Ok, so here are some pictures from yesterday
when we launched for the first time.
http://tinyurl.com/4coae
Generally everything ran well enough that we enjoyed
our first day out. We did have some problems, as
follows:
VOLTAGE REGULATOR: This boat has a generator instead
of an alternator. I knew even before yesterday that
something was wrong with the voltage-regulator. It
is putting out only 10.5 volts. It is fused before it
hits the positive power bus. That fuse got very
hot and burnt out. (15 amp). With the batteries on
the power-bus at 12 volts I'm assuming that
power was trying to flow from the batteries to
the 10.5 volts the regulator was trying to put out.
Anyone know much or have any links to information
about voltage regulators??
LEAK: The boat is plywood lapstrake. Where the bottom-
most strake meets the keel there was a small trickle leak
near the bow. It was enough that over time water accumulated
in the bilge. But it was nothing that the pumps couldn't
take care of when they ran for a few seconds whenever
we stopped. (Underway all the water ran to the back
and the pumps, for various reasons, are in the front.)
SHAFT PACKING: The packing around the prop-shaft
was leaking a few drips. This, I believe, is normal. But at
one point the packing nut came totally apart (still on the
shaft of course). We just tightened it up better and it
stayed fine the rest of the day.
MANIFOLD appears to be leaking water. It might be
only from a freeze plug or might be from there AND a
hairline crack in the bottom. Will have to do more testing.
The amount of water was VERY small. It wasn't so much
leaking or even dripping as it was sweating the water out.
HOT SPARK PLUG & OIL: The front-most plug on
this flat-head 6-cylinder engine got quite hot and was
smoking a little oil when I ran her at 2500 RPMs for
a short time. Strange thing is the temperature gauge goes
into the head right near there and the temp was not
even off the pin. (I do know the temp gauge was working
because if we turned the water intake valve down a
little the engine would start to heat up and the temp
needle would move up.)
CLUTCH SLIPPED: I was not on the boat when this
happened but Dad said that one time at about 2500 RPM
the clutch "slipped". I believe the transmission is a "Paragon".
It shares it's lubricating oil with the engine. I'm thinking that
either it just needs adjustment or that if Dad went from
low RPM to high RPM quickly the forces of that 130
horse engine starting to move that boat made the thing
slip and that maybe that's normal..?? Got to do some
reading about that.
RETRIEVING TO THE TRAILER: This boat, as you
can see in the pictures, has a high-bow. The trailer has
a high bow-post to match. With the trailer backed into
the water the bow-post angle changed as compared to
the boat. So the boat hit the bow post and stopped
before it was fully on the trailer. As we pulled the trailer
out the post "righted" itself and moved away from the
boat. We tried a few times to keep the boat near the
post by keeping tension on a rope (there is no winch
and we're not yet sure if we'll add one). ~ The next
thing we are going to try is: Currently we have a
carpeted wooden block on the trailer that the keel
sets on. When the trailer is in the water and we're
loading the boat this is where all the boat weight is.
We're thinking of replacing the block with rollers.
(Still keeping the four long bunks at the back.) This
way the boat might pull up better to the trailer.
Well, that's about it. We had a nice day. Went
swimming from the boat a few times, had lunch,
and generally enjoyed our labors. Oh, and we
got a few double thumbs-up from on-lookers
and quite a few people coming over to say
"Hi." So that's really nice.
Any help or ideas with these issues will be
greatly appreciated as has all the previous
advise that got us this far has been.
Gary
Pics:
http://tinyurl.com/4coae
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