Evening all!
wow, we had some time with the boat testing. Have some pictures Ill see about putting up later. Im freakin tired right now.
First off the boat we tested is OLD, keep that in mind. Like 60's old. Also the best way to describe it is an engine with a boat attached as an afterthought. Think ski boat only for rivers.. now this engine is huge, its a 429 cubic inch with a four barrel double pumper carburator.
Now launching the boat was interesting, as the guy hasnt backed up a trailer many times, so after backing down the launching ramp hes too close to one side, and hit the floating dock putting a scratch on his boat. lol. Ok so he now launches it.. and its leaking. By this point I have launched my boat and parked my diesel truck and trailer. I tied up my boat at the far end of the floating dock and attempted to start my motor. 'click'. The solenoid on teh starter was seized, so we had to open the engine cover, i put it up and started to lean in with a hammer to whack the starter. Next thing I know Im being crushed by the engine cover because the little shock to hold it up gave out. Great, and all I hear is my brother and friends in the boat laughing at me. So after they lift the cover off me and I can breath again I whacked the starter with a hammer, put my hand on the carburetor on the top of the engine to push myself up, and my brother tries to start the engine. It tries to start and backfires, in the process taking all the hair off of one of my arms, and scaring the living crap outta me. I get out of there yelling and he tries again and starts it. Ok, so the boats idling and music playing, leave those fools along and my brother and I walk over to the other boat.
By this point he's figured out his problem.. he didnt put the plug in. LOL. And he didnt have one with him! So what did he use? He saw a sparkplug rolling around the bottom of his boat so he jammed it in the hole. But the best part of this whole spectacle is the fact that his girlfriend is involved at this point.. he had her sitting on the stern of the vessel on top of the engine bailing the water out of the boat. When he told her they were going boating and to dress appropriately.. she dressed for a yacht in nice white clothes and jeans, lets just say that she was a nice brown by this point in the day. And telling him in no uncertain terms that she was having a great time and was going to remind him of this for the rest of his life.
Now he had run the motor at home.. but not from the gas tanks in the boat, he just hooked up a line into a jerry can. He filled up the tanks at the gas station and was trying to start his motor. It would fart and die right away. After a while of this, i got upset and my brother and I got in there and starting poking about and checking things.. Discovered that the carburater was spraying mostly water into the engine.. because there was water and crap in the bottom of his boat gas tanks. To discover this took about an hour. After berating him for a while, I went and got one of our portable fuel tanks from our boat we keep as a spare and plumbed it into his fuel line. After one minute of cranking the motor fires right up, runs great, but its LOUD. wow. Have I mentioned that this is a direct drive boat because the gearbox doesnt work? The boat takes off! lol, so hes headed out of the cove into the river channel with my brother and Im left standing on the dock. I rush back to the boat to catch up, untie the boat and take off following him. I open up the boat to try to race him when he follows up beside me.. I get the boat up to 50 miles an hour.. and he blows me away. Like I was standing still.. wide open his engine with a boat goes 65-70 miles an hour ON THE WATER. Insane. After about 10 minutes he stops dead in teh water, I drive up to him and see they are trying to siphon some gas from his boat tanks into the portable gas can he has.. he ran out of gas! In ten minutes he went through 6 gallons of gas!
After running about for a while, including him almost going up on the beach at one point because he was trying to light a cigarrette, which he ended up losing along with his lighter anyhow in the wind. We head back into the cove with the dock and boat launch. He of course manages at this point to run aground.. which is no biggie cause its mud there, but he also manages to hit the dock pretty good once he gets going again. Another guy that was there told him that one launching ramp was far too shallow and had a big hole. True to form today he backs his truck down that one he was told not to and his tailer disapeared. After getting the boat on, he tries to get out of the dropoff and cant.. so he guns it and the truck bounces up and out. However the problem here was that he didnt lock his boat crank in position.. and teh boat bounced off teh trailer and back into the water.. luckily into the water and not the concrete boat launch. After backing up again, after much time passing.. the waters gone out further.. so he goes FARTHER into the water. This time getting the boat on the trailer and trying to get out.. the metal stand teh boat winch goes to broke off the trailer. So I get out there now and tie the boat to the trailer with rope. In the meantime while getting over to the trailer, I put my foot on what I thought was concrete boat ramp when it really was a pothole full of mud.. and soaked my foot halfway up to my knee.
He gets the boat up and out of the water this time.. and the story is done right? wrong! during all that bashing about under the water where you cant see.. he blew the bead on his tire. Incredible at this point.. nothings working out for him.
So we get the truck and boat up the ramp and park it off the side. Of course theres no spare, and its an oddball rim and bolt pattern. So we then jacked up the trailer, took off the tire and sent one guy to the gas station.. and the cold beer and wine as we were out of beer. After screwing around for hours, we finally had the tire back on and the trailer kinda drove ok.. the whole axle on the tailer had shifted back when he rammed it on the droppoff so the tailer was dog walking.
He drove the whole way home at 60 km/hr with us following him.. and teh smell of burning rubber.
LOL. So.. how was everyones day? To be honest we all had a great time today, everyone felt sorry for him and bought him dinner. But he had a grin on his face from ear to ear because he finally got his boat out on the water and running.
