Running Lisa on the hose.

The holes in the substructure of the hatch work perfect to hold the hose away from the engine.

Team Baja in his Party Bus!:ernaehrung004:

TeamBaja bought me a shirt to remember the event with but he wanted to model it first.

The wife washed it last night but it did not take the smell out!:evilb:

Can you pick out the one that TeamBaja donated?:eek:

The hydraulic helm had worked loose a little and they repaired that. Also Adam learned with his boating experience that you are better to through bolt the dash panel in place and he took care of that.

I have to tell one really funny story on Adam.

At dinner Thursday night we were discussing the engines and the horsepower and boost came up. I had mentioned they were set up for 6-1/2 PSI of boost and Adam had a strange look on his face. He then said no they were making 8 PSI today when we ran them.

I thought that was strange because he only ran them on the hose and questioned him on that. he replied "YES 8 PSI".

Then my first thought was we have a problem and something was hose wired or plumbed correctly. Well it turnes out that was he was seeing was vacuum and not boost.

We rode him pretty hard over that one.

Hey I did find one thing wrong with the boat project last night.

The VHF radio is mounted backwards!:evilb:

All I have to do is take the thumb screws off, rotate it 180 degrees and put the thumb screws back in. That was it will be easy to see and not unside down and the mic cable will hang at the bottom and not run across the display. Sorry guys I thought everything was PERFECT but you are only human.

I asked that nasty bartender if you could try it on. I said "my buddy has a weird shape and has to try on all his clothes before he buys them!":drink:

This sucks. I have NOTHING on you. I guess I will have to resort to photoshop!

Misc Pictures!

I'm just a little older and a little wiser.

Rule #1:
Always stay just a little more sober then the folks you are drinking with.

Rule #2:
Avoid pictures of yourself!

Rule #3:
Pay attention to where the Taxi is going so you will know where to come and wake everyone up the following day!

Rule #4:
Don't hang around with guys that are good with photo shop!

Looks like I did okay on three of the four!:evilb:

Man my toes almost froze off Friday morning.

I have not seen any snow this season and was not expecting what came across Ohio and West Virginia Friday.

Adam handling the tow motor bringing Dock out of the Checkmate factory for the last time.

Yes, Lane said the Coon Dog was good-eatin, but the Carolina Blonde was even better!!!! Lane said thanks for the good time also. (he was smart enough to leave before the camera came-out)

XT:drink:

Glad I could bring you a few things from NC for you to enjoy.

Like I say "EVERYTHING IS BETTER WITH COON DOG ON IT".

COON DOG

Carolina Blonde is my favorite beer of all times. Just glad I did not get stopped crossing state lines with 10 cases!

I spoke with Ed today and he is coming over to the house Wednesday to help me resolve the water issue and if all goes well we will be dropping her in the water Thursday for a little water test.

I'll post Wednesday night and let everyone know for sure.

Greg,

Please tell Kevin thanks for everything and especially thanks for moving the boat for me.

That was much appreciated.

Mark

Yes sir you are so right.

I am a very lucky man and the most important one is the one on the right. I don't want her screaming at me as much as the other two!:evilb:

You're sooo going to love the screaming
(or whining) of the other two:drink:

I like it soo much, I don't know if I can
own a boat without superchargers ever again.:D

If you haven't done the tour on Saturday afternoon's it is a must. Love the Blonde myself and the babe loves the strawberry.

They are a customer of ours and when they run different drinks they give us samples when the bottles don't fill properly and they cannot sell them. Some good and some not so good but yes the Blonde is AWESOME.

Once they had a spill and called needing some parts in a big hurry and I had several volunteers that wanted to go down and help them clean it up!

After spending a day on Split Decision this year I believe I will feel just like you do about this time next year.

Thanks buddy

Folks if you have any projects get in touch with Dave they are ready and willing to help you out with anything.

He has a 302 in the shop they are working on now and a smaller boat I believe a 180 and a 25 Outlaw on they way.

They are also getting real busy with the golf cart seat business.

Interiors for everything!

Boats
Golf Carts
Tractors
Car
Jeeps

Boat covers

Cockpit & Full Covers

Christmas is here and spring will be right around the corner. Get your winter projects done before boating time arrives.

Just a customer of theirs here :ernaehrung004:!! I will admit the July 4th Blueberry was splendid as well.

Hey glad to see that you have high standards and enjoy the finer things in life.

We had better not say too much are we will have a flood of folks from Bucyrus and Marion wanting to move down here!:evilb:

Dock, I tried the Coon Dog this evening! Pretty good stuff, I need to run out and buy more chicken now! :drink:

Okay all is good with the boat and of course it was something very simple.

Ed got here about 2PM today and I did think I would ever get him started on the problem for him wanting to check out the boat. He is VERY impressed with the finsihed product and the rigging.

It looks like we will be heading to LKN this Friday. The weather forecast keeps changing but since we cannot go out this weekend it is Friday or nothing to do a shake down run.

Friday: Cloudy and windy. Warm. High 71F. Winds SW at 15 to 25 mph.

Warm but windy, oh well at least it will not be cold and maybe the wind will create some much needed water chop.

It was a very simple problem. Does anyone want to make a guess?

Hint:

We could put the hose in the sea strainer and water would run out the drive. We could hook the hose to the fresh water flush and run the engine and all was fine. The problem occured when we hooked the hose up to the outdrive on the muffs and we could NOT get any water flow in through the sea strainer and to the engine.

Yes the ball value was open.
Yes the impeller is good.

Anyone want to guess?

Ed Sherrard – Boat Menders - [email protected]


Ed is one of the best mechanics you will find in the Lake Norman area. He solved the problem in about ten minutes and I had the fix hanging in my shop on a nail. Well we got caught up and all went out to dinner and he headed back to the lake.

Here's a picture of Ed getting to know the ladies.

Thanks Ed your a good fellow.:ernaehrung004:

Don't tell me he put a piece of shipping tape on the low water pick-up holes, on the front of the drive?

We tried that at Checkmate, right??

It better be more complicated than that.....

XT:cool:

Hoses needed to be switched at the seawater pump ???

O ring ?

Man Im jealous. Almost sounds like your in Florida! Nothing but ice the past few days. 4 wheel drive means nothing on this stuff!

Hope to hear some good stories Friday! :ernaehrung004:

BINGO

We have a winner!

SUCKING AIR

The rubber washer in the fresh water flush was bad and very possibly we did hot have the fitting screwed in enough.

Ed first inspected all the hoses and they were perfect nothing needed to be switched. He again was VERY impressed with the rigging and could not say enough about how nicely done it was.

We hooked the hose to the fresh water flush and he noticed the fitting was not tight when we went to unscrew it. He then inspected the gasket (o-ring) and it was bad. We replaced them on both sides. We ran it on the fresh water flush which of course did fine. Then we hooked up the muffs cranked up the motor and it flowed just like it was supposed to.

Ed said that the way we have the fresh water flush plumbed to the sea strainer that any air leak at all will cause problems. To add one more element of protection I plan to add ball valves to the fresh water flush hose.

I knew it would be something simple because Dave and Adam had gone over everything with a fine tooth comb. I think at that moment we were all just too tired and maybe our thought process was not totally clear!

Thank you all

Here's a picture of Ed pointing to the culprit.

Funny but Dave changed out every bolt, hose, fitting, gasket, washer, clamp, etc in the entire bilge and the one item that bit us was the o-ring in the fresh water flush that have to be the same ones that came new in the boat for 2002.

Oh well just glad it was something simple.

This weather forecast it driving me crazy. I just checked it a minute ago and now they say 66 degrees and possible rain.

Go figure

I'll just have to play it by ear tomorrow and see what happens.

Hope the weather holds long enough for a run. Can't wait to hear the results.

and ,,, all along I was sure the problrm was a "Loose Nut behing the Wheel" :drink: Have fun my friend ,, Have fun !!!!

RHC

OK, Lets guess at some top speed numbers now:

92.5 mph - turning 32p (Labbed) Bravo ones, at 5500 rpm?

XT:cool:

One tenth of a MPH slower than me!:party-smiley-004:

I would be good with that if you had not Exaggerated your top speed so much!:evilb::ernaehrung004:

Are you getting scared?:rolleyes:

Jason,
If he gets away from the dock he'll be faster than you on most days(especially here on Travis). :p
Your friend,
Jay
P.S. Have a great Xmas--I hope Santa brings you everything you deserve!!!!!! :ernaehrung004:

Dave I have ran the numbers for weeks now on the prop calculators and I think you are SPOT ON.

I know Mark's engines do what they are suppose to and his dyno numbers are accurate. I know my hull has a high slip factor normally around 17 to 18%. I know I will be trying 32 pitch stock props tomorrow and I will be very surprised if I cannot turn them 5500 RPM.

Two guys in the know tell me that the 32 pitch props are not enough.

Guys my number one goal tomorrow is to run the boat and shake it doen to make sure it is 100%. I need good water flow and pressure and we are hoping that we guessed right on the intake position for the intercoolers. I need everything to work properly and I must consider the drives as much as the engines. Please don't be disappointed if I don't make an attemp tomorrow for a top speed. We have come too far and have too much invested to go right out and break something just trying for top end right off the bat.

If everything goes well and it feels right we will give it a try after I see how she is running.