1974 Chieftan 21' 165 Mercruiser I/O

[cj8mule]

The brown truck guy just showed up :lol:


woo hoo

 

[cj8mule]

We have splash off !!!

I even put the first slime on the deck:

And.... a good supper:

 

[cj8mule]

I was by myself today and tried to take some video. It's a little shakey,,,, but better than nothing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iVZYOPKgEA

 

[GA_Boater]

Boy do you have a great Brown truck guy. He brought a splash and a fish fry. :smile:

I bet you felt good getting her on the water. She looks good, even with slime on the vinyl.

Are the oil pressure and temp gauges working? OP looked pegged and the temp was low. Did you go ahead and launch with the toast gauges?

And to make it official:

STARCRAFT ON THE WATER

Congrats CJ!!!!!!!!!! A great addition to the Fleet. :thumb:

 

[cj8mule]

Boy do you have a great Brown truck guy. He brought a splash and a fish fry. :smile:

I bet you felt good getting her on the water. She looks good, even with slime on the vinyl.

Are the oil pressure and temp gauges working? OP looked pegged and the temp was low. Did you go ahead and launch with the toast gauges?

And to make it official:

STARCRAFT ON THE WATER

Congrats CJ!!!!!!!!!! A great addition to the Fleet. :thumb:

Thanks GA. The gauges I bought didn't work with my sending units, so I went and bought a mechanical water temp gauge. It's just sitting off to the side of the gunnel in the back. Both new fuel gauges, water, and oil aren't working correctly. :facepalm:


The boat worked great and ran around 30 mph at 4100 rpm. She likes to be around 3400 rpm at about 25 mph. No leaks of course! However, it is a little stern heavy and doesn't want to plane out until 2500 rpm or so.

The SS's I had would plane out much easier.... probably just the nature of this big beast. The PO had one of those dolphine fins or whale tail on the outdrive (not sure what else to call it) so I know there was an issue before. I'm thinking some smart tabs are probably in this Chiefs future.

 

[jbcurt00]

Congrats! Tabs are probably a better option then the whale tail anyway...

 

[Watermann]

CJ your Chief looks great sitting in the water! She doesn't look stern heavy to me by the way she sits. I've been thinking about that problem myself with the big V6 and yeah smart tabs are the way to go for sure. I would've guessed your speed to be more around 40 MPH with that 165 HP six. You must have checked it by GPS I'm guessing. Awesome splash man :thumb:

 

[GA_Boater]

I'm for for tabs too. iboats has the Nauticus tabs at a good price. The nice thing is adjustability, which whale tails don't have. http://www.iboats.com/Nauticus-Trim-Tabs/dm/cart_id.642773914--session_id.650527767--view_id.239769

 

[Watermann]

I ordered a set of the iboats 18' "Factory blemish" smart tabs for the Chief. I can live with the blemish casting seam being under water for 99 bucks.

 

[GA_Boater]

If I ever see the Chief, I'm looking for the blem. :smile: What brand tabs did you get?

 

[Watermann]

If I ever see the Chief, I'm looking for the blem. :smile: What brand tabs did you get?

If you can catch me! :lol:

http://www.iboats.com/Factory-Blemis...view_id.486633

 

[GA_Boater]

Now I know to look for the knit line. Barely visible, I'll have to look fast when I catch you. LOL

 

[cj8mule]

I looked at those, but thought they would be too small for the 21'. I've not bought the tabs yet.

I haven't been out in the boat in almost 2 weeks.... gotta go this weekend and take advantage of the awesome weather. There still isn't a bimini top yet, but I've been working on making new bows and a wood frame to mount it to while sewing

 

[Watermann]

Sorry about taking your thread hostage CJ, just noticed after going back and reading. Yeah your Chief may do better with the larger tabs but I don't know about the 80# struts, after all they take into account heavy glass boats and ours are nice new light tin.

 

[cj8mule]

Sorry about taking your thread hostage CJ, just noticed after going back and reading. Yeah your Chief may do better with the larger tabs but I don't know about the 80# struts, after all they take into account heavy glass boats and ours are nice new light tin.

No problem Watermann. You might be right about the weight difference and those blems working out great for me.


I don't know about you guys, but I'm still having a lot of issues posting. It took 4 trys to post my last message over 2 days time... :grumpy:

 

[Weep'n Willy]

Cj she looks great on the water and congrats on the splash. I like the doors ya got for the transom area. Been thinking on how to cover mine. I like that idea.

 

[cj8mule]

Thanks WnW. I used 3/4" ply for the frame sort of like a cabinet would have and the 3/8" ply for the door. They are sparred and wrapped with marine vinyl with no padding. I also just used household cabinet pulls with one of those spring loaded catches.


It's been almost 2 weeks since the Chief's been wet..... I'm gonna have to take a day off this week and go!!

 

[Weep'n Willy]

Thanks for the info on the doors. I have some extra marine ply that will work fine for that.

 

[csmith1975]

Congrats on the splash! I just read the entire thread. A lot of trials and tribulations to bring together a work of art!

 

[cj8mule]

Congrats on the splash! I just read the entire thread. A lot of trials and tribulations to bring together a work of art!

Thanks CS! It's nice to be back on the water fishing, but I still have quite a bit of work left to do.