My Retirement Project (Chapt nine)

[tmcalavy]

Re: My Retirement Project (Chapt nine)

Nice job Murph...the guide-ons look good. First time I went to the lake with mine, a pair of yonkers in a big bass rig were chuckling and pointing at my uprights...until they had to load their basscraft carrier in high winds. They were getting up enough nerve to try powerloading when I left the ramp...kept drifting in the wind.

 

[Mark42]

Re: My Retirement Project (Chapt nine)

Great to hear the shake down cruise went without a hitch! Just goes to show you did a fabulous job!

If you can't fix the listing at wot by moving weight around, try adding a small piece of angle aluminum to one side, about 1x12" to act as a permanent trim tab. The angle of the transom should give 90* angle stock enough "bite" into the water to give a little lift. Worth playing around with.

 

[jpmurphy]

Re: My Retirement Project (Chapt nine)

Great to hear the shake down cruise went without a hitch! Just goes to show you did a fabulous job!

If you can't fix the listing at wot by moving weight around, try adding a small piece of angle aluminum to one side, about 1x12" to act as a permanent trim tab. The angle of the transom should give 90* angle stock enough "bite" into the water to give a little lift. Worth playing around with.

I took off that ugly trolling plate. Moved my forward aux batt amidship, put the wife in the copilot seat & nosed 'er into the wind. Came up on plane very nicely and leveled out perfectly at about 72 mph. This showed me that balancing all of the weight properly looks to be the answer.

 

[jpmurphy]

Re: My Retirement Project (Chapt nine)

Now that the sea trials are over it's time to finish the fine tuning on the rebuild. I decided to move my stereo to the dash so I didn't have to get out of my seat to mess with it. Actually this improved the reception.

 

[jpmurphy]

Re: My Retirement Project (Chapt nine)

Had some problems with closing up the starboard gunwhale this week. The factory OMC shifter was a flush mount and all of the control cables were hidden neatly inside of the gunwhale. The new shift is a side mount and I had no way of mounting that way. Had to fabricate a bracket out of alum angle and mount the nerw controls in a near flush position. This left all of the cables exposed about half way down the gunwhale. I ended up boxing the cables in and hopefully it will all look natural after I get the carpeting on tomorrow. Heres a couple of pics on this and how I overcame the problem.

The red hole is a can w/cooler holder. Couldn't see wasting all that space.

 

[tmcalavy]

Re: My Retirement Project (Chapt nine)

Looks good Murph...glad the uprights worked for you. Looked at some of your recent pix and noticed a wheat field out beyond your driveway...kinda makes me miss the Great Plains. How's the crop looking this year...has harvest started? You've put in a lot of work on that boat...figure up your total time invested and immediately pursue at least that much time on the water...this helps curb the "improvement itch" and puts fresh fish on the menu. What kind of speed are you getting at WOT?

 

[jpmurphy]

Re: My Retirement Project (Chapt nine)

Looks good Murph...glad the uprights worked for you. Looked at some of your recent pix and noticed a wheat field out beyond your driveway...kinda makes me miss the Great Plains. How's the crop looking this year...has harvest started? You've put in a lot of work on that boat...figure up your total time invested and immediately pursue at least that much time on the water...this helps curb the "improvement itch" and puts fresh fish on the menu. What kind of speed are you getting at WOT?

They harvested the field across the road from us 2 days ago. We are now on very intimate terms with the makers of Raid and Off. I've seen some pretty wierd critters in my travels, but I had no idea of the variety of creepy crawly things that live in these fields. I think the crop is pretty good this year. Had lots of rain, but then again it all depends upon who you talk to.

My son is due in sometime tomorrow from San Diego for a 2 week visit. He was there with a frown when I brought her home and he has followed my rebuild along every step. I expect I will have to schedule "down time" rather than "fishing time" once he gets here which is fine with me. I'd much rather be out on the water in the sunshine than at home mowing all of that damn grass I planted a couple of months ago.

I don't really know what kind of speed we're getting @ WOT. I assume it is average for a 25 hp. Although with this light weight alum shortie it feels faster than all get out, and, I can keep up with the jet skies pretty good. Never did like those things. Without a speedometer on the boat how does one clock it ? Be interesting to know how fast we are going when I'm up solo.



I'm having the galv guides we built tack welded tomorrow. JB & Thread Lock just aren't doing the job...Last time we were out trailering was much much easier with these guides on.

 

[tmcalavy]

Re: My Retirement Project (Chapt nine)

Maybe your son travels with GPS. If not, ask around...they're easy to operate and borrow anymore these days. Need to do the same on my splash run in a week or two.

 

[jpmurphy]

Re: My Retirement Project (Chapt nine)

Got both gunwhales closed up and carpeted. The starboard side gives me a padded armrest as well as a can holder when I'm fishing from the aft chair. A little trimming of the irish pennants and some touchup paint tomorrow and we'll be good to go. Asside from fabricating a trolling motor bracket and finishing up with painting the power, we're just about as done as it's gonna get at this point in time. In a couple of weeks the whole project will be in the completed resto section.

 

[slbri]

Re: My Retirement Project (Chapt nine)

Well enjoy the fruits of your labors Murph...I think she turned out just fantastic! I can't wait till I am in your shoes as to being finished with the restore.

 

[jpmurphy]

Re: My Retirement Project (Chapt nine)

Spent the afternoon polishing and getting everything ready to hit the lake with my son on Tuesday. Kid brought 17 fishin' poles with him. hmmmmm, now
I have to go buy more rod holders.

After many cold beers and a lot of fanfare I unvieled the name of the boat.
You have to understand the meaning behind the name. It's not the usually thought of "Murphy's Law" slogan. This is to recognized the good friend that gave the boat to me ( Bill Law) and the guy what did the rebuild.

 

[jpmurphy]

Re: My Retirement Project (Chapt nine)

Well enjoy the fruits of your labors Murph...I think she turned out just fantastic! I can't wait till I am in your shoes as to being finished with the restore.

It seems like it will take forever to get it wet. Once you do it's really great !

 

[willyrocket]

Re: My Retirement Project (Chapt nine)

Let us know how that rust oleum holds up on the bottom....

 

[tmcalavy]

Re: My Retirement Project (Chapt nine)

Hey Murph...like the name. Be sure you christen her at the ramp before the next launch, you have the right juice/beverage for that just need to add the blessing...search boat naming/renaming on this forum.

 

[jpmurphy]

Re: My Retirement Project (Chapt nine)

Hey Murph...like the name. Be sure you christen her at the ramp before the next launch, you have the right juice/beverage for that just need to add the blessing...search boat naming/renaming on this forum.

We'll be doing just that around about dawn tomorrow.

(Thanks for the reminder, I really did forget about that. :redface: )

 

[jpmurphy]

Re: My Retirement Project (Chapt nine)

Here's the deal on the trailer guides I built. Credit goes to tmcalavy as I followed his plan. I used all 1/2 inch galv steel plumbing pipe components.
4 pieces total. Flange bolted to the trailer frame. 14 inch horizontal piece ( standoff) . (Threaded on both ends of course) 90 degree elbow and a 36 inch upright.
Cover the two uprights with 1 inch pvc pipe. I cut a 10' piece in half giving me 2 5' pvc uprights. And there you are.

Use a plumb line at the widest part of your boat to determine how far out you want the guide uprights to be. One to two inches away from either gunwhale will keep you straight on when trailering. I highly recommend you weld the horizontal piece to the flange. My horizontal piece vibrated loose, the upright piece it was holding swung down horizontal to the road, the pvc pipe came off and bouncing down the road ground off 1/2 inch of thread from the top of the upright..This was on the way to the gas station Monday night. I'm heading to the lake Tuesday morning with no trailer guides.

You might consider welding every piece, except the flange @ the trailer frame. Bolt that on so you can remove it at some point in time. I painted everything before I mounted the pieces.

Thanks to tm for sharing his plan with me.

murph..

Well, after a dozen or more trips to the lake I've decided to remove the upright guides I built. Had them tack welded for free but with the wind on our lakes here in Kansas I broke one lose trying to trailer in the cross wind. The the son broke one completely off when he hit a small bush backing into the driveway. I bought a set of 24" adjustable bunk/guides from iBoats. Be putting them on tomorrow. I won't be breaking these lose and trailering will be easier yet. Had to try the pipe setup as that was really interesting. Without the crosswindfs here they would work fine.