Another 15 minutes

Today it was time to launch the boat into the water again. It has been sitting on the trailer all winter with little preparation so I was abit worried about the motor being broken. We tested the motor abit on land like a week ago and all seemed fine, but still… To my surprise the launch went extremely well and smooth, the motor fired pretty much right up, and the stereo was working! The only thing now is still to fix our wiring problem with the fuel gauge and also to clean the boats interior which was pretty much soaked with moist, and also we will polish the upper half of the boat to get it abit more white and shiny. It was a small trip from the launch ramp to the boatyard, but it was nice to hear the motor purr like a kitten. This summer could be pretty good then after all, yarrr!

Today we pulled the boat out of the water on a trailer and to the shipyard. I borrowed my fathers car, a 4-wheel drive, so it was no problem at all to pull it up. It was a beautiful day, abit windy but after a while we managed to get the boat somewhat straight. We had to wait for a while before we were let in to get the trailer, and the wait even longer to pull the boat inside, since they didn’t want any cars in the way of the tractors pulling the bigger boats (and some small ones that could’ve been pulled by hand). When it was in its place on the shipyard we noticed that it’s abit back heavy, so we have to get some better struts to put under it. Finally, after a long day, we tied down the waterproof canvas over the boat and decided to call it a day and leave the cleaning to another day. I forgot to take pictures…

The boatingtrip on midsummer’s eve started out really well, the boat was behaving beautifully for a very long time until it was jinxed and the problem with something blocking the fuelpipe occured again. So the target remains, we’ll have to try to clean the tank yet again.

It was a good midsummer’s eve anyway, we had a nice picnic onboard at a nice location. On the way back we ran out of gas about 50 meters from the gasstation, but since it was closed anyway the irony was somewhat lost. Good thing I bought another 10 liter spare tank so we got 15 liters total to get home allright.

I took some pictures of the boat though, it’s an Örnvik 570 Cabin with a 155hk outboard motor which propels it up to around 40 knots (we haven’t actually measured the top speed yet), more pictures will be added later during the summer.

Previous attempt to blow the fuel line clear by lungpower seemed to have failed, but today we tried the same approach with a spraycan of compressed air and it actually seemed to clear the pipe because it was much easier to blow the fuel line afterward. We couldn’t testdrive it today though since the wind is near storm here right now, but after the weekend I will probably know. I’m crossing my fingers…

Today, after days of troubleshooting and replacing filters and lines, we finally located the cause of the problem we have with the boatmotor dying at high speeds. The symptoms pointed to the fact that the engine didn’t get enough fuel and actually was able to suck all fuel lines to a vaccuum. The problem is in the tank itself, something is blocking the pipe that is sucking up fuel from the tank. We know this now since everything works perfectly with another tank, but using the same fuel lines. So now we just have to figure out how to solve it, blowing some air into the pipe didn’t help. There is a flow in it, but just not enough I suppose. So while the troubleshooting is now ended, the problem solving part is now under investigation.

Today we installed a new fuel filter and replaced fuel lines in order to fix the problems that began after the last trip to Vaxholm. We still have to get a new fuel gauge device for the tank, but the other work went fine. We haven’t tested the engine at speed though, only idle, atleast there are no leaks and all lines are new. There are a few more hours of work left to do before testing it again, we hope for the best.

Me and a good friend of mine are now proud boatowners. We have browsed alittle bit on a few boats for a few days and I expressed my interest of chipping in with part ownership so we could afford a boat in better condition. So we looked at an Örnvik 570 (5.7 meter plastic boat with an outboard motor and cabin for 2) this afternoon and after a testdrive we decided that it was a very good deal so we took it, the hull and engine is in very good condition, it will only need a few cosmetic fixes on the inside, like new seats and some polishing.

We’ll need to get some equipment and gadgets for us and the boat on Friday, but it’s ready to go already this weekend so we will go for a drive soon and start the work on it so it’s ready for the longer weekend trips this summer =). I will post some pictures of it soon.