OK, reservations made at the Holiday Inn Express in North East MD. Still rooms available. Close to the Goose for ramp. We'll be heading down early Sat morning and staying till Monday.

I should be out on the river tomorrow for a little shake down run. Figure around noon. Got alot done today workin on a long punch list of minor fixes. Man the mess that the windshield job made of the entire boat. I've been vacuming for days. It was worth it though. I think they look great, best of all I can see where I'm going now.

No takers on the Chesepeke over this weekend? 6/25- 6/26?

OK, finally got the boat in the water after a fiasco and dangerous situation. The reciever snapped in half as I was coming to a stop down a slight hill. Reciever? The part that the ball bolts to, anyway it was bumpy and all of the sudden the thing snapped where the bend is, trailer hits the street and is sliding behind the truck. I had to let it hit the back of the truck and stop it. Luckily I was able to crank it up and find the new reciever and ball in a local auto parts store while my son watched over the boat sitting in the middle of the road. Thanks to the MANY ignoramouses blowing their horns at us while we got it repaired. Record time I think, 45 minutes and we where rolling again. This was before we went out.

Anyway boat ran great. One small oil leak that I can't tell where its coming from yet. Got it to 110 but too much crap in the water to push it too long. Clean it up and we're ready to go.

Nice. I wish I was going to be around, but work called and I fly out on Friday for a month.

Well, great day on Saturday. Had a good time at Jellies. Not too many boats out. Well boats that mattered anyway.

Everything was going good, heading back running easy about 55-60 mph and all of the sudden, lost the STBD drive. WTF, this is getting OLD! I'm about ready to throw in the towel. Anyone want to buy a used boat? I can't keep up with this crap and I'm not havin near enough fun for the azz ache. Takin it up to Bandit AGAIN! Feels like I have grooves worn in the turnpike.

Needless to say the weekend was cut short, AGAIN!

Awww man! New drive, right? Sorry to hear that. Keep us informed to what caused it. I was just showing my Dad your boat and all the work you had done to it. Bummer.

This reminds me of this thread that just came up a few weeks ago.
http://www.offshoreonly.com/forums/g...e-boating.html

Does this mean i can have my parking spot back now? jk

Hi Howard, I was wondering where your boat was? First come first serve on the spot I guess, LOL.

Took the drive apart yesterday, snapped the verticle shaft right at the upper gear set. Looks like just the shaft, tower and shift fork. Thinking I got off cheap this time? All the gears look good. Lots of metal though, so real good cleaning is needed. Should only be down for a week. Parts are ordered and should be here on Thursday. Gives me a chance to locate the oil leak too. Same drive I thrashed last season. Thinking maybe it might have had a hairline fracture that just showed itself now? Last season it was the upper gear set Who knows?

Like the link, how true it is!

Hey Bill, at least it will only be a couple weeks. I have my boat home. Taking a break from boating til the NFL gets their business issues ironed out plus I have some personal issues that just popped up keeping me off the water. Just not meant to happen this year for me.

How'd it run before the drive issue. Hopefully you had a good speed run down there. Up here the river is just full of crap.

Engine wise I think I'm on top of that, everything seems to be fine(knock on wood). Apears that the drives are the weak link. I'm gonna try to lay off it this season so I can sell the Imcos SC's I have now at the end of the season and step up to the SCX's. Much stronger upper gears and run them with my SC lowers. Otherwise I'm gonna keep popping these. I'm running at the upper edge of their HP range so I'm not surprized really. I hope your thinks work out, nothing serious I hope? Is your boat ready to go other than that? Heard you got 80's out of it? NICE! I cruise at 80 at 4K rpm. Actually 60-70- is a better cruise comfort wise. The rollers sneak up on you at 80, next thing you know your airborn, not good! Got 115 out of it so far. Still has some more to go. My builder says it shoud/could be a 130 mph boat. So long as I have drives holding together, LOL.

He just informed me that the upper gear set is no good either because the shaft play destroyed the brass rings, not replacable on their own, the gears themselves are fine. Murcury way of sticking it to you, the whole time due to their gears being JUNK! ARG!

Damn, too bad. I am probably going to move up to an SCX upper this coming winter. Just feel like I am rolling the dice with this SC upper.