Met my dad at 10am at East Fork Lake to test the boat out this morning.
Get it in, an it floated just fine!
However...couple of things happened.
First, we noticed some water leaking down the inside of the transom.
Guess who forgot to caulk the transom bolts when I put it all back together.
Yep. I'm an idiot. A complete moron. I didn't even think about it until I saw that water running down the back of the boat and then it was like...oh...yeah, that probably would have been a good idea. It was roughly the amount of water as if you took your kitchen faucet and turned it to where it wasn't dripping, but a trickle, and only in one spot.
So my dad suggested we still fire it up and go for a cruise around the dock area, just to see how it handled. Motor fired right up, but bogged under load.
I asked about it over on TheHullTruth -
https://www.thehulltruth.com/boating-forum/670681-maiden-voyage-woes-issues-my-25-hp-johnson-under-load.html#post7816247
Sounds like I needed to let the motor warm up more, and I need to clean the carb again. Darn.
There are no marinas anywhere near me, so I went to lowes and stared at all the different caulks and did some reading. They did not carry any 3M Products and I'd really wanted to use 5200.
I went with a liquid nail version that was an adhesive + caulk and rated for outdoor and cold weather use.
I pulled all of the bolts back out of the transom, filled each hole with caulk, put it back in, torqued it down, and then caulked over the head of the bolt on the outside.
I also put a layer between the plywood and the aluminum on the back of the boat. I think thats where it was getting in before, was it was going past that plywood and then following the shaft of the bolt into the transom.
Tomorrow I'll sand it smooth and repaint.
Get it in, an it floated just fine!
However...couple of things happened.
First, we noticed some water leaking down the inside of the transom.
Guess who forgot to caulk the transom bolts when I put it all back together.
Yep. I'm an idiot. A complete moron. I didn't even think about it until I saw that water running down the back of the boat and then it was like...oh...yeah, that probably would have been a good idea. It was roughly the amount of water as if you took your kitchen faucet and turned it to where it wasn't dripping, but a trickle, and only in one spot.
So my dad suggested we still fire it up and go for a cruise around the dock area, just to see how it handled. Motor fired right up, but bogged under load.
I asked about it over on TheHullTruth -
https://www.thehulltruth.com/boating-forum/670681-maiden-voyage-woes-issues-my-25-hp-johnson-under-load.html#post7816247
Sounds like I needed to let the motor warm up more, and I need to clean the carb again. Darn.
There are no marinas anywhere near me, so I went to lowes and stared at all the different caulks and did some reading. They did not carry any 3M Products and I'd really wanted to use 5200.
I went with a liquid nail version that was an adhesive + caulk and rated for outdoor and cold weather use.
I pulled all of the bolts back out of the transom, filled each hole with caulk, put it back in, torqued it down, and then caulked over the head of the bolt on the outside.
I also put a layer between the plywood and the aluminum on the back of the boat. I think thats where it was getting in before, was it was going past that plywood and then following the shaft of the bolt into the transom.
Tomorrow I'll sand it smooth and repaint.