Newbie start guide (journey / diary) to inflatable boats

[Jimbolio]

Geezers/Geezerettes, I thought I'd document my beginners journey into the deep blue, sorry if some points have been covered or appear obvious to the seasoned veterans.

I thought this may come in use to other guys starting out or at least provide a little entertainment to those already in...

It'd be great community spirit if folks could chime in with the who/what/where/how below...

About Me:
Age - Southside of 40 (And yes you are right, I do look good for it - getting younger, thinner and less grey everyday. Thanks for asking.)
Location - Stansted, Essex, UK
Occupation - (pre beer explanation) High end residential audio visual engineer (post beer explanation) I mess about with wires and that...
Lifestyle - Wifed & owner of two squids - Aged 9 & 7. Both are boys, both love the water. No unicorns here.
Genralisation - Happy go lucky, lover of the good times.

About Boat:
Boat - Vintage 1988 avon typhoon 3.4m
Motor - 2001 Mercury 15hp 4stroke

Trials & Tribulations of getting on the water
...coming soon

[Jimbolio]

So, started to think family etc. New boat is what I need seeing as they will be in it some day if I get good at this.

ERROR. Buy a used one. Think first car & how that ended... Same same...

Enter the the used Avon. At the time I had no idea how well recommended these blow ups were.
Yes mine is an older model, but so was my first car.

For the moment, it'll do. I'm using this to see if I(/we) like driving, before dropping a few grand on the audi.

[Jimbolio]

Powerplant

Got lucky on ebay, your mileage may vary.

Unpredicted, but a great win.
4 stroke Mariner 15hp. Perfect for dropping me in the drink.

To all the nay-sayers, i've gone 4 stroke as I may be going river/canals for a while until the L plates are off and don't want to annoy the barge owners to much with the pup pup pup of a 2 stroke.

This may change in the future when experience allows a trip to the big blue!

[Jimbolio]

Righty-oh

Maiden voyage with the second hand gear planned for early doors next weekend.

If only everything was tip top..

Bear in mind I’m a working guy out at 6am and not back until 7pm, 2 kids, time is precious to say the least!

So far,

[emoji736] two iffy leaks spotted & repaired using squidgy dish soap method - glue is still drying
[emoji736] new launch wheels fitted, then refitted after old transom holes have been schmooded up with black marine squirt. Drying time is a real problem...
[emoji736] vintage motor picked up
[emoji736] wooden winter storage mount built and motor dropped on (defo need a chopsaw to build your own)
[emoji736] new tank acquired
[emoji736] new tank filled up with fun juice (£16)
[emoji736] new fuel hose fits vintage motor
⛔️ new fuel hose does NOT fit new fuel tank. Fuming.
⛔️ pack engine away again FFS
⛔️can not figure how to tilt vintage engine.

[emoji736] beer

⛔️realise another life jacket is required for navigator (read: mate who can swim & £70 OUCH)

[emoji736] beer

⛔️ waiting for hypalon patches to dry still

[emoji736] beer
[emoji736] more beer

[Fenlander]

Beer to achievements ratio running at almost 50% is a tad high!

[Yabadabadoo]

Says the man who props his (shiny and very handsome) new trolly up with a can of Stella.. :-) [emoji481] every workshop should have one.

[Fenlander]

Ha ha well yes... I did look for something more boaty and in keeping but my hand fell on the garage stash first.

[mm289]

Good luck Jim, have you planned your location for the first trip? River/canal sounds good, somewhere where you can launch easily is better and (for me at least) somewhere I could mess around and get it wrong without lots of people gawping at me!


I also did a RYA Powerboat2 course as I had never been out on an outboard powered boat before although I had done lots of kayaking etc. May not be relevant for you but whilst I would have been "OK" without it it did give me a lot of useful info and experience.


Also worth building a kit list of the things you want/need to take, there are a few threads on here with examples but note some of these are for inshore/offshore so may be a bit OTT for your canal


Cheers


Paul.

[Jimbolio]

Late one...
First start on the engine today, after much tinkering.

Started her up with two buckets, one for incoming one for outgoing.

I don’t know how long this engine has sat (been promised the ol’ it was just serviced) but the intake tank looks like it’s just done a risky fart after a vindaloo.

Is this normal???

[Jimbolio]

Anyway, I’ve come this far so die or die trying.

Barton point launch tomorrow at 11am. Keep an eye on the news...

[Fenlander]

If that bucket was clean at the start then that's as dirty as a dirty 2-stroke! But let's give it the benefit of the doubt... it may need a good run.

God luck on first run... is that a slip or beach launch?

[Jimbolio]

Mate, it was new and clean as a whistle beforehand.

I’m going for a proper clear out tomorrow!

I swear if it packs up, I’m going back to kit cars...

[Jimbolio]

Slip. But parking over the road - its a steep one & the recommendation is 4x4, which the work van isn’t..

Once fulfilled by the Wetherspoons breakfast, we’ll be across the road & out in the blue!

[Yabadabadoo]

Take an anchor, mobile and vhf if you have one.

Water looks oily? Piston rings? Fuel mixture/carb tune? Does it smoke?

[Jimbolio]

Work van loaded and ready for tomorrow

What's in there then?

The thinking was was, get a flappy storage box like the office movers use and plop everything you need in there. Making a grab box that can be easily accessible and ready to go at the drop of a hat.

This turned into a bit of a russian doll, as there's some stuff I want shoreside and some I want aboard, it allgoes in the same grab box from the garage, Hence:

Shoreside Equipment
- ITIWIT pump
- Homemade 12v extension lead
- Spare fuses for Cig Lighter
- Tarpaulin (in case stuff gets mucky/fuel/oil/skanky boat to line work van)

Onboard Bag
- Crewsaver Lifejackets
- Bravo footpump with correct adaptor x2 (just in case)
- Glowsticks (borrowed from 7 year olds birthday party)
- Cheap android tablet with navionics app - quality tbc
- Cobra handheld VHF - RYA course incoming...

- Who knows how many hand tools, this'll be thinned down at somepoint once comfortable:
--300mm adjustable nut ruiner
--Adjustable grip ruiners
--3/8th socket set
--Bunch of spanners
--Some screwdrivers
--Leatherman
--Cable ties
--Gaffer tape

Obvs - Van, Boat, Fuel tank, Motor, Confidence..

[Jimbolio]

Originally Posted by Yabadabadoo

Take an anchor, mobile and vhf if you have one.

Water looks oily? Piston rings? Fuel mixture/carb tune? Does it smoke?

It did BIG time on first start, then settled down on starts 2/3/4/5 (5min gap between) - Only used one set of bucket water, so I can't confirm if it cleared the "brad pitts" on the latter runs or not.

[Jimbolio]

Locked & loaded

[Jimbolio]

So the first outing today was more of seatrial than a pleasure trip. But hooray anyway!

You could park at the slip, concrete ramp down, 20m of pebbles at the bottom.
No problem on the way down, but the way up required a friendly local to assist and tow us off the pebbles/sand due to the wheels rutting up and immobilising us. Once he'd picked himself up from the floor laughing at us trying to drag it uphill...

Todays Lessons and notes for fixes:
- When exiting the water, remember to put wheels down.
- Remember not to panic and jump in to fold the wheels down whilst wearing the self inflating automatic water activated lifejacket... ahem..
- Anything over 50% throttle seems to lead to what felt like clutch slip, revs ok, but no movement until revs lowered when it re-engages movement (requires further investigation)
- There seems to be a worrying bending of the main tubes when revving hard. This appears to be inline with the three plywood floor panels. I reckon a length of 'something' spanning all three from front to back will resolve this (possibly unistrut, or stainless angle iron etc) as will a touch more air pumpage into the tubes, currently filling to 2.3PSI
- Nose lifts a lot. Even with kit/fueltank/passenger as far forward as possible. May require sandbags up front, but get the floor sorted and tubes stable first...
- Motor close to cutting out at idle, hopefully adjust next run. Got by with 5/10% throttle position to avoid stalling.
- Had a play with the trim pin setting, tough to say where the sweet spot is until the floor/tube/bending is resolved.

All round, a good first run.

[Jimbolio]

Whoopsie...

[Fenlander]

Good to get that first run done and start snagging.

Yep always remember... on land wheels down... on water wheels up... helps loads.

Because I'm often in the water (wetsuit trousers and dinghy boots) at launch and any beach landings I use a 70N PFD not an auto-inflate lifejacket.

Clutch slip feeling... could be a slipping rubber hub on the prop... mark two components of prop and see if they align after a run... or could be a set-up issue if hub OK.

Tubes shouldn't bend.... flexible yes but not bend as in at specific places. Are you sure of inflation pressure with a gauge you trust? You do have the side stringers on the floorboards I hope??

With a passenger forward and mid point for the trim pin you shouldn't be running loads bow high once on the plane... you are getting on the plane I assume. Do you have GPS for speeds.

Cutting out at idle... just check the plug gap/condition then re-set the idle mixture/speed. As long as the OB is otherwise OK this should resolve.

I'd just run middle posn on the trim pin until... as you say... the other issues are resolved.