[8D]Not sure if anyone can help..

I am a new member to the association, I have just bought my first sailing boat and I am pleased to say it is a Parker 235. I intend to keep it at Rutland water, and many of you will know the regulations there prevent the use of petrol.

So I am looking for a useful electric outboard. Any advice would be gratefully received.

I like the idea of a folding device and have heard about Torqueedo Travel and Minn Kota Vantage. They are both pretty expensive but (so long as my wife doesn't see the bill) I will only buy one once. I guess it needs a long shaft engine too.

Also some advice about power layouts to run the thing. Would I have two batteries and take them home to charge or look at a photocell system, do I need a battery monitor etc. Like to hear how other people sort this out.

Cheers Nick

Hi Nick,

Welcome to the association and welcome to Rutland Water. I also have my boat at Rutland Water at the sailing club. As some one who has just bought their first boat, you have made a wise choice, congratulations.

With regards the electric engine, I have the MinnKota 50, which pushes the boat along at about 2.5 knots on full power, on flat water with no head wind. I find this enough to maneuver in and out when there is no wind. Please be aware that all these electric engines are of relatively low power and cannot cope with any amount of head wind. Of course if you have wind then you can sail !

I use a small 40 Amp sealed car battery to power mine. It is not very big but gives about 30 minutes drive at medium speed, which is plenty to dodge around the pontoons and moorings. I chose this size because it is about half the size of a car battery and is much lighter to handle. You will need to charge it at home and take it with you each time. A solar panel to recharge this kind of power drain would be the size of your cockpit. I bought my battery from Halfords and it has a handy carrying handle.

If you decide to go down the solar panel route, be careful to buy the fully flexible type as both the rigid and semi rigid ones will not bend enough to match the radius of the Parker Coach roof should you decide to mount it there. I would suggest that a solar panel will only be suitable to keep your boat battery topped up and would not be sufficient to recharge an engine batter.

In practice, I find I only use the engine on the odd day the wind dies away and I need to get back to the mooring etc. This happens about twice a year.

What is the name of your boat and sail number? I will be sailing this Saturday, hope to see you around.

Regards

Graham Ebb

235/25 Blue Jazz

Thanks for that Graham

The boat is number 36, it will be called Juicy Blue.

I hope to be up at Rutland soon, but I am still waiting for a trailer from RM.

All being well should be about two weeks.

Nick

I don't think the Angle of Vanishing Stability is untypical of this type/size of yacht (eg the Red Fox) in fact I think they are more stable than average because of the low keel CoG. My only worry was that there is nothing to hold the keel down once the boat gets past the horizontal. I did ask Bill Parker about this and he said he had a modification ("not very expensive") to prevent the keel sliding "upwards", however on reflection I decided not to bother and haven't had any cause to change my mind since. I have been out in a F6 a couple of times and provided you are well reefed they perform well, the more weight you have on the rail obviously the better. May have been out in the bottom of a F7 but we were going down wind so not really a test.

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James have you posted to the right topic?

At last I have managed to get Juicy Blue to Rutland, I had a lot of help from R+M trailers who built me a trailer similar to the original Parker spec but with extra rollers on the back to make recovery easier.

I had even more help from a wonderful guy called Colin Buttifant who has a boat yard in Norfolk and still hand makes beautiful wooden boats.

After several epic road journeys (I am a novice to towing as well as sailing keel boats), I finally got the boat to Rutland and breathed a huge sigh of relief.

So far I have changed the colour of the boat from red to navy blue, added new transfers, and retro fitted a pulpit and stanchions.

The engine I have gone for is a Minn Kota Vantage I managed to track down an old model that had been at a boat show and never used but considerably cheaper than the new model. (Thanks to Peter at Norfolk Marine). It is complete overkill but I love gadgets and this has an electrically raised shaft so it can stay in place and be raised out of the drag when sailing (at least that is my theory).

Now I just have to work out how to rig a Parker from scratch which may prove amusing to anyone passing Whitwell sailing club this Sunday.

Nick

Hi Nick,

Glad to hear you made it OK.

I will be at Rutland SC this Sunday, but will be doing the opposite to you. I am taking Blue Jazz off the water and dropping the mast and taking her home ready for our trip to the Solent. I would have offered to give you a hand but I have a full schedule this weekend. My mobile number is 07885 488639, feel free to call if you need any advise.

Mind the trees on the slip way. You would not be the first to loose your mast by hitting the trees. Keep to the middle of the slip, don't be tempted to pull round the side of other boats.

I am organising a Parker rally weekend on the 19/20 September if there is enough interest, feed back so far has been minimal, let me know if you would be interested.

Happy sailing

Graham

We will be at Whitwell on Sunday. We will be having our Small Boat Safety Scheme certification and then taking down our rig ready to go away for a while. We will be happy to help anyway we can - at least share a cup of coffee.

We look forward to seeing you there, Brian and Alison Fisher

Parker 235 Thrift