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  1. tpenfield

    Boat Prep Supply Buying Season . . .

    Usually I buy things as I go through the couple of months leading up to boating season. This year I decided to at least try to get it all done at once, so I am not hampered by not having the stuff when I need it. Today was the day, I ordered some stuff on line . . . including iBoats . . . and...
  2. tpenfield

    New Tow Vehicle for the Admiral's Daily Car

    A bit of a story about our primary towing vehicle . . . The Admiral uses our 2004 Cadillac Escalade as her daily car. Last Friday morning the water pump crapped out, spewed AF all over the place in the engine compartment and shorted things out in the electrical system, trashing the battery, all...
  3. tpenfield

    Ordered a new MacBook Pro Laptop . . .

    After over 8 years of use, my 'mid-2009' Macbook Pro is reaching 'end of life'. So, the Admiral said "you should get a new computer" . . . say no more. :D I did a bit of armchair shopping and then ordered a custom configured MacBook Pro 13 i7 Processor 16 GB RAM 512 GD SSD Thunderbolt 3...
  4. tpenfield

    My Winter Hobby

    I thought that I would test out the new iBoats Forum Site with a post about my winter hobby/sport . . . Snowblowers :D For the past few years I have been expanding my 'fleet' of snow blowers . . . I've had a 1988 Toro 521 for quite sometime. Got from a family member who could seem to get it to...
  5. tpenfield

    Winterization - Fuel Storage - Empty Tank Approach

    Prepping to take my brother's Grady-white with twin Yamaha 350's out for the season and get it tucked away for winter. I was surprised to read this in the Yamaha service manual . . . Conditioning and stabilizing gasoline When preparing to store a boat for extended periods (2 months or longer)...
  6. tpenfield

    Infrared Camera Inspection of Boat Hull . . .

    I have my boat out of the water and up on blocks/stands for the winter. While the nights are cool, but the days are still fairly warm, I took this opportunity to do an 'inspection' of the hull of my boat with my FLIR One IR Camera. Here are a few photos #1) This was a 'cold' area in the...
  7. tpenfield

    Poor Man's Outdrive Stands . . .

    There have been some posts in the past about outdrive stands of various configurations, some quite elaborate. Well there was someone on the Formula Boats that pieced together an outdrive stand using some dimensional lumber and a mover's dolly. This gave me the inspiration to do a similar thing...
  8. tpenfield

    New Town Dock Built Too Low . . .

    This is literally a dockside chat . . . :D Today as I was taking out my 8 foot tender for the season from the town dock, I happen to notice something odd. The town replaced the dock about a year ago, as the original dock, which probably dated back into the 1930's was falling apart. It was...
  9. tpenfield

    Salt-Away for Closed Cooling System Flushing . . .

    My cooling system issues of last year schooled me a bit on heat exchangers and calcium (salt) build-up inside them. I have twin 7.4 MPI engines with aftermarket FULL closed cooling systems. . . Bravo 3 outdrives. . . Ocean boating. This year as part of my end-of-season maintenance I figured...
  10. tpenfield

    I Didn't Pay My Bill . . .

    Web site hosting bill that is. . . As many of you may know, I have my own web site where I document my experiences on the boats that I had over the years. I also get email from the site. A few days ago, I started noticing that the email was no longer working and some of my picture links were...
  11. tpenfield

    Hurricances that backtrack . .

    I cannot remember when there have been hurricanes that have backtracked on themselves or just hung around, like what we have seen this year with Harvey and Jose. I'm was hoping Jose would be scooting east by now, but it looks like it is backtracing into Cape Cod. I have plans to go over to...
  12. tpenfield

    Help with Bravo 1 and 350 mag mpi install

    It is a straight piece of 1-1/4" wire reinforced hose. The hose in under suction so the reinforcing is necessary.
  13. tpenfield

    QuickSilver Dual Controls - Shift Interuppter Issue ???

    I have the QuickSilver Dual Controls on my boat, which I absolutely hate . . . They are showing their age, and today I noticed what could be a growing problem. . . Cruising along at about 3400 RPM ( 38 mph) I noticed that when I put my hand on the control to adjust it slightly the RPM of...
  14. tpenfield

    This Motor Sounds Broken . . .

    The extended family fleet includes a 2010 Grady-White 305 with twin Yamaha 350 4-stroke V8's. Yesterday, one of the engines starting doing this after cruising for about 15 minutes while slowing down to anchor near shore (so coming off of planing speeds as far as I understand it). Not sure of any...
  15. tpenfield

    Repair or Replace a Ritchie Compass

    Last time I used my boat, I noticed that the compass was no longer filled with oil. So, I'm assuming a seal or something let go. I searched for similar threads here and there was one about 6 months ago. I think my options are (1) to try a DIY repair and refill, or (2) just replace the...
  16. tpenfield

    First Time Navigating at Night . . .

    We took a crew of people on my brother's (new-to-him) Grady-White 305 to the Fireworks display in Falmouth, MA last night. They have a barge anchored off of Falmouth Heights and hundreds of boats go out to see the show. Previously, we had always watched the fireworks from shore. ​This, of...
  17. tpenfield

    Fuel Pumps Getting tired ???

    This season I have noticed that my twin 7.4 MPI engines are requiring a bit more cranking when they are first started. In the past years it was typically 5-10 seconds of cranking with the starter and then they would fire right up. This year it is more like 10-15 seconds until they fire and...
  18. tpenfield

    Mercruiser 7.4 MPI Idle Speed Very High

    During the prep of my twin Mercruiser 7.4 LX MPI engines (serial #'s in my sig) the starboard engine started idling very high, like in the 1200-1500 RPM range, even though the throttle was closed. A week ago, when I first started the engines after the winter lay-up it ran fine. Today, not so...
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