Final work completed, checkride and slip update

Finally - we have a slip!

We’d worked out the slip - orignally I was put into a decent slip, but considering the wider beam of my boat, and my newbie-ness at manuevering into relatively tight places on a heavier-than-I’ve piloted boat, I’ve got to honest - I was a bit nervous. I became more nervous when I saw my ‘slip-mate’ was also a relatively wide boat.

The marina looks like this with the bigger boats all closer in to the parking lot, but each ‘U’ has two boats next to each other between the slip fingers

was of course one of the slips on the southern portion - pretty much in and out, verus the long, seemingly-to-me narrow channel in and our of each section, then going 90* to get into the slip.  I’m sure it’s not bad and undoubtedly I’ll adjust, but you don’t need to zoom in to see a few of the boats are pretty close to each other.  This isn’t a problem when tied up into the slip properly, but I was and remain a bit concerned about getting her in and out until I better know my way around her.  

Andy at the marina was really good about it, and we were able to swap around from the first slip available so I’m now in a slightly wider one (I’ll take it!), with another few feet between boats.  It’s not a huge amount, but does make me feel a bit better, as beyond the $ cost were something to happen, the last thing I want to do is to tap someone else’s boat!

I knew I wouldn’t have the boat immediately, so was able to start paying on the slip a bit later in May.  I’m still happy about it all, as at one point it seemed to be in question of whether I’d wind up with the boat ready to go with literally nowhere to put her!  I still don’t have an appropriate truck to haul her myself, and while I do have a friend I could likely borrow a truck from occasionally, it just wouldn’t matter much with no chance of pulling a trailer in and out of our crazy driveway.  

So we’ve been playing a bit week by week, but wanting the boat to be solid and ready for fun over being rushed withsurprises to come as a result.

I had a few conversations with both Justin(broker) and Kevin(mecahnic).  Kevin was pretty helpful, although also apparently underwater with tons of work. They had a separate HVAC guy as the only one else touching the boat, and were working to schedule that work to get done. The batteries in the boat were questionable as it was previously needing jumps and they were a few years old.  The trailer tires were ok but had lost some air - went ahead and asked to just swap out all tires if need be, and replace the batteries.

Some of the boat’s guages were inop, primarily the tach and the trim tab indicator, and we’d originally thought the fuel gauge. Kevin said we could spend $ on the trim tab leveler, but the sensors or wiring (he told me which,I just forget) tend to go bad fairly quickly, while I’d adjust to piloting the boat without it, so in short - don’t waste the money on chasing that. Makes sense, and I always appreciate not wasting $.. :) He was able to get all of the lights working, repaired some wiring for the bilge switch, found a kinked coolant hose to the stern drive, which sounded like the prior mechanic basically screwed up as it’s held in place by a locking clamp insert, which may have been overtightened to rotate and kink the hose as a result.. He did a tuneup, impeller (it had been done maybe 18 months prior, but also sat a bit, so better to get ‘er done..), and let me know he was able to get the stern light working, but it was a non-regulation length pole (this one is removable and goes into a socket).

We talked about the gauges a bit. Seems like the SeaRay tachs tend to go out, and considering the age, it’s not entirely unexpected. I told him to hold off messing with it, and I’ll do a full gauge set once I sort how/where/from who etc.  

We got down to ‘possibly this weekend’ and were going to do a final check ride on Sat, delivery on Sunday as the original plan. We had a bit of a derail, as Kevin was doing the final run-through and went to re-check end-to-end, flipped the (now new) HVAC on, and got nothing on the panel. This was the one thing not done by Kevin or Justin, and I already had a kind of surprising bill on the HVAC at over $1K. It’s possible I’m in the wrong business and should have stayed doing remodeling and plumbing… turns out it was the sea pump, which really annoyed me, as now I’m wondering how the HVAC guy properly checked the system out in the first place.

We were out of luck as while I could take delivery of her and I could do the sea pump myself, I really wanted the HVAC guy to prove everything was working. I trust Kevin on the rest of it, so we decided let’s go ahead and drive out (~3 hours) and do the final checkup and sea trial minus HVAC, and get the sea pump in the following week for more flexible delivery options, as it was going to either be Justin or one of Kevin’s guys doing it and time is not always easily available.

and got her gassed up a bit.  It’s very cool on a bigger lake with attended pumps, and went for a cruise. The boat ran perfectly. I’ve still got to sort how to properly trim her up, but Kevin gave me a few pointers and I’m sure I’ll get used to it. She would happily cruise along anywhere between 10-40+MPH. Water was a bit choppy, but the boat was very stable, and just overall very nice.

I know Kevin has at least another 5 or so ‘bigger’ boat projects going on, so didn’t want to take up too much of his time, but we were having fun so wound up on a pretty great joy ride/shakeout cruise. Zero issues, and really - I just can’t recommend Kevin enough. Thanks man, appreciate it!