Dylan - I am so sorry to hear the bastards took your outboards! What utter scrotes.
Your friend,
Judy B
they are indeed scrotes of the highest order. However, I have not lost any sleep over the theft and I think that google are as bad as the scrotes.
I have been given a replacement for the Honda. It has stood in a shed for five years and failed to start the last time the previous owner had a go at it. I drove a couple of hundred miles to pick it up, changed the oils, fed it a new plug, cleaned the carb and it now runs. Not entirely smoothly and it does have a petrol leak somewhere in the system. I am confident I will solve those problems - they are great little engines for sure.
I have also had a few more paypal taps in the 48 hours following putting the films up so I have enough in the kitty to buy a second hand replacement for the Tohatsu - not as good as the one I lost but it will get the boat going again. The reason for putting the film up, writing the blog and posting on the forums, was not to get taps from old blokes but to spread the images of the engines around as much as I can in the hope that some-one might recognise them.
The comments have been interesting. One bloke said that he had been watching the films for "literally years" but had not chipped in until he saw my crap cars - his comment was that I must really love sailing if I am prepared to drive a Y reg Micra on a 1000 mile round trip to go sailing.
I have also discovered that the wives of old sailors have a marvelous influence on them. Now that many people can watch on their big tellies their wives get the films inflicted on them. Many, apparently, are doing more useful things at the same time while the jowly man is showing new bits of the UK to armchair sailors but they often look up at the screen when the nice bits of music are playing and pretty sailing sequences are on the screen.
One bloke said wife had been aware that he had been watching sailing films but not seen any because they had only been on the computer Once they were on the big telly she started asking him about how the films were financed and why I was making the films.
When she learned that they were supported by modest paypal taps from old sailors who watch them she asked him a a few pertinent questions about his contributions. When he confessed that he had never chipped in she gave him what he described as "one of those looks" and $5 appeared in my paypal account.
In some ways the unfolding relationship with a few thousand old sailors from all around the English speaking world has been as amazing as the journey. There are some lovely old blokes out there - and they outnumber the scrotes by thousands to one.
I am still slightly hopeful that the scrotes will watch the film and decide that the engines are a bit too well known and dump them. On the other hand, they could well be in a container and on their way to a new life in another country. I just hope that the bloke who ends up buying and using the Tohatsu realises what a brilliant engine he has bought.
If anyone does come to me and say that they have bought the engine I would be more than happy to pay them whatever price they paid for it to get them back. They are both reliable well cared for engines.
the little Honda has a rubberised stop switch and is made of the head of a 2.3 and the leg of a 2.0
and the tohatsu has the in gear stop wired up so that it will start in gear
so if you ever see them....
dylan.winter@virgin.net
the Honda is easily the most famous and recognisable 2.3 in the UK.