Official... raise your post count thread!!

C85B815C-8FEA-47CA-AC0D-2FD88A102023.jpeg Torch never lets you down. Beautiful lake. Put in on the North end. Went all the way south to the river and got some famous pizza! Put on close to 50 miles on the RIB yesterday.
 
Ran the boat for a while yesterday. Lake was pretty flat. Picked up a piece of driftwood in a no-wake. Got caught in my hydraulic steering rams. Got up on plane and had an unexpected rooster tail. :D
Was 1/2 mile from a dock so I headed for the dock to see what the hell was going on and the Coasties saw it and pulled me over. They probably thought I had a drive up. They offered to help get it out, but I got it from the swim platform. And kept it as a souvenir. Coasties did a boarding. Passed 100%. No boots on seats, either. Total time of contact, maybe 3 minutes. They were pretty impressed by the clean engines. A clean bilge cuts an inspection in half, I swear. Clean bilge, valid registration and no alcohol on board? Didn't even tie up. I asked if I should deploy fenders. CG said "No, this won't take long. We'll hold you off."

No damage, not even to props. Pretty impressive rooster tail for a V shaped piece of wood. That was a first in many years of boating. And cheers to the Coast Guard for offering to help clear the fouling.
 
Ran the boat for a while yesterday. Lake was pretty flat. Picked up a piece of driftwood in a no-wake. Got caught in my hydraulic steering rams. Got up on plane and had an unexpected rooster tail. :D
Was 1/2 mile from a dock so I headed for the dock to see what the hell was going on and the Coasties saw it and pulled me over. They probably thought I had a drive up. They offered to help get it out, but I got it from the swim platform. And kept it as a souvenir. Coasties did a boarding. Passed 100%. No boots on seats, either. Total time of contact, maybe 3 minutes. They were pretty impressed by the clean engines. A clean bilge cuts an inspection in half, I swear. Clean bilge, valid registration and no alcohol on board? Didn't even tie up. I asked if I should deploy fenders. CG said "No, this won't take long. We'll hold you off."

No damage, not even to props. Pretty impressive rooster tail for a V shaped piece of wood. That was a first in many years of boating. And cheers to the Coast Guard for offering to help clear the fouling.


Congrats
I would be buying lottery tickets if my luck was that good
 
Well... there is the small issue of something's leaking water, maybe a shift bellows. But I think it's unrelated to the stick, because all the rubber was protected by the drives being down. So I have to deal with that. But no obvious damage from the "stick." Bellows are aging out years wise. I'm going to leave the boat strapped to the trailer and dunk the transom and see if I can see where it is coming in. Pretty slow leak, but I like a bone dry bilge. End of season I will replace all bellows. I may do the minimum now to keep her running another month, and do the rest off-season.
 
Getting close to "log" classification

Skinny end was up. Fatter end was down. It was pinned under the swim platform and behind my steering ram, which combined with the force of water pinned it in. It made one hell of a rooster tail and made me immediately reach for tabs on the SB side. (Opposite from stick.) So of course the next thing I do is look behind me to see what the hell is going on. I had about a half mile to go to make the cut to the channel to the dock so I stayed on plane. I thought something superficial had failed, because my rpms weren't that far off. I knew I hadn't lost the drive. I thought maybe I was dragging a steering ram or something. And whatever was lost... was already gone. I know I didn't get very far before I knew something was wrong. I was short a few mph per rpm, but not drastic. I guess no matter how long you have been doing this, you can always see something new. :blush5:
 
Back
Top