Where is my ignition coil?

[Ken Fry]

I am new to sailing multihulls.

Question 1: One of my diesel engines (the right one if I am looking backwards, or the left one if I am looking forwards) (why are there two?) bursts into flames when I start it. I think that's wrong. It seems like an ignition problem. So I want to replace its ignition coil, but can't find it. Where should I look. I called AutoZone, but they were no help.

Question 2: What is that booming noise when my engine starts? It is in-between a cherry bomb and an M80 in sound. Is it some sort of alert system?

Question 3: My previous sailing experience was with a paper airplanes, so I'm a little bit of a newby. A cruel person might say that I should have started out with something smaller than an 82' cat. Maybe I should know this, but I don't.. so please go easy on me. But here is the question: when I stuff a life jacket into my stuffing box I have a lot of life jacket left over. Do I just cut off the excess? Do they make smaller life jackets for the purpose? I removed that big metal roundy thing that goes to the squiggly thing in the water to make the hole bigger. But still, I'm wasting a lot of life jacket. Why do they make boats like this?

Merry Christmas to all!

[dfelsent]

Please use the correct vocabulary. It is your widdershins engine that is going around the wrong way. If you move your yacht to the other hemisphere the flames will stop. On the equator the flames will have a fifty fifty chance.

The booming noise is because of your age. What you hear is all your neighbors shouting “boomer” at you when you go past. Suck it up and get over it.
As far as the 82 foot cat and the stuffing (box.).
Use a chicken or Turkey or other poultry. Remember that the English call it Dressing NOT Stuffing.
Cornbread and herbs will help out here.
You will find more friends than enemies if you feed the honey, not he vinegar. Or don’t feed either.
And 82 feet? Are you sure that is not measure by the waterline? Or Thames tonnage divided by the square root of a turnip?
Actually I think you need an old generation anchor, a monohull, a fin keel, and three masts. Otherwise this forum is not for you.

Oh. And the squiggly thing is named Cthulhu. Don’t mess with it. It is very old, and really nasty.

Merry Christmas.

[Wotname]

To answer you question #3 directly - the life jacket is a standard size, your 82 foot Cat is too small (never knew they made them so small) so get yourself a proper size cat or even better, get a mono (any size) - all your problems (#1 through to #3) will disappear and your life (and wife) will be waaaay happier.

[jimbunyard]

Originally Posted by Ken Fry

I am new to sailing multihulls.

Question 1: One of my diesel engines (the right one if I am looking backwards, or the left one if I am looking forwards) (why are there two?) bursts into flames when I start it. I think that's wrong. It seems like an ignition problem. So I want to replace its ignition coil, but can't find it. Where should I look. I called AutoZone, but they were no help.

Question 2: What is that booming noise when my engine starts? It is in-between a cherry bomb and an M80 in sound. Is it some sort of alert system?

Question 3: My previous sailing experience was with a paper airplanes, so I'm a little bit of a newby. A cruel person might say that I should have started out with something smaller than an 82' cat. Maybe I should know this, but I don't.. so please go easy on me. But here is the question: when I stuff a life jacket into my stuffing box I have a lot of life jacket left over. Do I just cut off the excess? Do they make smaller life jackets for the purpose? I removed that big metal roundy thing that goes to the squiggly thing in the water to make the hole bigger. But still, I'm wasting a lot of life jacket. Why do they make boats like this?

Merry Christmas to all!

Glad to see you've found the perfect place to find answers for your questions,

Be wary though, you'll find many instances here where facts are not and rules aren't either. I'm sure, though, from the politeness of your questions, that you'll learn all the answers for the questions to which you (probably, since you're here) already know the answers.

merry xmas and happy holidays

[BillKny]

Just like the OP, except I have a great idea:

I have a bunch of AA rechargeable batteries. I am planning to strap 96 of them together, making a 144 Volt battery bank. I’ll add a solar panel, and sail across the Northwest Passage on my 50 ton ferrocement boat! My calculations say this will work great!

Oh, and I’ll need help with how to plug in the induction cooker I’ll be using.

[caffel]

Marine engines come in four colors, blue, green, red and silver-gray. Please let us know which one you have so we can respond accurately.
You are correct in assuming that it does matter which way the skipper is facing when the malfunction aoccurs.

[Dsanduril]

Originally Posted by BillKny

Just like the OP, except I have a great idea:

I have a bunch of AA rechargeable batteries. I am planning to strap 96 of them together, making a 144 Volt battery bank. I’ll add a solar panel, and sail across the Northwest Passage on my 50 ton ferrocement boat! My calculations say this will work great!

Oh, and I’ll need help with how to plug in the induction cooker I’ll be using.

You will need a very good BMS for this, otherwise you risk melting the North Pole while you are on the Northwest Passage. AA batteries in series are very sensitive to voltage differences between cells. You must set your BMS to a low voltage cutoff of 1.497864328V and a high voltage cutoff of 1.50194737V. Your alternator will melt and you should connect the batteries parallel not series.

Make sure your ferro boat uses titanium reinforcing, regular steel cannot be used in saltwater less than 18.2C.

You solar panel should be pointed to the north to collect light reflected off the snow, not south to collect direct sunlight like everyone else here and everywhere on the internet will tell you.

Happy Boxing Day (with nary a race in sight).

[jmschmidt]

Is this a joke or do you really not know port from starboard?

"You CANNOT be serious!" - John McEnroe

[Dogscout]

The original machine had a base plate of prefabulated amulite, surmounted by a malleable logarithmic casing in such a way that the two main spurving bearings were in a direct line with the panametric fan. The latter consisted simply of six hydrocoptic marzlevanes, so fitted to the ambifacient lunar waneshaft that side fumbling was effectively prevented. The main winding was of the normal lotus-o-deltoid type placed in panendermic semi-boloid slots in the stator, every seventh conductor being connected by a nonreversible tremmie pipe to the differential girdlespring on the "up" end of the grammeters.
Turbo encabulators themselves are old, but the precept formulated in girdle-spring stabilization that will prevent the encabulator from cross-linking to the dingle-arm is about the only significant part of that report. Preventing any spurious sinusoidal UFD syncing problems related to modial duractance means they musty have figured out a practical and simple way to permit normalized panametric fam constants to nearly zero or at least have found some sneaky way to maintain negative quadrant pole stabilizations on the PM components. They have to have reductified polar coefficients to even attempt a stabilized hydrocoptic marzel vane that doesn't suffer from side fumbling.

[Dsanduril]

Originally Posted by jmschmidt

Is this a joke or do you really not know port from starboard?

"You CANNOT be serious!" - John McEnroe

You missed the OP's profile. His boat is a proa, so each end is the bow, and also the stern, depending on where the sail is located. So sometimes it is the port engine, and sometimes the starboard, depending on which way he is facing.

[Ken Fry]

Originally Posted by jmschmidt

Is this a joke or do you really not know port from starboard?

"You CANNOT be serious!" - John McEnroe

I definitely know port from merlot. I am not all that fond of port.

I just goggled starboard, and see that is a type of polyethylene board. (First listing... I am not making this up. )

[Ken Fry]

Originally Posted by Dsanduril

You missed the OP's profile. His boat is a proa, so each end is the bow, and also the stern, depending on where the sail is located. So sometimes it is the port engine, and sometimes the starboard, depending on which way he is facing.

Is that bow as in bow and arrow? I am learning a great deal here.

You are correct that what I described as a catamaran is really a proa -- I googled it. To keep the ends straight, I call one "the pointy end" and the other "the other pointy end". As you might guess, I have two brothers: my brother darrell, and my other brother darrell.

In my defense, I think that my "catamaran" (now proa) used to be a traditional catamaran... in other words, the two boaty things were originally the same size. One was shortened considerably from one of my ignition problems.

[Ken Fry]

Originally Posted by Dogscout

The original machine had a base plate of prefabulated amulite, surmounted by a malleable logarithmic casing in such a way that the two main spurving bearings were in a direct line with the panametric fan. The latter consisted simply of six hydrocoptic marzlevanes, so fitted to the ambifacient lunar waneshaft that side fumbling was effectively prevented. The main winding was of the normal lotus-o-deltoid type placed in panendermic semi-boloid slots in the stator, every seventh conductor being connected by a nonreversible tremmie pipe to the differential girdlespring on the "up" end of the grammeters.
Turbo encabulators themselves are old, but the precept formulated in girdle-spring stabilization that will prevent the encabulator from cross-linking to the dingle-arm is about the only significant part of that report. Preventing any spurious sinusoidal UFD syncing problems related to modial duractance means they musty have figured out a practical and simple way to permit normalized panametric fam constants to nearly zero or at least have found some sneaky way to maintain negative quadrant pole stabilizations on the PM components. They have to have reductified polar coefficients to even attempt a stabilized hydrocoptic marzel vane that doesn't suffer from side fumbling.

Finally, someone who speaks my language! The Rockwell Retroencabulator is very likely to find its way into hybrid sailboats very soon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXJKdh1KZ0w

[Ken Fry]

Originally Posted by BillKny

Just like the OP, except I have a great idea:

I have a bunch of AA rechargeable batteries. I am planning to strap 96 of them together, making a 144 Volt battery bank. I’ll add a solar panel, and sail across the Northwest Passage on my 50 ton ferrocement boat! My calculations say this will work great!

Oh, and I’ll need help with how to plug in the induction cooker I’ll be using.

I had a flashlight once, so I am pretty sure I know what I am talking about here: your induction cooker is more likely to be an deduction cooker. But in either case, I think you should not plug it in. Have you not heard about Tesla's (the guy, not the car) thoughts on pushing the electrons where you want them though the air?

Good god man, have you never used a cell phone?

Sorry. I did not mean to be discouraging. The gist of your idea is excellent. Retroencabulators may be expensive right now, but the price will almost certainly come down.

[Ken Fry]

Originally Posted by dfelsent

The booming noise is because of your age. What you hear is all your neighbors shouting “boomer” at you when you go past. Suck it up and get over it.

WOW! This is very perceptive. Sometimes things just become clear with even the a the tiniest nudge from an expert. Oddly, many of my neighbors give me wide berth, so it can be a little difficult to hear... but I distinctly recall the word "Hey" in front of the word "boomer".

Please consider it sucked up and gotten over. I take their description of me as an honorific.