Maiden voyage

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GrandpaMike

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Well... Today was the day. Weather was beautiful. Time to take the boat for my first ride.

I expected a few minor issues... (Sometimes it seems the theme to The Benny Hill Show should be the soundtrack to my life.) I filled the gas tank and mixed the oil. The fill cap leaked. I'm not sure if it's supposed to have a gasket (it doesn't), but if gas sloshes, it leaks from under the cap/fuel guage.

I spent a good amount of time making sure the trailer lights worked last week Got them working great. Today... Nothing on the left. Took some time but got them working again.

Got to the lake and, thankfully, it was a quiet day. I got the boat ready, loaded, plug in, etc and backed it in.

My wife, daughter, son in law, and grand daughter got in and I joined them. Electric start would not work. Starter spun but would not engage the engine. Battery seemed weak, but it was new, so I don't know what drained it.

Went to pull start it and did not want to start. Kind of acted like it was in gear. Shifts kind of hard and it's difficult to stop in nuetral. I was starting to think it wasn't going to start, when suddenly, it started and idled perfectly. Whew!!

We took a slow cruise around the lake. No leaks, the engine ran well, only problem that I encountered after we left the dock was that the depth finder would not turn on. Another odd situation because it was working fine after I installed it. Just would not power up at all.

My daughter, son in law and grand daughter had to leave so we dropped them at the dock so they could leave and then went back out. With less people in the boat, I opened it up and it popped up on plane easily and was very smooth.

So.. as anticipated, first trip was not without problems. (I have to figure out what drained the battery, if there is any way to adjust the shifter, and why the depth finder stopped working.) But we had a lot of fun and I was very happy with how the boat ran and handled.

I guess I'm a boater now. :D
-Mike-
 
Welcome to the world of boating gotchas :)

When I had my first powerboats I had so many problems that I wound up making a laminated checklist to perform the day / night before I would hook the trailer up to go out.

1. Check the terminals and charge the battery. I measured the voltage on the battery studs and did not rely on the dash voltmeter which will only read as good as the post terminals allow.

2. Test start the engine with the earmuffs and water on. Check the pisser.

3. Check the shift cable forward and reverse and trim / tilt

4. Check tire pressure on the trailer, maybe squirt the buddy caps.

5. Gas up the tanks the day before.

6. Check electrical connections, and lights, bilge pump etc.

7. Install plug the night before.

All of this took less than a half hour (not counting filling the gas tanks) and catching the issues at the side of the house was far less stressful than clogging up the busy docks and easier to fix with a garage full of tools nearby.

When my larger boats were dockside things were a lot easier as I used the boat nearly daily.
 
Modern depth finders are very sensitive to low voltages. If your starting battery is low, it may be the reason the depth finder would not turn on.
 
Thanks everyone! I solved my electrical problems! Woo Hoo! It was driving me crazy. I ended up discovering that there was continuity from the positive terminals of all the accessories' connections to the hull when the master switch was on.

The only reason I could think that you'd ever want to run a charge to the hull is on The Seaview when the giant Squid grabs the submarine, so I figured this was a problem.

I took all the positive wires to the fish finder, bilge pump, etc. off the master switch and was going to attach one component at a time to find the one that was shorted to the hull but it still showed continuity with none of them connected so it had to be the battery cables themselves.

When I hooked up the depth finder, I had to disconnect some wires, including the main wires from the battery to the master switch. I should have taken a picture before I started. Turns out I reversed the positive and negative cables on the master switch when I put it back together, so polarity was reversed! Insert humility here.

Bilge pump ran, but it was running backward. There was no water to pump out so I didn't notice it didn't work, just knew it ran when I hit the switch. Starter motor ran, but it was running backward so it was not going to throw the Bendix into the flywheel. Nav lights worked but are incandescent, so they didn't care about polarity. Seat lights are LED so they did not work.

I put them on the correct terminals on the master switch and everything worked!!

-Mike-

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk
 
Easy fixes are the best!

"The only reason I could think that you'd ever want to run a charge to the hull is on The Seaview when the giant Squid grabs the submarine"

:LOL2: :LOL2: :LOL2:
 

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