Last trip of the year, very sad

[5150abf]

Suppose to be in the 60s today which is pretty uncommon for Northern Indiana and the wife and daughter are goin black fridaying so I may as well have one last trip before I put here to bed, haven't been out for a month, between work and home projects, was going to go last weekend but I came into tickets for the game, ND-BC and you never turn down tickets, 20 yrd line 6 rows up with a stadium parking pass, very sweet.

Just looked at my gps and I have traveled 187 miles and spent 181 hours on the water max speed was 31 which for a 30 year old 16'er with a 50 isn't bad.

Nothing broke all year which is fabulous but the fishing was the worst I can remember, don't know why, probably the weather, lots of thunderstorms this last year.

I have all my parts for a lower unit reseal and water pump and I am going to take the lower into work and rebuild the skeg I snapped off at the launch(DOE!!!!!)

Still on the fence as to whether I want to tear up the front deak and redo my keel saver, after years of beaching the boat I finally wore through the keel so I was doing a keel up rebuild anyhow and took it to work and welded the hull and then made a 3/16'' keel saver that is bolted on and the bolts leak about 2-3 gallons over 8-9 hours.

It is an aluminum hull with the foam removed so it won't hurt anything but it is still there and it bothers me but I don't know if it is enough to rip the deck off.

To complicate things we are moving my line over shut down at Christmas, gotta get ready to run 35 boats a day ya know, so I don't know how much time I will have to work on it, kinda silly if you think about it, I am too busy busy building other peoples boats to work on my own.

It is the last weekend of college football to already, how did that happen oh well off to get her ready.

 

[The Rooster]

Re: Last trip of the year, very sad

If you were able to run (181) hours this year, you can't be that busy. That's about 3 boating seasons for me !!!

 

[642mx]

Re: Last trip of the year, very sad

Wow... you racked a bunch of hours! We boated for 34 weekends in a row this year and put 132 hours on the hour meter... which is a bunch, but you've got me beat.

 

[5150abf]

Re: Last trip of the year, very sad

I worked out a deal with the wife that I can fish every other weekend but now that the kids are grown and mostly out of the house she wants to go on the other weekend so I went every sat for probably 3-4 months.

I night fish so we leave about 5 and stay out till midnight or 1 and that is total time with gps on, it even breaks it down to moving and stopped but I am sure it counts getting blow around on anchor as moving.

I don't keep track but I am pretty sure I have worked more saturdays than I have had off, total work hours are a little more depressing at 2370

Last night was nice but the breeze turned into a gusty wind so it kind of dictated where you fished, of coarse the wind and current are always going in different directions

 

[jjacobs007]

Re: Last trip of the year, very sad

I miss the summer already too,never even went camping this year.I would like to see some pics of that keel project,before and after if u have any?
I have just bought some flex seal to work a little on my leaks on my tinny.

 

[KDAVID1]

Re: Last trip of the year, very sad

Had my last trip yesterday as well. Surprisingly my wife was kinda sad I was putting the boat down now. She (incredibly) still wants to go--(messes up the fishing--get to the lake late and have to leave early) but I'm glad she likes it. I suppose I could keep it running all winter for her (on the warm days) but need to do some maint (seats, carpet, prop, filter, hoses, plugs, lower unit, etc) Hopefully I can get all done before the spring and the wife will be comfy so we can stay out longer.

 

[jigngrub]

Re: Last trip of the year, very sad

took it to work and welded the hull and then made a 3/16'' keel saver that is bolted on and the bolts leak about 2-3 gallons over 8-9 hours.

1/4" dia. closed end blind rivets would be a better fix for this than bolts.

 

[5150abf]

Re: Last trip of the year, very sad

I don't think rivets would do it, the repair peice is 3/16 and the original keel is at least that so it is pretty thick there and being a kooky compound curve my repiar peice wasn't a perfect fit so I need the bolts to draw it in and it takes quite a beating so I don't know that rivets would hold.

We have some rubber washers at work that we use on the I/Os below the water line, I think with them and alot of 5200 I will be okay, I spent quite awhile trying to think of anything else to do but this is the only fix I could come up with.

I will probably start on new peice monday os if I do go ahead with it I have that.

 

[jigngrub]

Re: Last trip of the year, very sad

They do make a 1/4" dia. blind rivet with a 3/8" grip range:
http://www.rivetsonline.com/closed-end-blind-rivet-pr86asph.html

... and if you bolted your repair piece on and then removed the bolts one at a time and installed your rivets I think you could get it to work.

Just a suggestion.

 

[jjacobs007]

Re: Last trip of the year, very sad

I don't think rivets would do it, the repair peice is 3/16 and the original keel is at least that so it is pretty thick there and being a kooky compound curve my repiar peice wasn't a perfect fit so I need the bolts to draw it in and it takes quite a beating so I don't know that rivets would hold.

We have some rubber washers at work that we use on the I/Os below the water line, I think with them and alot of 5200 I will be okay, I spent quite awhile trying to think of anything else to do but this is the only fix I could come up with.

I will probably start on new peice monday os if I do go ahead with it I have that.

Looks familiar! I am fixin mine too.