By Andrew Bray

I once co-authored a book with Des Sleightholme and Bill Anderson. It was titled What Now Skipper? and dealt with all kinds of small-boat seamanship problems. One author would pose a problem, another would attempt a solution and the original author would come back with his answer. You’re probably familiar with this type of nautical quiz in which, as often as not, right at the critical point of an exercise or operation, come the ominous words “And then the engine stopped”.
In these days of quick-starting, reliable and smooth running marine diesels this might seem little more than academic but believe me, it wasn’t always so, as I’m sure many CS readers will know.
If you’ve ever owned a Seagull outboard you’ll be familiar with the problem or, come to that, an RCA Dolphin two-stroke inboard. The latter were very popular because they were compact, light and produced many horsepower for their size but being a two-stroke they could be difficult to start and worse than this, in order to go astern you had to stop the engine and start it up again in the opposite direction. Picture the pontoon or quay approaching at several knots whilst the skipper nonchalantly stops his engine and restarts it again. It takes a lot a faith and gives a new meaning to ‘hit and miss’.
A friend owned an MFV with a similar system except re-starting involved screwing a blank 303 cartridge into the cylinder head and hitting it with a hammer. “The trouble was”, he said, “that about one in ten were dud.” Meanwhile 20 tons of MFV charged onwards.
Des Sleightholme’s Trident 24 Tinker Liz had a Vire engine, another two-stroke. It too was a reluctant starter. One day, as the battery and Des’s temper were running low Joyce, his wife, said “Why don’t you open the forehatch, it worked last time?” In desperation he did just that.“You know what?” he said, “the b***** started straight away”.
One of my boats was fitted with a 15hp Sabb diesel, a monolithic Norwegian-made fishing boat engine. Once it was started you had the feeling that it would run forever but starting could be problematic. In cold weather you unscrewed a stud in the cylinder head, inserted what was called a starting cigarette and tried again. In extremely cold weather you could set fire to this before putting it in. It worked wonderfully. So wonderfully in fact, that when one YM reader, whose boat also had a Sabb diesel, bought some extra starting
cigarettes at a Boat Show and decided to open the tin to show them off, the whole lot ignited at once, necessitating a show evacuation, the Fire Brigade, and producing a slightly singed but wiser sailor.
“And then the Engine Stopped”: it really happens sometimes. In the early days of ‘Zero to Hero’ Yachtmaster courses there was a lot of scepticism about just how good the students would be at the end of their course. Three of us took out a friend’s boat with a couple of these newly qualified Yachtmasters to test out their practical skills. We set up some elaborate ‘What Now Skipper’ situations and you know what? As we approached the critical stage of one manoeuvre the engine stopped all by itself. Even though those two didn’t believe us for a second I have to admit that they coped admirably.

Illustration: Guy Venables