Well the fun never stops here in Northeast PA. You may recall I got a rather large boat on the cheap from an eBay auction back in January and I'm just now getting around to some serious prep work on moving the damn thing back home to Hazleton.
Tonight, among other things, I learned how to flush out a hydraulic surge brake system, bleed the brakes and adjust them. My friends and I thrive on big projects like this that fall into our laps. When I bought this boat we literally had a ten minute discussion about it without really thinking all that far ahead with repair and transportation plans. Note that I'm not saying this is a bad thing.
Here's some new pictures before I lose everyone's attention:
Our resident civil engineer Eric climbed up into the vessel to have his first look around. Among other surprises, we finally managed to get the keys off the marina so we got inside the cabin for our first actual inspection.
One rather large problem you can see in this picture is how the engine isn't recessed completely in the hull. This big sheet of Plexiglas on top of a jury-rigged wooden frame covers the topmost parts of the motor which stick out from the deck, leading us to believe whoever replaced the engine didn't really think things through.
Right now, given our inspection of the cabin, we're planning on removing the rear section that contains the two windows and door and completely rebuilding it, shifting the door over to the right to avoid having to step over this problem. We also have a very excellent wooden hatch idea in the works to replace the 2x4's and Plexiglas that covers the motor.
Here we have what I have dubbed the cargo hold complete with a bilge pump that may or may not work. (We couldn't work up the nerve to hook up the batteries on this trip.) We also found some lengths of rope and a very grungy life jacket down here.
Above are three pictures of various parts of the engine which I'm happy to say smelled like a pleasant mix of salt water and oil. After finally managing to get down into the inner workings of this boat, it definitely appears to me that this was someone's failed project boat.
The marina's owner tells us that the boat was up and running in November as was advertised, but he also mentioned that the previous owner was a bit of a do-it-yourself kind of guy who never really go the hang of the "yourself" aspect. I assume by some of the oddly screwed & bolted pieces of plywood holding various parts of the water system together that we're going to find lots of cobbled-together projects to untangle on this vessel.
We took some stuff out of the boat this time including the CB radio, batteries, and a few other miscellaneous items including the ship's wheel which we're going to refinish as I'm sure some maritime tradition dictates.
Like I said above, we procured a trailer to tow this thing with (Yes, I know all about the permits.) and tonight we stripped the thing bare of all the old, inoperable lights and started in with a vengeance on the surge braking system. It took us a better part of the day to figure everything out since we decided we would attack this with no help from the internet and after about six hours we managed to get the whole thing working up to the point where we now have to reassemble everything neatly.
We'll keep you posted on our progress and whatever other shenanigans continue to come our way. As always, this forum provides invaluable resources for our short-sighted endeavors.
Keep the faith,
-Jerry
Tonight, among other things, I learned how to flush out a hydraulic surge brake system, bleed the brakes and adjust them. My friends and I thrive on big projects like this that fall into our laps. When I bought this boat we literally had a ten minute discussion about it without really thinking all that far ahead with repair and transportation plans. Note that I'm not saying this is a bad thing.
Here's some new pictures before I lose everyone's attention:
Our resident civil engineer Eric climbed up into the vessel to have his first look around. Among other surprises, we finally managed to get the keys off the marina so we got inside the cabin for our first actual inspection.
One rather large problem you can see in this picture is how the engine isn't recessed completely in the hull. This big sheet of Plexiglas on top of a jury-rigged wooden frame covers the topmost parts of the motor which stick out from the deck, leading us to believe whoever replaced the engine didn't really think things through.
Right now, given our inspection of the cabin, we're planning on removing the rear section that contains the two windows and door and completely rebuilding it, shifting the door over to the right to avoid having to step over this problem. We also have a very excellent wooden hatch idea in the works to replace the 2x4's and Plexiglas that covers the motor.
Here we have what I have dubbed the cargo hold complete with a bilge pump that may or may not work. (We couldn't work up the nerve to hook up the batteries on this trip.) We also found some lengths of rope and a very grungy life jacket down here.
Above are three pictures of various parts of the engine which I'm happy to say smelled like a pleasant mix of salt water and oil. After finally managing to get down into the inner workings of this boat, it definitely appears to me that this was someone's failed project boat.
The marina's owner tells us that the boat was up and running in November as was advertised, but he also mentioned that the previous owner was a bit of a do-it-yourself kind of guy who never really go the hang of the "yourself" aspect. I assume by some of the oddly screwed & bolted pieces of plywood holding various parts of the water system together that we're going to find lots of cobbled-together projects to untangle on this vessel.
We took some stuff out of the boat this time including the CB radio, batteries, and a few other miscellaneous items including the ship's wheel which we're going to refinish as I'm sure some maritime tradition dictates.
Like I said above, we procured a trailer to tow this thing with (Yes, I know all about the permits.) and tonight we stripped the thing bare of all the old, inoperable lights and started in with a vengeance on the surge braking system. It took us a better part of the day to figure everything out since we decided we would attack this with no help from the internet and after about six hours we managed to get the whole thing working up to the point where we now have to reassemble everything neatly.
We'll keep you posted on our progress and whatever other shenanigans continue to come our way. As always, this forum provides invaluable resources for our short-sighted endeavors.
Keep the faith,
-Jerry
