Last Ditch ole College try

I have worked changing props and carbs and other items to make the boat more efficent and it never came to pass. After a storm damaged the hull she kept taking on water removing the boat and inspecting the hull i found a 59 inch crack along the centerline of the hull forward of the center of the boat. I removed the flooring and did a inspection from the inside out and found that a grounding had damaged the boat earlier and a second grounding had flexed the hull to the point that it was done. Removing the powerplant and electronics that had not been damaged by water i resolved to destroy the boat. Crushing the hull with a bulldozer was like killing friend but it was not going to be something i would sell to someone that would result in harm or danger to others. It is done shes gone and i am working on a wooden hull Harkers island boat now that i salvaged from a sinking. shes a pile of wood and thats it so far a guess is a year or more before i have her ready to power down the water way. Today i send to NC Wildlife the title and a letter of salvage and destroyed with a recipt showing i destroyed the boat to them to remove the boat title from active. Sad day but another chapter in life

Trying and testing,

She is in the slip now and i have burned all the old fuel out. Everything seems to be working as planned with only a few minor glitches, the Port trim tab seems to stuggle to extend ? Checking the electrical connections and bled the air from the lines, Still no dice not sure why but its under investigation.at my low speeds above 7mph up to about 15 we had raised the motor to the last set of holes to get full speed depth correct, Now i have this huge area under the motor that splashes the water off the lower unit a low speeds and washes it back inthe the motor well. after some thought we took star board and extended the top of the bracket up as far as we could with out getting in the way of anything. Today May 10th i am thinking we will take it for another ride and see if that fixed the problem there. Does great in the shallows i can trim the engine up level with the bottom of the boat and sneak into some really shallow places. When beached i can have the engine tilted and reverse and it lifts the stern Up and pulls us off the beach with ease. Fuel flow system is still at the repair shop i hope to have it back on in a week and be able to publish some results.More to follow !

Specs from boat ride

With the 16 X 11 prop 2000 rpms made 4 mph 15 deg of bow rise
3000 rpms 8mph and 18 Deg of bow rise
WOT 18 mph and 20+ deg of bow rise turning 5500 RPMS only about 80% on plane,
With the 15X15 2000 RPM 8.7 MPH and 4Deg of bow rise
2500 RPMS 9.7 mph and 7 Deg of bow rise
3500 RPMs 10.1 MPH 10 deg of bow rise throttle is almost 3/4
WOT 5000 RPMs  30 MPH trim up clean 32 MPH, 6 Deg of bow rise
With the 15X17 prop 2000 RPMS 8.3 MPH 5 deg of bow rise
2500 RPMS only 8.9 mph and bow hardly moved above the 5 deg
3000 RPMS 10.5 MPH and bow was up around 12deg
3500 RPMS 11.8 MPH bow was still about 12 deg
WOT gave only 4600 RPMS 30.4 MPH bow down about 6deg  With trim to clean the ride she pushed over 34.9 MPH
Bottom line the 15X15 prop gave the best all around preformance and seems to let the engine run in the comfort zone,  the day of testing 24feet at the water line, 7 foot beam 1/4 rearward from the bow 30Deg dead rise, stern is only about 13 deg of dead rise, the Chine is 4 inches wide and hard flat, the center of the bottom is very round about 31inch radius, total boat is around 348 inches the CG using a strap puts it about 64% of the boat ahead of the CG and about 36% behind the CG we raised the engine again and the Cavitation plate is now about 5 1/2 to 6 inches above the center of the bottom of the boat, Weight 7340 with full fuel water 2 people and about 200 lbs of tools,

Small things on the boat

Looking inside the Engine bracket from the inspection area !

The small hatch that you lift to look into the bilge and into the engine bracket.

The com center, the ICOM 50watt radio and my old standard Radio shack 2way with the alert feature that tones and reports any bad weather on the WX stations !

She is back home

We have her back at the house raised the motor 2 more inches the cav plate is now 5 1/2 inches higher than the bottom of the boat, at speed it was still to deep, I think it will run better at this new height, we did a set of test forward and reverse turning and the boat handles very well she will turn on a dime at low speeds almost pivots at idle and at high speed she would carve the water like a jet ski, taking other boat wakes the weight of the boat makes it seem like we were not hitting anything you feel a slight bump and then see the spray,Paint will be starting the week of  April 17th Light blue up to the hand rail run and white fore deck and aft area, along with the wheel house being white, everything seems to be working great on the boat except the fuel flow meter, this is being resolved as i want to know what RPM gives the best fuel burn, i am thinking the 10 MPH at 2200 RPM's is the sweet spot faster than 10 and she starts to squat making a huge wake, then on up around 3300 pulls her self up on plane. But it seems to labor at that RPM  push her on and is smooths out around 4300/ But that is way faster than i wanted to have her set up to ride. we will keep posting photos and additional information about fuel burn and other things. We have removed all through hull fittings and even the transduced is mounted inside the hull. I did the epoxy on a bare sanded area center of the hull worked great, transduced mounted on the sterm gives the water temp and other info. After a day of water testing she liked the Quicksilver 15 1/4 X 15 pitch prop, with a 17 she would break 34MPH but labored at lower speeds,

Splash day

Thanks to Captain John P for helping me get her in and out of the water that day and changing props 3 times to get the right RPM's and engine load, she did 9MPH at 2200 RPM's and 30.5 MPH at 4900 RPM's Not bad for a boat 7340 lbs being pushed by a 150 2 stroke motor ? looking at the old water line and the new one,speed testing and checking the following wake,

Whole new look

Installed a larger wheel for steering changed a few things around and It is time to test the water before paint and the last few items are added, Weight with 96 Gallons of fuel and 40 gallons of water rear birth full of tools just if we need them 7340 LBS, still lighter than she was before to the tune of 960 lbs !!!