The 2012 summer has been a beautiful one on Puget Sound. Warm sunny weather, a nice breeze, and fairly calm clear waters. Every sailors dream, or your worst nightmare if you cannot get out on the water.

My beautiful 23′ sailboat, Zippety Doo Dah, has been sadly stuck in the marina during all this fantastic weather. Why is that you ask? In marinas controlled by the state sailboats are required to motor through the marina. I would toss up the sail and go out anyways if not for two conditions: my slip is the very inmost slip, and the marina management has warned me a couple times not to try to sail out 🙁

All this is due to my seemingly perfect Honda 7.5 HP outboard having idle issues. I can get it to run at high RPMs, but it is not safe (nor allowed) to go that fast through the marina. Assuming it to be a fuel/carb issue, I changed the fuel, ran a ton of cleaner through the carb, I even took it to an expert. Nobody seems to be able to tell me why the motor will no longer idle. There is an old sailors adage that women on board a ship are bad luck. As I would have it, the last time I went sailing I took a beautiful woman out with me, and that is when all the trouble started. I think Zippey was jealous. The motor has not been working right since. Unfortunately I have also not been in a financial position to pick up a new outboard either… Sad sad times.

Outboard motors suck

You happen to have a long shaft outboard I can borrow for a while?