Evening star., 1938-06-12
Coaxing Boat Into Condition and Meeting
Navigation Requirements Is Found
--> to Be Tough Job.

float. We wanted to hear him say he
would take the boat out because We
wanted to see the bottom. No boat
buyer should spend money on a hull
until he has seen it. That seems
to be self-evident but beginners like
ourselves have done it over and over
again. We did 1t.
We asked him what he thought
about the boat and the engine. He
wouldn't commit himself on the hull
without seeing it, but he said that, in
general, two-cycle engines were tenn
peramental and wouldn't throttle to
idling speeds. Ours, he said, was
obsolete, anyway.
BY this time, having nursed the
engine and handled the tiller, even
for so short q distance as 3 nautical
miles, we were In love with the boat
and didn't take his words seriously
He had q boat for SITS with Ford
marine converted engine in the bow.
He would place the engine amid
ships, where it belonged. for SIS and
come within the 5000 We wanted to
pay, he said.
Charlie started the engine and I
let go of the dock. There was no
anchor, nor anchor line, and no boat
hook on board. had been hanging
onto the dock by my fingernails.
AS soon as let 60 the engine
stopped. If there had been boat
hook, could have recovered, but
there was none. Or on anchor would
have held us.
Charlie tried again. With this
motor the procedure, as we learned
it. is complicated. First we prime
the cups in the cylinder heads with q
gasoline and oil mixture. The oiling
mechanism isn't working any more.
We mix IA pints Of oil to gallons
of gasoline, pour it into the tank and
fill an oil can from the carburetor.
CHARLIE is the chief engineer and
I am the captain Of our vessel.
Then Charlie gripped the flywheel in
his hands and turned the motor over
with the cocks open. Each cylinder
should have exploded q half-burned
mixtures into his face, but it didn't.
Then he filled the priming cups and
closed them before gripping the fly
wheel again for turnover. 1t should
have started then, but it didn't. When
he was properly lame, took my turn
at the engine. All this time we were
drifting down river with the tide. We
couldn't use q hand crank because
some one had put the battery timer
where the crank belonged.
There was q cracked 12-foot oar on
board and I, by dint Of using my left
hand for . fulcrum and my right
hand for power, finally managed to
ease the boat to shore near the Elev-
enth Street Bridge. The battery, we
decided, was dead. I borrowed bat
terry, by showing my police cards and
operators permit. didn't have cent
in my pocket. With a fully charged
battery. the engine started.
Then snow storm visited the Po-
tomac and Anacostia Rivers. 1t was SO
heavy I could not see the bow. There
is wheel up forward in the protec-
ton of the cabin, but the flexible tiller
rope, A-inch, is missing. I had to
stand on the after deck, navy fashion,
with one foot on the tiller. Our course
was north and had to watch the
west bank in order to see at ALL The
snow, coming from the north, filled my
ear SO could hardly hear the exhaust
which was coming out Of the mani
fold, because it had become separated
from the mufder. We cleared the
railroad bridge By inches because the
tide WAS out.