Yesterday morning, I went to refuel and take on freshwater at a marina 500m away. Luckily, I asked some friends for assistance to come and help pick up the
mooring as there was a bit of
wind.
Normally I would test forward and reverse before throwing the
mooring line, however it was let go before I had a chance.
Calamity! we are off the mooring and I couldn't engage reverse, nor forward. So before things got too manic we hoisted the headsail and did a few laps but the
wind was driving us towards the shore. Fortunately a friend came to the
rescue and towed us back to the mooring.
I had no revs on the
engine when I selected reverse and later through neutral to forward. The lever on the
pedestal is stuck and it appears that the selector on the
gearbox is unjammed in reverse.
This problem developed after an incident sailing from Adelaide to
Sydney. The helmsman took his eyes of things and we jibbed, which caused the mainsheet to wrap around the
gear lever, and slam the
motor into reverse whist
motor sailing.
I've only had trouble once before, whilst in
sydney. the lever was stuck so a
mechanic disconnected the cable and freed the selector on the
gearbox by using a hammer and cold chisel. It freed it up and has bee without incident since, that is until yesterday. I haven't looked at it yet, thinking I'd post this first and see if anyone has some good
advice.
When this happened yesterday and I realised there was no chance of find a
gear I switched the
engine off. The gear box was hot and when I took the dipstick out to make sure there was enough
oil again, there was some pressure releasing the dip stick.
Oil was fine and I only use 15/40W as recommended.
Not sure what has caused this as I've had the
boat motoring around the harbour without drama on many occasions.
Any
advice?
Thank you