John: Yea that would suck if I fell overboard. Our throttle extensions were just simple pvc pipes about 4 ft long. I used rubber tubing held onto the throttle grip with a hose clamp. Then a short piece of pvc with a 1/4 hole thru the side held onto the rubber tubing via screws. The long pvc slides inside that short section and is held on by a 1/4” cross pin ( easily removed). The other end of the long pvc has a larger dia section about 4” long screwed in place to form a nice grip to wrap my hands around comfortably. That end is held down to the rear aka cross brace via bungy cord stretched just enough to offer some turning resistance, (so when I set the thottles, they stay in that position). When sitting in the front seat the throttles are at my sides, one on the left and the other on the right. Once set, I very seldom need to touch them. The motors are locked straight, and all steering is with the rudder, though if the rudder were to fail, I can always unlock the motors and steer with the tillers if needed, (my backup if my rudder pin breaks in rough seas, (yea that happens a little too often).
For the deadman switches I drilled a hole in the side of the long pvc then ran paracord, (clipped to the kill switches) thru to the other end opening a couple feet with carabiners that I clip to my life jacket typically, (if I fall off the motors quit, plus I can just tug on them to kill the engines). I also have a tether safety line that I clip to myself when it gets really rough and deadly out there in open ocean. The tether is long enough so I can scamper around on the tramps when needed, the deadman switches are also looped around that tether line so if I did fall overboard while tethered the engines will kill.
I typically start the engines with the nose of the boat on shore, then as I go out and just leave them idle. I stand on the left side of the boat just behind the rear aka, ( you have really good leverage there to back the boat out and spin it around).
Once turned around I walk out to waist deep water, then everyone jumps in the boat, I drop the rudder, then throttle up enough to get away from shore, (sometimes thru surf). Once I’m clear I drop the mirage drive in and start peddling and start opening all my sails as needed. Keep in mind with twin engines and my super high pitch props and throttles at minimum, (enough rpm to engage the slip clutches on the Honda’s, ( which I don’t like very much)), my boat is traveling at 7-8mph with no sails up at all, (pretty much my minimum speed once the motors warm up, (throttles all the way down) is around 5-6mph. For some reason once the engines get hot the idle goes up and the clutches never disengage completely, you can see them kinda half spinning on and off, I haven’t been able to overcome that one, I hate it but just live with it. If I want to go slower I have to kill one motor.
All the time I’m out I pedal pretty much 95% of the time at around 40-45 cycles per minute (cpm), ( the reason I’m out there is for exercise). I always have my 33 sqft wing jib deployed, which provides some additional horsepower, (via apparent wind generated by my forward motion), then whatever additional power I can generate with the mainsail. So 90% of the time I’m using the tri-power capabilities of my boat, (aka.. pedal, sail, plus supplimental propulsion). Because I’m crippled ( broken back) I can’t go out when there is any wind and waves, (has to be really flat water because of my back injury). So if the wind is over about 7mph we stay home, ( fortunately around here 70%-80% of the time the wind is under 7mph). Lol yea I do go out in way worse conditions once in a while, ( up to about 25 mph winds), but am typically laid up for the next couple months afterwards, ( not worth it), the boat handles it all just fine, I’m the problem, lol.
To prove my point about low wind performance simply take your boat out in 3-5 mph winds and put your sail up, the boat sails at 1 mph, then when you peddle you get up to 2-3mph, sure you can peddle much faster but I become exhausted within a mile or two. Don’t take my word for it, try it yourself. My personal commitment was to pedal my boat at least 10-15 miles per week year round, makes for a really long day at 2mph.
Understanding what we had, and why explains a lot, ( read below), pretty different from everyone else, but it all worked nicely for us, basically configured for our area.
Another really big factor here in Florida and the keys is the heat and sun, it’s blinking hot here, sitting on the boat with no wind is like sitting in a frying pan and your the yoke, (lol). My normal cruise speed is 8-10 mph, so that provides a 15-20 mph wind on my face when underway which keeps us cool, (ie... natural wind plus apparent wind). We often get between 2-3 hrs of runtime per tank of fuel, I don’t recall the last time we ever had to refuel while out on the water. Obviously if I use more throttle I get no better fuel economy than anyone else, ( pretty typical is 1hr runtime per tank of fuel, ( probably some type of industry standard it seems). Also with just 1 motor, ( and no wing sails) I get about the same speed, distance, and performance as everyone else, I have nothin special. Anymore I just run stock motors. Our boats average cruise speed was 8-10mph ( regardless of actual wind speed and direction), the boat became exhausting to operate at any higher speeds, sure we always had about 250 sq ft of sail area available over the last 7 yrs or so that we could put out, but I never put it all out anymore, just too dang dangerous, we typically leave the spinnaker hanging in the garage, and don’t bring it along unless we are going way offshore or plan to travel great distances that day, (why bother, the boat is already way too fast without it). However there is nothing more fun in sailing than putting out a giant spinnaker, (fun factor). It was a fun run and a lot of fun figuring all that stuff out over the last 8 yrs, but my health ( my back injury) has gone down hill and under doctors orders I had to sell the boat. Hopefully if I rest a while I can get another one, ( it’s only a few days work to duplicate what I had if I ever get a new boat, fingers crossed. No regrets. FE
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