Shake Down Finally

[M Simpson]

After a month of delays (weather and otherwise) we finally go to run the boat up to Maine from Newburyport.

We didn't push it to hard, with mostly unknown to me, but well maintained, 40yo engines. Ran at 12mph/2100 RPM. Slow and Steady and until we get closer to home to see what our top end is.

Ended up being a great day on the water until the port engine quit. After lots of troubleshooting it restarted about an hour later. We finally figure out it was vapor locked. No problems the rest of the day, once I properly ventilated the engine bay and got rid of the heat, but it slowed us down enough that we had to stop short of home. We ended up docking her in Portland in the middle of a monstrous T-Storm. Let's just say I'm a bit rusty docking in foul weather. She's safe and sound and we'll carry on again this weekend to home port.

Anyone else have a problem with vapor lock with these older ('82) crusaders? Fixes? Other than that they ran amazing I was very pleased overall.

 

[M Simpson]

She's finally home. Happy to report the 2nd half of the trip went very well yesterday. Once we got close to home we opened her up to 3K RPM for half an hour and she performed very well at ~ 21kts. Slight temp creep on STBD engine over the 30min. Probably the impeller, I'll get that changed and our next boating day we'll se what WOT is and how she manages that.

 

[Pirate Lady]

Thats a purrty boat. Ya I'm old but all these new fangled bow riders style, well just no. Boats should look like boats.

 

[Daniel1980]

Glad to hear victories like this, especially on older boats. When I take people out they ask me 2 questions, how fast does she go and how long do boats last and I always give the same answer.

Fast enough for me and as long as you are willing to care for it.