Yesterday’s test drive went well. No overheating and she ran well. With trib tab issues I was able to get a top speed of 32mph out of it at around 4,000 rpm. Only at little water in the bilge after 45 minutes on the lake. I think I have a slow leak in one of the petcocks. One is rusted open and needs to be replaced so I kind of expected that. It is the one that is the poor installation to start with. My Dad and Kyle went with me and Victor met us out there with his boat as a chase boat. That was a hugh piece of mind for me, thanks Victor. We ran around at various speeds for about 45 mintues and the engine temperature stayed between 170 and maybe 185/190 the whole time. It is hard to tell as the guage scaling is kind of poor to start with. I also don’t know if the guage it reads correctly. The boat runs comfortably around 3200-3300 and 24-26mph. Kyle at one point decided to ride in the crows nest and he froze his butt off. I left him up there for a while just to mess with him a little.
Docking at either end of the trip was a little chaotic as I and still learning the throttle and inertia and Kyle is learning to work a dockline and cleat. He is still trying to use muscle over leverage and friction. All and all a good day. Today I am going to fiddle with the trim tabs and trace out some of the wiring then put it back in storage for the week.
