Down in Lymington after a bit of preparation, adding a gallon of two stroke oil and some boat shifting by the yard, we were launched and pottering down the river.
We started gently and headed West but we could see that the Needles Channel had a lot of breaking water despite the neap tides. Big overfalls on the Shingles bank and by the Needles on the opposite side of the channel weren't encouraging. We progressed slowly. Once round the Needles the sea became more regular and we were able to increase our pace to 43 mph as we ran in a quartering sea down to St Catherines Point. Black Gold coped beautifully with these conditions and for the two of us using the Ullman suspension seats the ride was very easy. The third person standing behind but holding these seats found it rather disconcerting as they moved up and down.
St Catherines provided more irregular waves and breaking water. In fact it looked much worse that it was and despite one crew member letting out a scream we were soon through the race into the calmer water on the other side without even a drop on board. The remainder of the run round to my mooring in East Cowes Marina for lunch was very easy with the engine now sounding very good.
After lunch it was back to work, and on Graham Jelley's (Scorpion MD) advice, we did 6 runs, 3 each way in Southampton Water on the measured mile in order to assess our current propeller as the engine loosens up. We did these runs with a half tank of fuel and three on board with a constant leg angle of 7 degrees. We will use this data to decide on our next propeller.
We went back to Lymington in a typical Solent chop with the boat running very smoothly. In all a good day with no problems and us progressively gaining more confidence in Black Gold.
Gavin. 30.3.08
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