Honest, we did it. I think the main factor was the size and mass of the
prop. This was a little 4 cylinder gas engine. I think it was a Universal.
Brand new.

This boat had about a 16 dia. wheel on a 1 1/2" shaft..

We had been anchored in Cat Harbor, Catalina Is. for about a week and hadn't
realized that the engine room light was on all that time. This was back in
about '60 and we had no VHF or elect cabin lights so never noticed that the
battery (1) went dead. Couldn't hand crank it because it was on a vee drive
with the pulley end of the engine backed up against the mizzen step...

We hoisted anchor and sailed out into open water and once we were on a broad
reach the boat speed picked up and the prop shaft started spinning because
we had forgotten to put it in gear.. We has also forgotten to turn off the
ingnition switch from our earlier attempts to start it.

The skipper kicked the shift lever into fwd to stop the prop rotation, BAMM!
the engine kicked over and started. Wow! what a feeling of relief, since we
know the summer wind wouldn't last all the way to San Diego.

BTW. I have often bragged that I could hand crank my MD2B diesel. In fact I
did it regularly on my last boat. I now have the same model engine on my
present boat but last Fri. I had a starter problem and tired to hand crank
this one. I must be getting older (67) and weaker but I couldn't get enough
rpm up with the cold engine oil (30 weight, plus this eng. only has 100
hours on it).

I finally took the starter apart and repaired it(broken brush spring), but
I am looking into some way to release the compression lever while still
keeping both hands on the hand crank.

Or else I need to go the the gym and work on my upper body strength and
cardiovacular stuff.

Steve
s/v Good Intentions