Boating BS thread

Thanks. Yeah, she's a beaut for sure. It's just honestly too much for me to keep a 67 year old wooden boat. I LOVE the idea of having her... the reality is a lot of work though. Hmmm... maybe that's why my girlfriend is a redhead Kidding. My girlfriend dispels a lot of those redhead stereotypes.

 

Dang thats awesome!! I'd love to do a long trip on a boat. Where are they going?

 

they are going on what's called the great circle loop. they will start on the Chesapeake, head down to the tip of florida via the intercoastal waterway. they will then head around the gulf, and by way of the Mississippi and then a number of locks, they will get up into the great lakes. they then take the great lakes east, until they get spit out into the Atlantic, up in the northeast. they'll then head down the east coast, and back up the Chesapeake to where they started.

here's a map of the route options.


they did the "1090 trip" a couple years ago in a 22' sea ray, and again this spring in the 44 footer. that's 1090 mile portion of the great loop, from Miami to the Chesapeake.

here's a video of their most recent 1090 trip. they bought the boat in florida, and brought it back up to VA/MD for the summer. I make a brief cameo in it, with some tow-in surfing, using our small (in comparison) boat.

 

Wow that looks like an amazing trip

 

Cool vid Colin and dam that thing puts out a nice wake dude!!

 

almost done with my dad's birthday present. got it working, but I still have some tweaks to make before it's done.

Summary: When coming back to their boat (44' trawler) at night on the dinghy (8' inflatable) it can be hard to safely approach, tie up to, and get off onto the back of the trawler. I'm giving them lights that will clamp to the back railing on their upper deck. with a small key fob, they will be able to turn on the lights wirelessly as the come up behind the boat, making it much easier and safer to get on and off the boat at night.

How:
it's a watertight box that houses two sealed 12v batteries. also in the box are the fuses, relay, and wireless control panel. even though they will likely house the box in a compartment near where the lights will be mounted, everything that penetrates the box is fully waterproof. a 12v solar panel with built in charge regulator (to prevent overcharging) will be remotely mounted (probably on the aluminum beam that supports their radar dome/satellite/etc. so once this system is set up, they should never have to think about maintaining it (until the batteries die years down the road.

front of box. waterproof switch and usb charger with waterproof cover.




back of box. main power and grounds that will run the lights. still need to toss the waterproof plug on the end. still to be added is one more of the stainless steel waterproof penetrations, which the charging cables from the solar panel will run through.




The guts



The key fob. I the box can run 4 different items. my folks came by for dinner last night, so I showed them how it works......they've already expressed an interest in some other things they'd like it to run, so I'm glad I can be easily expanded to run more channels. have not tested the remote range yet, but all they really need is 50 feet or so.



the lights and mounts I'm supplying them with.
the lights are just your average 60 degree led flood. cracked them open and re-sealed them since they will be outside in a marine environment 24/7. mounts are powdercoated aluminum with stainless hardware, and different sized rubber inserts that allow it to fig a range of tubing, since I'm not sure what size their handrail up top is





and that's all for now. next pictures will probably be when everything is installed. they've moved the boat from Maryland to north Carolina for the winter, so I'm not sure when they'll be there next to bolt everything up.

 

Hey Colin that's awesome dude can't wait to see the output when it's all done. I'm sure it will suit your parents needs for visibility. Oh btw did you get married? I see your wearing a ring

 

I went out salmon fishing last sunday with a friend and didn't catch anything (fish and wildlife lady at the dock said 1/5 boats is catching a fish), on the way back I went over a seaweed patch and sucked a ton of it up into the jet... Stuck my hand inside to get out as much as I could, with the engine off, and cut my hand up pretty good. Anyway it took me 2 hours to get back since I couldn't go faster than 5mph. The negotiations have started for a new boat, so done with the jet.

 

Awe dude that sux buddy. I've heard that about jets dude. Once you get something sucked up there it's a bitch. One of the few reasons I have stayed with a prop in the water..

 

Yeah it wasn't fun haha luckily we were only about 2.5-3 miles away from the dock but still. We've also been wanting to trade to a boat we can go for halibut in, kinda helping our case haha

 

Well I got a project today, bass tracker 16' hull.
Gonna need to make a trailer, build a console and add flooring, and motor, It's gonna be fun to set it up exactly how I want to.

 

So I'm contemplating designing the trailer for my boat and have a few questions.
Should I go tandem axle? They tow better, back better, and if I have a blowout with a boat that light I could keep on trucking.

Standard wood runners with the plastic covers, or rollers? I assume standard runners with plastic covers as I haven't seen a trailer for an aluminum boat with rollers.

 

I'd go single axle, that boat doesn't look that heavy.. Plus then you have 2 more bearings to worry about locking up.

I would go with that marine grade plastic. Not sure exactly what its tough stuff and has worked well on our trailer for 10 years now.

 

it's a small, light weight, relatively inexpensive boat. I would do the same for the trailer.
-keep it small. single axle will be plenty. even if you had a tandem axle, you'd have to stop and swap out for a spare if you had a blowout.....ask me how I know



-do the math with the addition of a motor, batteries, flooring, and the gear that will be on the boat while you tow it. you may not even need breaks on the trailer. look to your local laws, but typically, 3500 lbs requires breaks. you can have them on smaller loads of course, but you may not need it.

-for a boat this light, there's no need for anything too fancy for it to sit on. some treated lumber wrapped in all weather felt/carpet should do just fine, and be very economical.
our boat (roughly 5000 lbs) has sat on carpeted lumber for nearly 10 years, and does not show any signs of wear. where it sits on the trailer. hand crank pulls it right up on the trailer with ease. you can see the black carpet wrapped lumber in this picture.

 

Just To add to what colin and northwest said, 95 I would just keep it simple with a single axle put the money into some goodies on the boat. I have carpeted Bunks on my 04 regal. I have no idea how long they have been on there. Probably since the boat was new. They are in need of replacing though because I am starting to see wood on a couple of spots. However, I may be selling the boat soon for something new, or new to me anyway. We shall see in the next few months. It's my sisters boat so I have some time. It's an 09 cc 21ft with a yamaha 225 four stroke. I am looking into several oprtions for a foldable t-top for it so it will fit easily into the garage. I will have to put the Baja on hold for now

 

so my dad's birthday present turned into a birthday/Christmas present due to some time limitations. here's the copy and paste from another thread with the full overview. made some additions to the original function of the box.....

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I have a habit of building things for people as gifts for their birthdays and Christmas. My dad's gift this Christmas took me a little longer than normal. my folks bought a 44 foot boat a little over a year ago. they are traveling around on it a lot, as my father nears retirement. the frequently drop anchor, and take the dinghy to shore for dinner/drinks. they then end up returning to the boat at after dark. to help them both locate the boat, as well as make boarding it from the dinghy easier, I wanted to get them some lights that could illuminate the entire rear of the boat, and the water around it. then I decided I didn't want them to have to leave the lights on all night if they didn't want to. the solution was a wireless controller.

end result: I built a waterproof box that houses batteries for the light, so It can run independent of the boats electronics. it also house all of the circuitry and wireless module. the wireless unit and the lights are powered by two 12 volt batteries, and it will run the lights for a long time, but I wanted this to be a set it and forget it kind of thing, so I wired up a solar panel with a built in charge regulator, so they'll never have to manually re-charge the box.

then my mom mentioned to me that my dad was looking into having a backup camera installed on the boat, to make getting in and out of smaller slips at the dock easier with just a single person. so now the box and remote also power/activate a backup camera and monitor.

the box itself. master on/off switch, and a 12v charging plug (just in case you want to charge a phone or something).


waterproof wire penetrations. top one is power in for the solar charger. bottom two are power and ground out to the lights and camera.


the guts


solar panel. just over 1 square foot. box sticking off the bottom is the charge regulator.


gave him two lights with some pretty serious brackets to mount them to the handrail on the upper deck of the boat, facing backwards, to light up everything behind the boat.


the monitor and camera. the monitor may not be needed, as I think the nav system on the boat has video in channels. being that it is going to be around salt water almost constantly, I got a more robust, durable camera than what I use on my truck.



waterproof plugs on everything




the remote. tested at roughly 1/8 of a mile, and it worked great. couldn't test from any farther, since I would have needed some waders to walk ant further away.


wiring harness all coiled up, ready to go down the boat for install.

 

Hey Colin that looks awesome! I like the camera set up also. How is the ir image at night? Kinda curious as to how the salt water will affect the lens and ultimately the image on the screen. I know the ir camera system on my patrol car get dirty hanging out on the back of my Tahoe. But then again the back of that Tahoe seems to get dirty real easy. Hopefully should not be as problematic on the back of a boat but will probably require routine cleaning of salty residue. However looks killer.

 

So getting our boat ready for the water again and ran into some issues, the motor wouldn't trim up (Ended up being a bad sensor that wasn't necessary), so I manually lifted it to work on it and then lowered it back down.
The trim pump is now working but won't push the motor up and when manually raised theres no pressure in the system to keep it up, any ideas?
I thought there might be air in the pump or ram but I checked fluid (A little low so I topped it off) and tried again and still no go.
It's supposed to be a self priming pump also.

1999 Evinrude 225 FICHT motor.

 

Something electronic maybe?

 

I don't think so, I can hear the pump running, i'm thinking it may be a seal or the pump impeller is shot.