Will -

I'll be down possibly this weekend or next for sure. Kurt Rosenburg just brought my Top Gun back to OC, so maybe we'll have the 38 and the 45 side by side next weekend. Have a safe trip!

What props did you end up with?

I don't know what props Tres tested with yesterday, but some of the results may change as he makes changes to the boat. I won't be able to answer your question until Tres is finished with it. Sorry.

Unfortunately, I don't think that the Apache will be here by next weekend because there is still some setup work to do. I am figuring that we will be heading down there in roughly two weeks or so. It may be sooner, but I am guessing that's when he'll have it ready to go.

Remeber I have that pair of 18X28 four blades if you need to try them.

Well you can alays catch a ride with me next weekend if you can get away from the hotel.

Thanks man. I certainly appreciate the offer!

I would have never guessed 87mph. You have to be smiling from ear to ear.
Keep us posted and add pics, I love it.
best of luck
Ed

Sorry for the delay Will, I am going to try to get there by the middle of next week. Thanks for the congrats, I look forward to running with you all in OC. I do have some bad news on the Run...It has been cancelled, I think they are going to do something local though.

That stinks. Are they planning to do the Thunder on the Chesapeake event again this year? If so, any info on that one?

Great Job !!!

Thanks, but the credit really should go to Tres and his crew because they are doing a fantastic job! I think that it is coming along really well, but we have hit a small stumbling block. After the testing run last week, they went back to work under the boat to remove a slight hook on the bottom. That is now finished and was no big deal. They are also going to change the spacer height in the drives. Again, no big deal. This, combined with the bottom work, should yield the needed bow lift.

Now for the bad news. After the testing run they found that one of the drives was making some noise when they turned the prop shaft while removing the props. Not good. Upon closer inspection back at the shop, they found that the drive did indeed have gear damage. So, that drive has to come apart for repairs. To make a long story short, I decided to have them rebuild both drives while they were at it to avoid future problems. If one blew up, who knows what kind of shape the other one is in or when it was last rebuilt and who did the work? We were hoping that the drives would be OK, but it didn't work out that way.

Anyhow, while the drives are apart we are going to take the opportunity to make some changes there as well. We are going to keep the current uppers and dry sump them and then install new dry sump lowers. This will free up a little bit of power and save a huge amount of oil with each gear oil change. The down side is that it will be roughly 2 weeks until we can get the boat back in the water. I just keep telling myself that it is all going to be well worth the wait! I'll keep you posted.

It will be worth it....sounds like a great project with great results.
Lookin real good.