′ Vivacity did when I got it. A couple of days with a jetwash, some new bits of string going up the mast, a second-hand roller reefer and a couple of week-ends polishing did the trick on the exterior.
I sailed her for a season with a really rough interior then took everything out. I haven’t bothered with headlining, just paint, found a local girl who was just brilliant on upholstery who did all the cushions (4 berth) plus a vinyl mainsail cover for £150. I stuck carpet to the hull – really cosy – and fitted carpet on the cabin sole – saves the ageing knees.
She now looks really good and is comfortable for three people who know each other really well and are short.
I just need to replace the windows for peace of mind in a rough sea. They are the ‘pop out’ kind which have gone opaque with age – I just don’t want them to pop out at an inconvenient moment.
I will miss the ‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’ of the beast, an outboard’s puttering doesn’t have the same character. However I run a Mariner 4 which is plenty on my old tub, reliable and doesn’t have the worry of through-hull fitting. I also carry a mariner 2 for the flubber-dubber which could be used as a back up. Not yet been needed in ten years but it’s nice to know it’s there.
As far as I know Seawitches are very much like Vivacities, 2’4″ draft, bilge keeled, transom hung rudder and made of pre-osmosis industrial strength glassfibre – nice boats for ditch crawling.
Having said all that, one thought strikes me… The Slug now has such international renown now that her value is probably out of all proportion, like one of Jimi Hendrix’s guitars. You could probably sell her to a fairly dim KTL follower for a small fortune and buy a Centaur – and have cash in hand…
Wow…
some of you guys are as demented as I am….
okay any dim KTL sailors out there want to buy the slug for a price that is high enough to buy a good Centaur…. say around £12,000
.
.
.
silence…..
thought not.
I agree that the Seawych is salvagable and a winters work would have it in good nick
I am going to take the engineering student girl over to it today and we are going to bale it out, cut away the head lining and have a good look
but I will not be dumping the slug
two KTL sailors have expressed an interest – so with any luck the boat will be resurrected even if I don’t do it.
D
got these comments via direct emails
Hi Dylan,
Keep the slug and fix the engine mounts. Probably a weekend’s work if you do it yourself. You know the slug inside out, to get to that state with a new boat takes a long time the Seawych nice boats that they are, does look a bit of a project, a good winters work.
Regards
John
Hi Dylan
Dump the Slug and get a Seahawk 17, you did tell me you thought about it earlier in the adventure.
WE used to buy Fentimans Ginger Beer in half gallon pot flagons when I were a lad! Puts hairs on thee chest.
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Dylan ,
Find another boat ,this boat cost you a lot of money to restore and if you like to sail the Pentland firth , you need a solid boat .
I suggest :
Ask your viewers for a solution .
Tell what your problem is :
Tell them : I am doing KTL an I am looking for a solid boat for free.
Dylan there are lots and lots of boats not in use and in better condition than Kyrie.
Groeten
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Dylan thats not fair, why cant I find a project like that. Used to see the odd ones in peeps drives years ago but nothing now, surely they cant be all getting scrapped and if so where at?
David
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Hi Dylan,
I know others have suggested it but an outboard bracket and motor would keep you going for the rest of the summer and be a good contingency even when the beast was up and running again.
Brize had already had the inboard removed by the time I bought her so I added a Mercury 4 hp with charging and a sail drive prop and it is brilliant.
I had a really unpleasant sail back from the Isle of White a couple of months ago, wind on the nose and big lumpy seas but she got me back to Pompey ok.
Anyway for what it’s worth it works for me, hope it all works out,
Paul
Hi Dylan,
If you cast your mind back to when you were giving me advise on buying a yacht, you told me “its best to get one you can sail pretty much straight away” can I fire that back at you, because it looks like it needs too much work for what you need to do. You could be a good year putting that straight looking at the video. Just my penny worth.
kind regards as ever
Julian
Also if you were to remove the prop and shaft and bung the hole, and use an outboard then just think of the reduction in drag from that prop if you had the outboard out of the water while sailing
How long had this boat lain at the bottom of the Ouse? :-) I’m sure it was a nice boat once. Plus an inboard’s propeller is generally in a much better place than an outboard’s when you are in waves. An outboard tends to spend more of its time out of the water screaming it’s head off than in the water.
If you must get rid of the slug, save up for that Centaur.
Regards,
David H.
http://www.eventoftheyear.co.uk
Hey Dylan, You sure do have some salty friends. I guess things are not as bad over there as they are here. There are oodles of small boats sitting on the hard wasting away with “for sale” signs. As most of these little boats are owned by guys who are not hedgefund managers, they are up for sale. Folks can’t afford storage/dockage/mooring fees. Of course over here we generally have a single keel and guess that’s not an option in your sailing waters. I’m not going to give you any suggestions, but I hope you continue your adventure. As soon as I check my account and the balance is not negative I will order the 2009 DVD set. Fair Winds and smooth motoring! ralph
PS Thanks for Vlog 108 in this format.
Hmmmmm, mid week looks possible for purchase!
Should I dump the Slug ?…..Absolutly not, this trip is as much about that funny little boat as it is about you; so what’s broken? one engine mount…can’t be too hard to slip a new one in, what else had broken? Stern tube etc….not the Slugs fault because you hit something submerged….do that with an outboard and see what happens…big splash!and goodye £ 1,500.00! Gear change…you’ve got that sussed. Don’t even think of getting a small bilge keeler everything about them looks great until…the tide goes out..the boat settles nicely and Dylan goes forward and the boat tips over, inconvenient to say the least !…had this with my Express Pirate, 50% of the boat was out of bounds when it was sitting on the ‘oggin. You will also find that the O/B will come out of the water when you go forward to drop the anchor etc….they start to make a very loud and expesive noise when they do that.
When you bought the slug the engine had just been reconditioned to almost new spec, and the boat is as tough as old boots….you’d be daft to pass up on that!
Any way….you love the Slug!
R
Hello DYLAN. Take a deep breath and look at the problem. So the engine mountings, or some of them have failed. They are a metalastic unit as in exhaust mountings, and they do expire. I would take one completely out,possibly two nuts,and then go to a motor factors and get a friendly counter assistant to look through the parts book. Most gearboxes and engines stand on these things and a lot are very similar. Another option would be a scrap yard . If room allows they could be fitted one at a time, wedging the engine up would make it safe. Dont give up on the slug,no rush remember.Could you really sail away and leave it behind to rot in a barn. , i think not. This advice is optional,You have control.. Alan
I hear there’s a worldwide “Save the Slug” society forming using the web as its primary communications venue. Operatives will be dropping from Apache helicopters during a night raid to put a stop to this nonsense.
Dylan, I strongly recommend you either seek deep cover or find a good solicitor and give yourself up. Dump the slug! No way!
When I was a boy bilge keels were assymetric i.e. as the boat heeled the leeward keel was upright thus increasing the draft and reducing leeway and lift was provided by the windward keel. It looks to me like the keels on this example were added as an after thought,I can’t imagine it would have much windward performance as draft reduces with heal and when dryed out would require delicate movement around the ship to say the least!!!
I agree Paul, the bilge keel angles do look a bit weird
but a centre plate or keel sticks straight down
I have been outsailed on several occasions by these boats.
But after carefully considering the advice freely given on this page
…. I will stick with the slug for the time being
I will let you guys know what the fianl bill was for the engine mounts
D
Hi Dylan
Persevere with the Slug and Volvo if you can for this season, if you take on the other boat which would be a good project but would meanthe end of sailing for this year and cost would soon mount up as really would need rerigging to be sure all is ok and you may find some other issues once you clean it up and strip it. MD1 are around as spare very cheap my mate got an MD2 as a spares engine for all of the anciallry parts you may find and MD1 that has come out a another boat, best is to ask around at boatyard after they have given up trying to sell you a new eingine for £5,00 they may be able to point you to customer who has just check one out on re-engining.. if you have any doubts you could alsway add a O/B bracket £80 on Ebay buy the 15hp-20 HP ones they are only a ten more but dont bend when bouncing arouond in a seaway, u can pick up a 4-5hp longshaft motor for around £200-400 for a two stroke, i got a 5hp Johnson for £300 for FNR remote tank Long shaft, it must be a long shaft…. standard shaft spend mostof the time out of the water in a chop… 4-5hp will be enough i can get against the timde on my Hunter 19 with 2.5 tender engine but 4AC has plenty of power just it was s/shaft…. 4 and 5 AC yamaha and marina O/B’s been around for years and all spares avaiable, same applies to the Johnson/Evinrune 5/5/7/8/9.9 all the same bits…
Chris
by the way some MD1’s are bolted directly to hardwood engine bearers in the boat dont think the mounts do much ”absorbing” of vibes… car engine would do in stead probably cheaper at at motor factors,,,
The Slug is a Swan compared to Kyrie which could be spelled C-r-a-p.
I agree the slug is becoming every prettier by the day
It is an ugly thing
Its going to a neighbours 18 year old daughter
She is going to study engineering at university next year and wants to use the boat to explore the coast of wales
It will be great to watch what happens as I cycle past their house every day
She has already replaced the tyre and is ready to bring it home on Thursday and park it on her parents drive
brilliant – very happy
Hi Dylan,
On a practical note does the engine have to come right out to replace the engine mounts?
You may simply be able to jack the engine up a little at each corner remove old mount, slide new one in etc.
I’m not sure if this is practicable but might be worth looking at, assuming, of course that you can get replecement engine mounts.
Have you tried contacting Volspec @ Tollesbury to see if they can help?
regards
Richard
Hi Dylan
I agree with others who have said “pull the engine into the cabin”. You were concerned about lining up the engine to the shaft afterward – it is not that difficult AND you have the luxury of having a rubber coupling between gearbox and prop shaft. I’m not suggesting this should be abused but it will be more forgiving as far as alignment is concerned, than a solid coupling. Incidentally, if it were me, considering some of the places you go, I would carry a set of spare rubbers for the coupling on board.
If all else fails and you cannot get new mounting blocks, why not bolt the Volvo down solidly – a bit more vibration but plenty of engines are installed like that.
Keep the slug until you can afford a Centaur.
All the best.
Paul
Hi, Dylan I would bite the bullet and get the mounts fixed.
Outboards are all very well, but diesel is far safer onboard than gallons of 4 star!
I would imagine a great improvement in the level of vibration once the new mounts are fitted, Your engineer friend may be able to help you, a few days and it will be done.(unless you decide to remove the beast altogether).
Stick with what you know I say, Good luck, Nigel
A good decision to leave the boat in the barn for someone else I think. If you really want an alternative boat to the Slug then I am sure you will find one at a reasonable price if you search around. It is a buyers market at the moment. Good luck. Loved the Wisbech / Boston film. By the way I noticed on the Finesse Owners group website there was a Finesse 21 up ivor sale in Scotland
Bargain price. Best Wishes, Roger
I have the same arrangement on a Jidzo which is 20´..I do however use a longshaft motor Yamaha 4hp from 1988 starts on second pull and runs as sweet as a nut..I would however prefer an inbord it makes manovering a damm sight easier..!