Another outboard question

All this talk of outboard motors (they're actually outboard engines, but if I said that, people would look at me funny) reminded me of the summer perplexity that I always promise myself to worry about in the winter. My Cal 20 has a nice old Evinrude 6 h.p. outboard in a well. The engine is the same age as the boat, coincidentally--1967. The outboard and I have reached an understanding after all these years and it almost always starts and runs. Problem is, it's sitting down in that well and it tends to choke on its own fumes. It's pretty good at fume production. And I most often use it when the wind runs out, and then there's no air moving to blow the fumes away. Has anybody added some sort of fresh-air venting system to an outboard? This one has its air intake opening on the bottom of the engine cowl, front side, as I recall. I was thinking about some sort of sheet metal cover for that opening, attached to some flexible plastic tubing. It's important to keep water out, obviously, but beyond that, what do i need to consider? Chris Campbell

A friend of mine had the same problem on his 23 foot Kittywake. This boat had the outboard located in a lazerette on the transom. What he did was drill a hole in the plastic engine cover and attach a length of flexible hose that he hung out of the lazerette while the engine was in use. Talking about the CAL 25, I had #1040, the first versions were often powered with a British Seagull engine and there was a fitting in the starboard hatch that the engine could be clamped to while under sail. John B CAL227 From: Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com [mailto:Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com] Sent: Wednesday, January 13, 2016 9:53 AM To: Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com Subject: [Cal_Boats] Another outboard question All this talk of outboard motors (they're actually outboard engines, but if I said that, people would look at me funny) reminded me of the summer perplexity that I always promise myself to worry about in the winter. My Cal 20 has a nice old Evinrude 6 h.p. outboard in a well. The engine is the same age as the boat, coincidentally--1967. The outboard and I have reached an understanding after all these years and it almost always starts and runs. Problem is, it's sitting down in that well and it tends to choke on its own fumes. It's pretty good at fume production. And I most often use it when the wind runs out, and then there's no air moving to blow the fumes away. Has anybody added some sort of fresh-air venting system to an outboard? This one has its air intake opening on the bottom of the engine cowl, front side, as I recall. I was thinking about some sort of sheet metal cover for that opening, attached to some flexible plastic tubing. It's important to keep water out, obviously, but beyond that, what do i need to consider? Chris Campbell

On 1/13/2016 10:36 AM, 'John Boyce' je… [at] gmail.com [Cal_Boats] wrote: > > > A friend of mine had the same problem on his 23 foot Kittywake. This > boat had the outboard located in a lazerette on the transom. What he > did was drill a hole in the plastic engine cover and attach a length > of flexible hose that he hung out of the lazerette while the engine > was in use. > > Talking about the CAL 25, I had #1040, the first versions were often > powered with a British Seagull engine and there was a fitting in the > starboard hatch that the engine could be clamped to while under sail. > The Cal 20 has a little "transom" in the cockpit seat locker for securing the outboard in a horizontal position when it's removed. Chris Campbell > > J >

Chris, I'm thinking tuba sized air vent and a tall stack(s) like on the Lusitania. Note: you need not have four stacks...but it WOULD be pretty cool. I remember the old steam powered tug boats in NYC harbor, sooooooo kuel! Great sounding whistles, too. The Jap carriers (OK Japanese-- to be PC, but I'm a boomer brat, We'd just won the war) had horizontal stacks making for a clearer flight deck, which is important for flat top style Cals.Shpritz, Queen Mother of Cals. On Wednesday, January 13, 2016 8:19 AM, "ccampbell cc… [at] lsnm.org [Cal_Boats]" <Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com> wrote: On 1/13/2016 10:36 AM, 'John Boyce' je… [at] gmail.com [Cal_Boats] wrote: A friend of mine had the same problem on his 23 foot Kittywake. This boat had the outboard located in a lazerette on the transom. What he did was drill a hole in the plastic engine cover and attach a length of flexible hose that he hung out of the lazerette while the engine was in use. Talking about the CAL 25, I had #1040, the first versions were often powered with a British Seagull engine and there was a fitting in the starboard hatch that the engine could be clamped to while under sail. The Cal 20 has a little "transom" in the cockpit seat locker for securing the outboard in a horizontal position when it's removed. Chris Campbell J

On 1/13/2016 5:33 PM, Gerald Sobel so… [at] yahoo.com [Cal_Boats] wrote: > > > Chris, I'm thinking tuba sized air vent and a tall stack(s) like on > the Lusitania. Note: you need not have four stacks...but it WOULD be > pretty cool. Problem is, Bill Lapworth put the rudder and tiller in the wrong place.... I could power or I could steer, but not both. > I remember the old steam powered tug boats in NYC harbor, sooooooo > kuel! Great sounding whistles, too. Here on Lake Michigan we have a real coal-fired, steam-powered ferry, /Badger /(with a magnificent steam signal) /. /She's 410' and now carries passenger cars, trucks with oversized cargoes, and tourists. There was once a big fleet of these boats carrying railroad cars across Lake Michigan to avoid delays and rapacious charges at the railroad hub in Chicago. The boats had to operate year-round so they were built as icebreakers. Even then, they would sometimes get stuck in the ice and the rest of the fleet would have to come to the rescue. Railroad cars were often quite heavily loaded and so they were well secured below decks, but in big storms they would sometimes break loose and start banging around. It's a really cool field of maritime history and there are lots of astonishing stories about the challenges of operating in ice and storms. The local guy who rescued /Badger/ from the scrappers did us all a big favor. I always encourage travelers to take the ferry when going east or west past Lake Michigan. You can read about her here: > http://www.ssbadger.com/ > The Jap carriers (OK Japanese-- to be PC, but I'm a boomer brat, We'd > just won the war) had horizontal stacks making for a clearer flight > deck, which is important for flat top style Cals. Yeah, maybe, but convection makes vertical stacks more logical. Lansing, MI has a wonderful old downtown electric power generating plant, now converted to other uses. It has a black granite base, rising above that in bricks that start with deep red and get lighter and oranger in color as they rise to symbolize the burning of coal. The door handles inside are bronze in a zig-zag lightning shape. All very cool, and a relic of the days when public buildings were created with care and style. But one feature wasn't so cool. When built, it had no visible stacks, just some sort of venturi system that the engineers expected to whisk away the smoke and gases like magic. What it really did was create local smog clouds right over the downtown. They soon added real vertical stacks--not so_visually_ effective, but they functioned. Sometimes we have to choose. Chris Campbell