She's finally home!! Rickk's 230

[John Jones]

JUST DO IT

My kind of woman!



I found 2 buckets (2.5 gal each?) of Peel-Away for half price at Boat US.  I haven't gotten up the initiative to try it yet.  I was waiting on cooler weather, now that it's not hot, there is the knee I'm using for an excuse now  

[RickK]

The canvas guy came back yesterday with a solid price and IT WAS HIGHER THAN THE ORIGINAL (by a hundred bucks)!! So much for sharpening the pencil  
I asked for some references and I caught him a little off guard. He gave me a marina as one - I called them on the spot and they told me they wouldn't let anyone else on premise. 8)  For the next reference, he told me he'd open his receipt book and I could call anyone I wanted.   That's the way it should be. I told him to go ahead with the project. Will be done before christmas.

Dave and I put a new ball on the 6" rise drawbar that he gave me (ended up having to heat and cut the old ball off - took us every bit of an hour to change out the balls). The we hooked up to the 230 and it looked like just changing the height of the draw bar had her center of gravity sitting back where it should be -  8) .
We trailered the boat to the ramp - about 10 miles, paying close attention to how she trailered now.  She seemed a little light in tongue weight because she was squirming around a little, so we moved the boat forward on the trailer 4" and took her for another tow.  Now she felt good and solid - and we got to really test out how she'd follow when this dumb $#&% crossed in front of us and decided she was going too fast for the curb and almost stopped in front of us  :x .  Anyway, the 230 and the Tundra passed the trailering test.

Now it was time to drop her in the water and chill.  Tide was real low and had to back her off the trailer with the motor - Dave handled that like it was his own.  Wind was up around 15 out of the north so there was some chop in the bay - no problem. We headed out through the pass into the gulf to see what it was like there and to take a little cruise around this island - about a 4 mile trip.  We were greeted with whitecaps and swells.  I need to get used to the planers and trim so this was a good arena for it.  We headed south in a following sea and the swells were pretty big so we had a mildly rough ride but a good learning experience.  I definitely need to learn these planers and how to level the ride - all in time I guess. We came around the island, into the pass and then back into the bay - then we shut her down and drifted with the wind.  Now this is where she really shines.  There is so much room in her I couldn't get over it.  In my 170 there are only a couple of places you can relax, in the 230 there are only a couple places where you can't relax. We drifted for about an hour, shooting the breeze and investigating everything in the boat.  It'll be nice when the biminis are installed and I have the deck chairs I just bought, on the boat and in use, cold one in hand. 8)
Anyway, packed it in for the day and towed her back home.  Another thing off the list.  Maybe I can get the wife out on her Sunday.
One thing I did find out is that the hour meter DOES NOT WORK :x  , guess I didn't really notice that on the 2 sea trials, so all bets are off on how many hours are really on this motor.  Also, the tach started freaking out and displaying weird stuff - ain't that just the way stuff happens - drive it off the lot and .....

[JimCt]

Taking the boat out out on your own terms is where you start to learn how  she handles and where the little things are that need attending.  I imagine it'll take quite a while to get tab trimming down to a matter of instinct.

Regarding the intermittent tach & hour meter, could be grounding or poor terminal connections.

If you had high water at the ramp do you feel you could launch/retrieve single handed?

Does the cockpit self-bail OK?

[John Jones]

Those canvas guys are $proud$ of their work.

Hour meters are a PITA.  Mine only showed 987 on a 13 year old motor      

If the tach is acting up, be sure and check the charging voltage when the motor is running.  On a lot of motors the voltage regulator and the tach signal come from the same electronics box.

Trim tabs do take a little getting used to.  I didn't notice what kind of switch you have.  Normally they are dual rockers.  If they are wired correctly, just look at the pair of switches as the boat.  Don't think about which does what with what tab.

Press down on the right front and the right bow will go down, etc.
Press both rear switches together and the stern will go down and bow up.  After a full day with a lot of running I can't remember where they are so I press the rear of both to bring them all the way up and start over.  Experiment in the driveway and find out how long (one thousand and one, one thousand and two...) it takes to go from full up to full down and to make sure that they travel equally.  I have learned that about 3 seconds of down on both tabs (front of the switches) is a good starting point for my normal cruise attitude.  Don't over-correct.  It takes a couple of seconds for the boat to level out to a new setting.

[JimCt]

Any way to set up trim position indicators?

[John Jones]

I think most offer them.  Couple of hundred $.  I don't have room for them if I wanted to spend the money.



http://www.bennetttrimtabs.com/trimd.htm

[John Jones]

By the way, anyone with Bennetts, they have a great troubleshooting page.

http://www.bennetttrimtabs.com/trouble.htm

[JimCt]

Rick, you asked about sodablasting so I went out and took a close-up shot (1.5" away from hull) to show the effects.  The pits look large in the picture but but could be wet-sanded out.  Wet sanding a hull your size would be a big task.  Anyway, I just wanted you to see the "after" surface.

[RickK]

Taking the boat out out on your own terms is where you start to learn how  she handles and where the little things are that need attending.  I imagine it'll take quite a while to get tab trimming down to a matter of instinct.

This boat is SO different from the 170 in every possible way.  It'll take some time to get used to her.

Regarding the intermittent tach & hour meter, could be grounding or poor terminal connections.

I spent the afternoon in the cabin looking at the wiring, changing out switches and such.  I took the access panels off and found a rat's nest - not in wiring - I'm talking about a real rat/mouse nest.  Thankfully the occupant was not at home  Big wad of paper towels, all shredded up.  I also found a humongous mud dauber nest - about 8 inches long - biggest I've ever seen - behind another panel.  Thank goodness they weren't around either.  I disconnected, inspected and reconnected the tach wiring.  All looked good on this end.  Maybe on the motor end?  Seems that the tach display varied depending on the rpms - what I mean is at one speed you couldn't read it and at another, you could.

If you had high water at the ramp do you feel you could launch/retrieve single handed?

In time. Except for the most extreme conditions, I float the 170 back on her trailer- the 230 is not ever going to be like that.  She'll have to be driven up on her trailer.  This opens a whole other dimension to launching and retreiving.  I was talking to Dave about this very thing yesterday and he said that he launches and retrieves by himself all the time.  He has his trailer set up with a set of choker chains that you hook to the front eye and they limit how far forward the boat can go and also center the boat on the trailer.  Then you hook up the winch and crank her up tight. So, I'll have to learn some more.  Me and my wife are taking the 230 out this morning (wife's first trip) so we'll have to learn together on this.  Should be fine.

Does the cockpit self-bail OK?

Like a champ.

[RickK]

Those canvas guys are $proud$ of their work.

You got that right - hope it comes out as nice as we planned.  The only hard parts are the transition in widths.

Hour meters are a PITA.  Mine only showed 987 on a 13 year old motor      

I cleaned the connections and put some dielectric grease on them yesterday.  We'll see today if that fixed it.

If the tach is acting up, be sure and check the charging voltage when the motor is running.  On a lot of motors the voltage regulator and the tach signal come from the same electronics box.

Colin, the mech at Rays, told me that they replaced the main electronic box on the motor. Hopefully it's just a connection.

Trim tabs do take a little getting used to.  I didn't notice what kind of switch you have.  Normally they are dual rockers.  If they are wired correctly, just look at the pair of switches as the boat.  Don't think about which does what with what tab.

Press down on the right front and the right bow will go down, etc.
Press both rear switches together and the stern will go down and bow up.  After a full day with a lot of running I can't remember where they are so I press the rear of both to bring them all the way up and start over.  Experiment in the driveway and find out how long (one thousand and one, one thousand and two...) it takes to go from full up to full down and to make sure that they travel equally.  I have learned that about 3 seconds of down on both tabs (front of the switches) is a good starting point for my normal cruise attitude.  Don't over-correct.  It takes a couple of seconds for the boat to level out to a new setting.

I have the "joystick" and it is weird.  I think the switches would be easier too.  We'll see.

[RickK]

Rick, you asked about sodablasting so I went out and took a close-up shot (1.5" away from hull) to show the effects.  The pits look large in the picture but but could be wet-sanded out.  Wet sanding a hull your size would be a big task.  Anyway, I just wanted you to see the "after" surface.

That's a good pix.  If I didn't know it was a hull, it could be a planet...
Thanks Jim.

[John Jones]

I have the joystick on the AQ and rocker switches on the Back Country.  After a while you get used to the joystick.  I actually think it's more intuitive.

[RickK]

To continue the story - the wife and I left the house and was in the water about 730 - winds stiff out of the NE - maybe 25?  Flags were sticking straight out.  Headed south for about 7 miles through the ICW to the Venice Jettys.  Looked at the gas gauge, was about a 1/4 and wanted to make the outside 14 mile run back up north and back inside to the ramp.  I thought we could easily make it but not being real familiar with the gauges and how accurate they are, we stopped at the marina close to the jettys and decided to put 50 gals in  - at $2.94/gal.  Normally I would have filled her at a land based gas station but my wife urged me on.  Oh well, will last a while.  When I went to start her back up, I must have had the key pushed in and flooded her out. Couldn't really tell because of the electric pumps and electronic choke. She wouldn't start for nothing :x :x :x  Luckily someone there told me about something called "Clear choke" or something like that- pushing the throttle all the way forward and cranking - she started  8) 8) 8) and ran flawlessly the rest of the trip.  Had never had that happen to me before, in all these years on the water.  Learn something new everyday.
Out the Jettys we went and turned North.  We stayed out about a mile and the land to the east blocked some of the wind.  The water was not too bad - 2-3s.  The wind was 1/4ing so I got to learn more about the tabs.  At 25 it was a little bumpy for my wife, trimmed up tight and dropped her down to 22 and it was perfect for my wife.  I find out she is really a "cruiser" not a go fast type.  I told her I wanted her to find out if she could be comfy in this boat, even at speed, in case we have a long cruise and can't go there at 7mph. She is now.  Saw a lot of, what looked like, Tuna tearing up the bait all over the Gulf - maybe Capt Jim can pipe in here and tell me if I'm imagining things or not. Looked stocky and maybe 24", at least the ones I saw jumping.  Looked too stocky for mackeral or kings but had the bumpy tail.  Anyway, tons of them out there and no one trolling (I barely saw anyone) - I didn't even bring a pole.  Gonna have to get a little beefier set of gear for out here, all my stuff is for the inside.
After we came out of the Gulf and were back in the ICW, there was a lot of idle/no wake zones which finished the morning off - back at home by 12 noon.

This was the first launch by "ourselves" - went smooth.  The boat is a little big for the dock.


Plenty of chilling space.


Had plenty of guidance help on how to get back to port.  - 2nd mate


This is the speed my wife really likes.


I kinda like it too.
A beautiful day - mid to upper 70s - a wonderful time and a good learning experience ta boot. Oh and BTW, the tach worked flawlessly, so futsing with it helped?
Spent the rest of the day cleaning out the fish box (the one in the floor in front of the motor in the idling pix) and the bilge.  She takes on no water that I can see.  Still have to learn all these pumps under the floor though.
And then I buffed out one half of the boat from gunnel down.  Looks much better - will hit it again in a while after I get the topsides.

[bluedolphin]

Glad you had a good time yesterday. We went out yesterday, too, but not out on the ocean. It was windy here, too, and we had heavy rains on the way back, for about 15 minutes. We were on the Formula, so we had cover, so we just kept driving in the rain - no problem. If we had taken the Aquasport, we would have sought cover somewhere - the bimini and console cover can only keep us dry for so long.

[John Jones]

They call the fish "bonita" here.  I am pretty sure they are actually "little tunny".  Tons of fun but cat food tastes better.  They will hit most anything that moves.  Great shark bait.



http://www.landbigfish.com/fish/fish.cfm?ID=161