It's official. I'm in the club now!

[Kevlar7r]

Poo.... No boat this weekend.... :-(

[mmwjr]

Sorry to hear that, expecially last big weekend of the season.

[Kevlar7r]

Finally got her back!!! There has been a circus of issues with the marina's careless/incompetent work, which I am not sure I want to rehash... I'll just get angry again.



Still dealing with them to finalize some details.... Ugh....



But she's back, running great. Cruising nice.



Now need canvas and some new impellers and generator service. Almost back to 100%.

[mmwjr]

Wow long time without a boat well at least you get to boat year round.

[Kevlar7r]

So... Got it back, blew starboard engine same day. Solved generator run issues but melted down the stator... I'm exhausted. I've now paid for her twice. I think the previous owner got out of this boat just in time.



Pretty soon it will be a whole new boat....

[mmwjr]

Wow so the port engine is finally squared away and the starboard got jealous for some attention.

Even with you being in Florida I think I had a longer season. Just not your year.

[Kevlar7r]

Actually, not sure why I typed starboard. It was the port that let go.



Yea, not my year. Hopefully next year will be better.

[Kevlar7r]

I'm back. I've been away a while licking my financial and emotional wounds. Starboard engine is finally replaced with a brand new 5.7 instead of the 5.0. The mis-matched engines are barely noticeable in use. We've had a couple of days out on her, and it's been a real pleasure to have her back.



I was able to complete my floating dock while she was away, and she is much happier being tied to a floating dock rather than a fixed dock. Looking toward to a fun summer on her! Fingers crossed

[mmwjr]

Good to hear from you, totally understand the life sucking issues. Hope the boat is squared away for some long term trouble free cruising.

[Kevlar7r]

My 3000 was not equipped with hour meters, for some stupid reason.

On the other hand, it WAS equipped with kill switch lanyards! Who needs those on a boat this size? No one actually uses them.

So, I decided to take out 2 birds with a single projectile. Tada!

I think it looks a lot nicer than those engine lanyards hanging all over that I had before.

Did another project as well. I have always had trouble with the port oil filter. Can't fit my portly (see what I did there? ) self back there to touch it, unless I remove the power steering pump. PITA.

So, installed a remote filter.

I know, the braket is a little crooked. I'll fix that later. I will also add one for the starboard engine at some point as well.

[mmwjr]

Good to see your getting time with the boat.

Remote oil filter is a big help. When I repowered I added an oil cooler as well.

[Kevlar7r]

I've done a number of recent upgrades. Don't have pics on all of them, so I'll have to grab them and upgrade.

For one, I finally added the remote oil filter to the port engine.

I upgraded the tv to a 24" 12v tv with DVD player. Also added a 12v powered tv antenna. The antenna is to the left on the arch, next to the new air horns.

The compressor for the air horns sits inside the starboard radar arch upright. I connected it directly to the factory wiring with no relay, and it works great. The tv antenna amo went to one of the aux switches at the helm.

I had posted before about the failing screen on my GPS, so finally replaced that with a Garmin gpsmap 547xs. This was a HUGE upgrade over my old one. Also installed a NMEA 2000 network, and added the Garmin Gfs 10 fuel sensors. Not sure if I really wanted to know how much fuel I am burning, but it turns out I get about 1 mpg. On plane, off plane, fast, slow... seems to be 1 mpg everywhere. More testing to come.

On order now is new canvas and an extended swim platform, as well as a Sony marine stereo with 2 remote control stations, and this little baby:

https://www.tindie.com/products/astu...y-ais-receiver

This will be connected to the new GPS, giving my ais receive capability.

Lots of new stuff! Looking forward to a good season.

[mmwjr]

I'm jealous you can boat this time of the year. Nice mods is that 1 mpg per engine or both combined. Something is off as you know if you are getting the same mpg on plane and off plane.

[Kevlar7r]

That's 1 mpg total. I actually got about 1.4 off plane making about 7mph. I got 1.3 on plane running with the tide. Like I said, more experimentation to come. I am sure I did not hit every combination of motor trim, trim tabs, etc.

What surprised me the most was that there didn't seem to be an on plane throttle sweet spot. I typically run 3600 rpm both engines. As I throttled up or down (couldn't go too far down or start coming off plane) from there, the mileage stayed the same. I figured wot would be much worse mileage, but it wasnt. More fuel burn but more speed... still 1 mpg.

[Kevlar7r]

Actually, since we're talking about carbeurated engines, same mpg everywhere sounds like well tuned carbs.

We're talking steady state, not acceleration, so the accelerator pump is not in play.

Those 2 barrel carbs have no secondary, so the meter fuel at the same proportionality throughout the throttle range. If I'm getting about the same power output to fuel consumption ratio (given an expected decrease above hull speed, ie on plane) then the carbs must be delivering a balanced ratio throughout the throttle range.

What I don't know is if it is a good stoichiometric ratio, or if I'm running rich or lean throughout.

[mmwjr]

Your combined on plane mpg seems about right to me but I would think the slow speed 7 mph would yield twice the mpg you are getting. At this time I don't any ideas. I'm assuming the genny is off?

[Kevlar7r]

I thought the same thing Mike. Yes, genny was off.

I've only been out for one short cruise with the fuel sensors installed, so not a lot of data to go on. We'll see what happens as I use it more.

[Kevlar7r]

I bought another boat last night.


A $250 junker on a trailer. Going to mount a crane boom on it to set pilings for my dock, then eventually lay a deck over the gunwhales and build a tiki bar on it. Lol.

[mmwjr]

Originally Posted by Kevlar7r

I bought another boat last night.


A $250 junker on a trailer. Going to mount a crane boom on it to set pilings for my dock, then eventually lay a deck over the gunwhales and build a tiki bar on it. Lol.

How are you going to drive the pilings? Hit them with the trailer

[Kevlar7r]

Small water pump. You jet the mud out around the base, and they slide right in to the hole.

Actually worked on a dock building crew for a month last year, mainly so I could learn the techniques and do it myself.