Whaler Resto pt X - fine tune

The sad thing about having a boat,

is realizing how much time we don't have

to actually use it.

When it comes down to it,

would I rather spend a couple hours laying bricks,

or zipping around the bay burning gas?

Yes I have been caught by the wife...

The perfect excuse to go out,

even for an hour buzz,

is tuning up the engine placement.

The third high bolt hole aligned the cavitation plate 

a couple inches above the stern edge,

typically a good spot.

The water would shoot straight up the engine,

spraying the back of the boat.

Now the engine is as high as possible,

almost 4" higher than the stern edge!

That's a lot,

and one of the benefits of the extension bracket.

Supposedly less drag is less friction is better efficiency or speed.

In addition,

The prop is in solid water,

not a the bubbly after-flow.

No more waterworks!

The 50 hp Johnson is a sufficient cruiser,

topping out about 28 mph on a rough day,

and plane cruising about 20.

Sure faster could be more fun,

but using 2-3 gallons for an evening jaunt is nice.

We even christened the Whalers first Humphrey's concert,

Steve Miller Band,

and brought the wife out for the first time in the boat!

The first time in any boat,

which is a weird reality.

She's a landlubber,

but we had a good time.

One thing nice about evening cruises,

is having the launch ramp to myself.

I've been able to practice pegging the trailer,

not one of my favorite things.

In the day people go there just to watch us hacks!

And here's a root cause of a hack.

This Morse Control is a sneaky unit.

This whole time it'd been reversed!

Forward was reverse and reverse was forward,

which really wasn't that bad after a few minutes,

but was like translating English to Spanish.

Thankfully this unit was designed to be ambidextrous,

and flopping the levers over was easy enough.

Good thing the side plate wasn't glued on!

Of course I did it twice,

as the red cut-off switch had to be flipped too.

It's much so much cleaner now,

and easier to maneuver.

Yeah ya think?

And now for the wild card...

I grabbed this bitchin 2-stroke 90 hp yamaha,

on a sweet time-trade deal.

A low hour yacht club Whaler Montauk

the guy wanted a 4-stroke for lake use.

Ya know I like projects,

but deciding whether we need a hot rod boat,

or a gas sipping bay cruiser...

Hmmm.

TP