Nice warm Day here in the Boston, MA, USA area, and so I opened up the garage to do some work on the boat. It was actually warm enough to run to the store with the top down on my convertible
, where I picked up a few bits to finish up some wiring, prop wrench, engine flusher, etc. I've not had the old eBay 4 cylinder 80 hp Merc running yet, and today was a good day to try.
Mounted tach & speedo, and installed new eBay SS prop. Trudged through the foot of remaining snow to the garden hose, and rigged up the flusher. Fuel on, power on and cranked the outboard... nothing. Tried for a while then pulled and cleaned the plugs. Next crank bought an immediate roar of life. Wohooo!! It runs, and restarted instantly several times. I'm very happy! Even brought my wife out to hear it.
HOWEVER, I definitely need to drop the lower unit. It doesn't appear the water pump is functioning well, if at all (therefor I didn't run it for more than 10 seconds at a time). No tattletale stream, and nothing from the upper exhaust outlets. So, the next major project is on... Late March I'll likely take it to Florida, so I have a deadline. Then it's boating season locally.
On another note, I was in Miami for the Olympic Classes sailing Regatta a week ago. RIBS everywhere, from a Searider 4M to a couple of enormous Protectors, a 25' and 28' with a cabin, etc. Nice stuff! Interesting that US Sailing was promoting their deal with Zodiac, "The Official RIB of the US Sailing Team". We each received a brochure with pricing on 4M to 6M boats, rigged with ETecs or 4 stroke Johnsons or Yammies. $20,000 USD for a 5.2M with a 90 Hp. I'm VERY happy with my old Searider looking at that price!
Also, as of Friday, I'm self-employed
so assuming I can actually support my family doing it, I'll have more time to play with the RIB and other boats and toys this summer.
I'm looking at chartering a little 2.4mR sailboat for the summer that I was sailing in Miami, then buying it at the end of the year. (way too many smilies, can you tell I'm in a REALLY good mood?)
