Ladies and gentlemen, a guest-post today from our favourite miser, The Captain of Cheap! (aka my hubby - with some mild editing by moi)
From the day we bought it, the boat has never been really fast.
When we loaded it with the family and all the gear, a cooler of food and reno materials it got even slower. We’ve also been guzzling gas at a rate of about more than half a tank per weekend. We’ve been limping along all summer assuming that this was just the way the boat operated.
Things got worse when we had trouble starting the boat a few weeks ago due to the bendix not popping up to engage the fly wheel. After some lithium grease, and having to remove the cowling to start the motor each time (sometimes with the help of a screwdriver and cursing) the starter was getting slightly more reliable.
The recent water skiing weekend showed, in addition to being under-powered, we were also stalling at low RPMs so I finally set up an appointment to bring the boat into the marina on the Friday before the long weekend.
So Friday morning Papa (a.k.a. Handy Dad), the kids and I took a trip over to the marina in Gores Landing. It was pretty windy and the lake was choppy, but Harris Boatworks is in a nice sheltered bay just on the south shore of the lake. We left the boat with them, and returned to the cottage in Papa's pontoon.
The folks at the marina got back to me by noon with an initial assessment and there was a litany of repairs that were needed:
- The starter was missing a bolt holding the live wire to it and that wire was loose and barely making a connection which likely contributed to our starter issues.
- The fuel pump might have been leaking as there was gas leaking into the cowling.
- One of the (three) cylinders wasn’t firing which he thought was a reed valve (that allows gas into the cylinder).
All of this was likely to cost >$1000 at which point I started asking about the cost of a new motor ($8K+).
After suggesting I come in and talk about it we took boat trip #2 to the marina (again with kids in tow, because they know that marinas are where you get ice cream).
Back over the choppy lake we went in Papa’s pontoon (at least we always have one working boat between us).
Randy (one of the Harris’ mechanics) showed us the ill-fated motor and mentioned that the starter was partly burned out and could catch fire at any moment. He showed us the carburetor that had been modified by a previous owner to directly inject fuel into the side of it. In all he suggested that this would be a $1000-$1500 repair to a motor that was worth a lot less than that.
I then had to debate whether to buy a new motor or repair the current one, if repairing it was even worth it. For $8000, the cost of a new motor, we would have bought a very different boat over the winter!
In the end I decided that we’d do some stop-gap repairs (not repair the fuel pump, but install a used starter and take a quick look at the reed valve).
Once that decision had be reached we were ready to go back to the cottage in the pontoon. But first, we were going to go into Gores Landing to get the kids some ice-cream. That's when we saw the sky threatening rain (menacing it really). We picked up some quick ice cream cones at the marina instead (not Kawartha dairy which is the best ever) and headed back to the cottage on the pontoon.
Just as we approached the island the heavens opened up and we were absolutely drenched in less than a minute. You could see the weather approach from the West (first Bewdley disappeared, then part of the lake. You could actually watch the rain sweep across the lake).
Just before 5 we got another call saying the work was all done. In the end most of the problems (other than the starter) were related to a deteriorated gasket that was preventing the one cylinder from firing. The final bill was less than $500 and the boat FLIES. Before we couldn't even get the speedometer up to 5 mph. Now it easily reaches 30 mph.
I’m happy; Corrie thinks the boat goes too fast on rough water. [editor's note: have you ever seen "Destroyed in seconds" on the Discovery Channel!? Gah!]
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