The Decision

The sun set on our goal to head south in 2019

“All good business decisions are made in a bar” -Someone (probably)

September 17th 2019 was one of the hardest and most fun nights of my life. We had spent a week working on the finishing touches to make Scooter a blue water ready sailing vessel and had failed miserably at every turn. The Radar dome didnt work, the radar mount pole was destroying our hull, the windows leaked, the flex seal ‘fix’ stained the hull black, the motor continued to overheat, the dinghy motor was a paperweight, the biminy project was a mess, we had no spare sails, spare hardware, spare motor parts, no 4th crew member, and still hadn’t practiced some key sailing safety drills.

We sat down at a bar in Gig Harbor, and decided not to go. It was miserable having a dream coming to an end, something we had worked so hard for, and abandoned so much to make possible.

But it was liberating. The adventure was back. With the timetable gone, so was the pressure, the failures, the what-ifs. We were back to basics. The Joy returned.

I wouldn’t exactly say we drowned our sorrows cause there was too much laughter for that. Instead we celebrated what we had accomplished so far, that we were happier in this chapter of our lives than ever before. Either way, we woke up with headaches.

Now the deadlines have been removed and the real adventure can begin.

Joe’s happiness lives on the inside.

Greg’s Short Temper

The Hunter 32 Vision comes with a 3 cylinder, naturally aspirated Diesel Engine. We named ours Greg. Why? ask Joe.

Hot Greg

Greg gets hot. As you would imagine from an engine in an insulated box plowing 15 thousand pounds through water when the wind wont cooperate. We can putz along at about 5-6 knots happily with Greg working away, drinking a half gallon of Diesel an hour…buuut as soon as we need to go 6.5 knots, Greg shouts at us and shuts off.

Technically speaking, our Yanmar 3GM30-F (Greg) has been fantastic. Its reliable, efficient, and provided heat, hot water, propulsion and electricity to us all summer without so much as a hiccup.

Joe & Greg don’t get along.

The cooling system pulls salt water in, transfers heat in a heat exchanger, with the engine coolant, and then spits out the hot salt water with the exhaust. Something in this process is not happening as effectively as it should, and we’ve looked at replacing just about every component of the system. Yanmar and Yanmar Forums provided a checklist of 19 things that can be done to troubleshoot an overheating Greg, and this summer we did numbers 1-17.

Taylor working on #12 of 19

Updates on Greg and his feisty attitude to follow. Stay Tuned.

Oh, and Joe HATES the name Greg and all people named Greg, so feel free to send suggestions to update the name of our motor.