Tin addiction 18' Starcraft Chieftain

[laurentide]

Yeah I didn't want to go home today... got up to 82... water was great although there was some debris floating but that's common this time of year in a river.

You live in a beautiful part of the world. My only experience in WA was on the other side of the Cascades, also beautiful...but the rain shadow part of the state is pretty special.

I hear you on river debris. We have to be really careful in the spring to avoid deadheads. We have four major rivers that dump into the part of the basin I frequent. Trouble is they're usually just below the surface waiting to claim your lower unit. So far so good, knock on wood (wait, that's not good :facepalm.

 

[Decker83]

That's a great pic.. The water is smooth as glass.. I bet it made for a awesome cruise..

 

[Watermann]

Yeah it was glass out there, I love that river and I almost felt bad making a wake :lol:

 

[Patfromny]

Isn't that funny. I have experienced the same thing. I almost felt bad creating a wake. My lake in late fall gets like that. I also almost felt bad about the boat noise. Not a sound around before I fired up the old evinrude. Beautiful pic waterman. Love Ga's comment. Perfect scenery to see twice if you ask me.

 

[Alumarine]

Beautiful boat and beautiful counrty. I'm jealous!

 

[Watermann]

Took a break from the SS work today on my first day off and did some work on the Chief. I work 4 - 10s with Fri, Sat & Sun off so with the admiral working I get a bunch done on Friday. Today I decided that I would rebuild the rams on my MC sterndrive. I didn't have a spanner to take the end of the rams off and nobody had one in my area so I fabricated one from a plumbers spanner wrench.

I noticed that the trim was having difficulty over 40 MPH lifting the bow up and the trim gauge wouldn't show the increased trim. I knew I wasn't up against the trim limit so I was thinking I had a leak in one of the rams. It was an easy job but a learning experience it was replacing all of the internal seals in a hydraulic ram. I also changed out all the fluid too and pumped out all the stinky dark stuff remaining in the reservoir. Yeah I should've done that a couple years ago when I put it all in. :facepalm:

So I found the problem on the port ram, the little o ring that goes on the very end of the shaft was wedged up under and pinched in the spring loaded bypass.

Got the bimini off so I could douse it with plenty of 303 Aerospace fabric guard, that stuff is super at keeping the fabric from fading and keeps it looking like new. It was 87 here today and supposed to be 100 on Sunday so we'll be out for a lengthy cruise testing out the ram rebuild job I did. I'll be keeping my fingers crossed that they work but so far so good when bleeding the air out of the system.

 

[Watermann]

I was extremely lucky today and here's why. The last run of the season at the end of September was a heartbreaker when pulling out from the dock in a lake they were drawing down by running power through a power house. I normally back away from the dock but this time I backed out and turned around so the admiral could hop in and I pulled away. The current was strong in the river channel where the launch is and it was sucking the stern into the dock and I knew what was going to happen. The starboard corner went up on top of the docks rub rail with the end cap up on top. It would've been fine since the caps were on there with rivets and SS screws but I told the admiral to push us away and with her shifting weight to that side ripped the end cap right off and it sunk.

The depth finder said 22 feet of water and there was no way to retrieve it that is until this spring when the draw down was at it's lowest 14' below normal level. This morning I loaded up some 10' 1/2' steel conduit, gorilla tape and a piece of AL that I could bend into a spatula on the end. The water was clear as always, heck we could even see it on the bottom after it sunk last year. I knew it was out off the end of the concrete so I went out and saw it laying there right at the end but when I pulled it up, it was someone else's AL end cap, not mine. It was another half hour of gazing at the crud on the bottom before I spotted the shape of another end cap covered in a light layer of sediment and green algae. I puled it up and danged if it wasn't mine this time! A bit tweaked and a corner broke off but I have the corner piece to put back on.

I'm heading to the store now to buy some lotto tickets. :lol:

This mornings catch of the day and tackle used.

 

[GA_Boater]

This is how you start an End Cap collection. Find any wallets? LOL

You can never have too many tools. Apply for the patent with the lottery winnings - Quick.

 

[ezmobee]

I lost one of my end cap the same way. I don't think I realized it was missing till I got home so I ended up paying for one of (was it MichaelP?) replacements.

 

[laurentide]

No way...wow!

 

[BWR1953]

Excellent catch! Congrats!

I had a similar event back in 1999 with my eyeglasses. :nerd:
But I only had to wait a few hours for the tide to drop about 5 feet.
We won't talk about how the glasses got in the water or how I got wet. :lol:

 

[oldhaven]

Maybe we need to safety cable the end caps to the transom.... Too bad the other one was not the right side.

 

[nrf414]

Wow. Lucky catch. Cool story. I miss the clear water of the west.

 

[mbroughton02]

Just now seeing this; was away for a week. That's crazy! Makes you wonder if there are any more down there. I can't believe that same dock has claimed at least two already.

 

[Watermann]

So the end cap was repaired and I ended up painting it to with the AL tractor paint to help hide the JB weld repairs. I got the ole Chief out of hibernation and did some maintenance work before firing her up after a long 8 month winter nap. I can't believe it's been another restoration and 3 years since the Chief hit the waves again.

The water was great! The Chief performed flawless once again on a short 50 mile round trip cruise above Chief Joseph Dam which is spilling water like mad right now.

 

[jbcurt00]

Great!

Wind and rain made for a poor boating Memorial weekend here.....

 

[Watermann]

Great!

Wind and rain made for a poor boating Memorial weekend here.....

Oh jeez that really is a bummer to have the first long weekend of the summer season be miserable.

As you can see in the pic we had not one cloud in the sky here (85 degrees) and we have an average of only 34 days of measurable precip per year with 1/4 of the national average for rainfall which is 102 days of precip per year. Everyone always thinks of Seattle and rain when thinking of WA state but on the east side (right side) of the Cascade mountains we are more desert like with low humidity except there's scores of big clear cold water mountain lakes and rivers.

 

[GA_Boater]

Your cruising water is always so smooth, WM. Just like the Chieftain.

I know I'm repeating from last year, but the water is ripple free!

 

[BWR1953]

That is way awesome, WM! Congrats on yet another fine time! :joyous:

 

[Getoffmybass]

Just devoured your restoration! Love it! I hope my Islander turns out as nice. THanks so much for all the pics and posts of your work, Ive got a lot of ideas in my head about mine now..