Great day on Winnisquam, NH

[patfurr]

Wow....what a great day!  Today was an unplanned day out on the lake.  As it was all last minute I could not round up any crew so I went out solo.  Winds were 20-25 knots with some gusts pushing 30.  Sporty as you can imagine.  Had my immersion dry suit and PFD on so that answers that question right off the bat.  The tricky parts were raising the sail while motoring up and dropping it at the end of the day after the wind built even more.  I learned that the SunCat actually points upwind nicely, just needs a good bit of breeze is all.  I set the reef before leaving the dock and that was just about right.  Got a little weather helm on some of the bigger puffs, but overall the trick seems to be to take advantage of the really strong lifts and point her up even with a bit of luff.  I never once trimmed the aft of the boom inside of the rear quarter and found that easing it off just a tad really kept the speed up and helped prevent broaching on the big hits.  After about 5-6 long tacks due north I turned for home.  Whoa Nelly!!!!  Who says this boat's hull speed is just over 5 knots?!?!  I know for sure that I exceeded that by a fair margin. This boat loves a broad reach with LOTS of power.  I must've exceeded hull speed plenty as she would roll up out of the reach into the wind on occasion and I figure that was due to loss of rudder effect.  What a wild ride.  I found that to be almost too much fun and decided to go with nearly a dead run to calm things down a bit to prepare my thoughts for turning up wind, dropping and starting the kicker engine, and dropping sail.   The lazy jacks worked to my advantage and all things considered, it was borderline smooth.  I cant quite get enough friction on my 6 hp Tohatsu though and it kept turning off center at the most inopportune times.  All in all, an epic day.  I would rate it right up there with my best days out on my 470 some 30 years ago.  Given that I am that much older now, I would say the thrill was a dead heat.   

[hoddinr]

Great day indeed!

That's one problem I had with the Tohatsu.  Impossible to tighten up the tension to keep it pointing straight.  And it will break if you overdo it.
My Yamaha doesn't have that problem.
My Local Tohatsu dealer (Star Marine in St. Pete) had something that you bolted to the boat to keep it from turning, but then you couldn't turn the engine when you wanted to turn it.

Ron Hoddinott

[Mike K]

I second that Tohatsu steering lock problem.  My 4HP has the same issue. From an internet search all Tohatsu's seem to have the design issue, so my guess is that all Nissan's and small Mercury's will too (all Tohatsus).  It's a major PITA that they need to fix in the future.

My Honda 5 does not have that problem, and I think I for my next outboard, I will get another Honda, as it's worth the extra $$.  I like it that much more than the Tohatsu.

Anyway, enjoy your Suncat!