A bit of a tow

Created: April 12, 2025 | Modified: January 18, 2026

A bit of a tow

We have had our share of mishaps. We encountered our first -- and so far worst calamity very early on. We had been motoring around getting a feel for the yacht -- when the engine cut out. No problem, we can troubleshoot that. After about an hour of faffing about -- I still couldn't get the engine going. Alright, we can sail it in. Not ideal considering this would be our first time ever properly sailing the boat -- but it would work. At a minimum, it will bring us closer to the town where we could ask for assistance.

This started just fine, and was actually quite pleasant -- a nice 15 knot wind pushing us along. As we got closer to the relatively tight channel, there was a thought -- let's just test the process of bringing the sails in. Since we are going to be operating in tight, shallow waters -- best we have at least practiced this maneuver. This was when things went from bad to worse.

This yacht has hydraulic winches and furlers. We had tested these before we went out. They decided that right then was when they needed to fail. All of these hydraulic systems also have manual overrides. We had also tested these before. The wind had picked up, and was blowing us to shore with a nice 25 knots of wind.

We managed to get the main sail in. Then we tried to get the Genoa in. This was when we learned that the furler for the foresail that should have wrapped the Genoa nicely around the forestay -- was completely broken. With no engine, no hydraulics, no manual overrides, and a massive Genoa flapping about in decent winds -- we decided discretion was the greater part of valor and called for a tow in.

You can see our awkward drift and zigzag here. Right below the longitude line where it shows 38 degrees 58 minutes was where we lost power -- then started drifting. Got our sails up, tacked out, and then once we were the furthest west on that tack we attempted to bring the sails in. Then we drifted a long while (struggling to try and get the Genoa in), eventually getting towed back by a local fishing boat. whoops

Engine details

It turns out that the switch controlling the pump for the day tank had stopped working. This tank then emptied and the whole system ran dry. There is supposed to be an alarm for this (we have the manual for the alarm, a hand-drawn diagram suggesting its existence), however I suspect that this mythical alarm is aspirational at best. You are also supposed to be able to flip two handles and have it roll over to the main tank.

The challenge is that if you run it dry -- you need to bleed the system. By the manual, there is a tiny little lever on the lift pump that you can use to bleed the system. In practice -- this is ineffective. We later had a local mechanic show us a "trick" -- if you use the starter, it will run the lift pump. Just be careful not to burn out your starter motor. Not exactly the most elegant of solutions -- but it gets the job done.

For the foresail -- the hydraulic furler had completely broken. It had to be completely removed and shipped to Athens for a complete overhaul and rebuild. Nothing much we could do there. It was an admittedly validating feeling to have the sail (hydraulics) people show up and also be unable to get it going.

We had tested all the components before going on the water (2 weeks prior) -- things just sometimes happen. We did learn a lot about the boat on this day. Small victories, I guess.