M&C Show at Grandlake, OK

This past weekend we loaded the boat up and took her to Grandlake of the Cherokees in north east Oklahoma. We had a great day cruising on the lake on Thursday and Friday including great stops at Shangri La, the Dam for a tour and a club members house for dinner on Friday. Saturday was show time. No awards, but she looked good at the dock and was the perfect base of operations for checking out all the classic boats.

Best in show this year was a Cuddy Cabin as well. A wonderful restoration on a Hacker Craft Overnighter. Here she is on the trailer getting ready to head to the water.

For lots of photos from the show check out this website

http://www.heartland-classics.org/2012/06/2012-grand-lake-photos/

Boat ran great throughout the weekend and lots of inspiration to keep making improvements.

Starter Swap Out

The starter has been giving me some problems every now and then. Very occasionally when I turned the key the starter would just begin to turn and then stall. Turn the key off and back on and all was good. So I took my spare starter and had it overhauled. Surprise number one, even though it came off a marine engine it was not a marine starter !! Well the shop was able to take care of that problem so now it is time to install it. Today, I dug the old starter out. It was pretty oily confirming that my rear main seal is leaking. The new starter slid right in without any problems. When the old one came out  I discovered that the rear hanger bracket was broken. Well I got the new starter installed and gave it a try. Everything worked !! Seemed to start with a little more authority as well so hopefully starting problems are in the past.

Memorial Day 2012

Accepted a friends invitation and headed out to Grand Lake of the Cherokees Sunday. Put in at the ramp just past the dam. Bad idea. Pretty windy. While trying to pickup my wife after she parked the truck I got the prop in the rocks. So now I have some souvenirs on the prop. The rest of the day was pretty good though. Heading across the lake from the ramp to the cove the combination of wind and wakes made for a rough crossing. Lots of spray coming over the side of the boat. Had a good time swimming and hanging out at the dock. About 6 headed on up the lake past monkey island. Still pretty rough, but not too bad. After supper headed out at sunset for an evening cruise. Ran up duck creek and checked out the yachts and then back across the lake at dark. Put the boat on the trailer after 10pm. Of course I was tired from a long day and well I forgot to put the drive up. Should not have been an issue, BUT, there was a pot hole on the ramp and I just scraped the skeg on the drive. Still a great day on the lake.

First Time on the Water for 2012

Saturday was very warm and I could not stand it any longer. The boat was ready to go and I was out of excuses so loaded everyone up and headed to the lake. Motor ran great, drive sounded great. My oldest finally felt comfortable enough to push the throttle down enough to bring her up on a plane. Dad very proud. Water was very rough with about 20 knots of wind out of the south. Went out looking for ducks to feed. Finally found some back at the ramp where we had started. Looking forward to a great 2012 on the water.

March 2012

Gorgeous day today. Could not resist. I pulled the cover off the boat. Flushed the manifolds and fired her up. Battery was a little low, but it still turned her over. A couple minutes of priming and she lit right up !! Let her warm for 30 minutes, verified the alternator is charging and the shifter is shifting. Seems pretty much ready to go for the season. Weather stays as pretty as it was today, she will probably head out to the lake in a couple of weekends.

Just for fun decided to invest in an inflatable vest for this year. http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product2_11151_10001_98315_-1____ProductDisplayErrorView Should be here in a couple of days. Will be interesting to see how it works out. Went with the manual inflate version so I could wear it in the kayak as well.

2012 Tulsa Boat Show

Made it out to the Tulsa Boat show tonight. Lots of shiny boats to look at and climb all over. Some very nice cuddies by Ray Marine. Also a couple interesting large bow riders by Crownline. None of the Bayliner Discovery series cuddies were there but they had some nice bow rider boats as well. Plenty of campers as well as vendors showing off their stuff. Managed to get in and out without spending any money. Well I did drop $40 on food !!

The Norseman is sitting on the trailer with the cover over her. Got to start working on some new windows for her now that I have figured out how to get them out. My oldest who is working on learning to skipper the boat wants me to convert to electronic shift that we saw at the show. That is not going to happen any time soon of course. But I am considering hydraulic steering up grade this year.

Headed to the Heartland Classics restoration workshop at the end of the month. Check out this link for all the information http://www.heartland-classics.org/2009/01/heartland-classic-restoration-workshop/. Lots of good info their for us crazies that keep the old ones running.

Ready for the winter

Great warm day. Decided to fire up the motor and change the oil. Hooked up the hose to the lower unit and fired up the motor. Took about fifteen minutes for the engine to warm up. Once all good and warm shut her down and sucked out the oil. Once again I love the Mini-Vac for getting oil out through the dip stick. Change the filter and poured in 4 fresh quarts of oil. Fired her back up and checked for leaks. All looked good so off came the flame arrestor. Brought her up to 1500 RPM and then sprayed Sea Foam cleaner and anti corrosion into the carburetor until she stalled. Switch off, flame arrestor cleaned with B12 chemtool and reinstalled. Then opened up all of the trains in the cooling system and let her drain. With all the water out of the cooling system, the shop vac was used to clean up the water that was trapped in the bilge.

Now the cold can come.