Fish fear me once again!!

I am happy again. My boat has a working engine now! We got the news on Friday that she was ready to go, and the Justin, the business owner, made the decision to put her back into the slip. I had hoped to get some hull work done and check for any leaks in the hulls, but I’ll have to do that another time.

I wrote the check for the balance due, which would have had a significant effect in reducing the national debt. Instead, the check just increased my own deficit spending plan. That’s what boats are; personal deficit spending plans.

Anyway, the boat started up okay, but refused to run at idle, stalling every time I reduced the throttle. I told Justin and he tweaked the idle setting on the carburetor, and it’s better, but still not perfect. The idle is still too rough for my complete confidence.

She does seem to run with a bit more authority than the older engine did. While the tachometer refuses to work correctly, the boat definitely runs faster than before. Top speed before the problems was a little over 21 knots, or about 24 mph. Now she does 26 knots with about 300 rpms before wide open throttle (WOT). The heavy old girl really performs now. We can easily cruise at about 18 knots and have an ample reserve of speed and power to outrun weather. Or chase fish on the surface.

Of course, the shakedown was not without problems…besides the already mentioned idle issue, the power steering seems to be binding some when turning to starboard and the tach needs replacement. Another casualty of the trip – the batteries in my camera were dead, so no pictures this time. But the break-in period goes on for another 8 hours or so of running time, so I’ll have some good shots next time.

By the way, the fishing was pretty cold, as the catfish are now spawning and have developed lockjaw for the most part. It made me feel better since a big catfish tournament was going on the same time we were out, and a lot of pros and locals didn’t catch a thing. We caught several small ones, all under 10 pounds. But we did not get skunked!