The Weekend

"functionoverfashion" (functionoverfashion)
07/30/2018 at 08:50 • Filed to: None

How was your weekend? We started out dodging rain on Friday night, which worked out better than we could have hoped. We barely got a drop and only saw two other boats out on our lake, which is just incredible for a Friday night in July. I guess the earlier storms scared people away, but man, if you can bust out right after the rain passes, you get a flat lake to yourself.

Crappy pic of a beautiful (and totally unexpected) sunset:

Figured out what was wrong with my boat (it ran poorly last Wednesday night, and I hadn’t had a chance to look at it until Friday. Pulled off the distributor cap and found crusty nasties. I w ould have done that Wednesday were it not for TORX screws holding it down. I thought this was ‘Murica, but I guess I was wrong. If this was a Honda it would have been a 10 mm, which of course I have . Hell I have just about every other kind of thing BUT torx in my tool set on the boat.

B efore - and this is technically AFTER I hit the contacts with sandpaper as a troubleshooting measure.

after

Sometimes it IS that simple. I have no idea how old the cap & rotor were, but with the extremely humid weather we had last week it was JUST enough to push it over the edge of running poorly. Whether it added some corrosion to the contact points or the air made of 50% water was too much for the engine to run (in combination with the crust), either way it’s all better now.

It definitely has been moist in there, though - the screws that hold the rotor down were pretty nasty - I will be replacing these, once I can locate them. They appear to be #4 x 40 thread x 1/4" long. #4 x 36 is standard. Why would these be fine thread at such a small size? Do you know how hard it was NOT to drop one of these into the distributor, or into the bilge, onto the engine or anywhere, doing this in the water with the boat rocking back and forth and occasionally bumping into the dock? Do you know how many #4 x 36 screws of various sizes I found in a jar of miscellaneous screws in our garage, but none of the fine-thread variety? [/end rant]

Spent yesterday picking blueberries and floating around here:

And my daughter wanted to go for a spin with my dad in his 15' Thompson. What a great little boat. If our boat is like a Suburban, this is a 1974 MGB convertible. Small, light, loads of character and doesn’t need a lot of power to be fun:

I hope you all had a good weekend too!

DISCUSSION (31)

Sovande > functionoverfashion
07/30/2018 at 08:53

Beautiful. I spent the weekend at a lake as well.

Kinja'd!!!

functionoverfashion > Sovande
07/30/2018 at 08:58

Awesome! Where’s that?

MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s > functionoverfashion
07/30/2018 at 09:02

Your dad’s boat looks like it’s a fun little boat, I love the look of those old wooden boats.

We spent a long weekend on a chain of lakes 4 hours north. The threat of rain kept the traffic down to a minimum as well for us, though it never really did rain other than a few sprinkles here and there and turned out to be a great boating weekend.

https://oppositelock.kinja.com/why-did-the-boat-cross-the-road-1827944421

Sovande > functionoverfashion
07/30/2018 at 09:12

Sebago Lake in Maine. Have another 6 days. Not all the fish are big...

Kinja'd!!!

If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent > functionoverfashion
07/30/2018 at 09:13

I spent the weekend in the hospital visiting with my sister.

functionoverfashion > MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s
07/30/2018 at 09:20

I love when a high chance of passing showers means no one on the lake. People look at their phone and the little icon shows “Precip 95%” and say “welp, looks like rain, no boating.” When it could mean there is a 95% chance of some rain, at some point during the day .

That road crossing thing was bizarre! I cannot imagine that is practical for a town to maintain for recreational boaters. Did you have to pay?

functionoverfashion > Sovande
07/30/2018 at 09:21

Ha! It’s beautiful up there. Have fun, I’m... back at work.

functionoverfashion > If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent
07/30/2018 at 09:22

Sorry to hear that, I hope she is going to be OK?

Sovande > functionoverfashion
07/30/2018 at 09:29

Thanks. Have fun at work!

If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent > functionoverfashion
07/30/2018 at 09:35

She's not in any danger or anything, but she's stuck there for two weeks doing an antibiotic regimen.

MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s > functionoverfashion
07/30/2018 at 09:36

It’s $15 round trip or $10 one way. I’m not sure who maintains it, but the lakes on the lower side of the dam have some big $$$$ homes, so I’m sure there’s a good bit of revenue for these small northern towns from the tax on those homes

Milky > functionoverfashion
07/30/2018 at 09:39

I drove a Miata and a 26' Uhaul back to back. The big box truck one, with a V10. Felt like I was navigating a boat in Toronto.

Speaking of which, that boat looks great.

interstate366, now In The Industry > functionoverfashion
07/30/2018 at 09:40

My brother’s Civic’s radiator cracked, so I’ve been helping him replace it. It’s not going well. The screws holding the fan onto the old radiator have seized and stripped, so tomorrow I’m going to head to the junkyard in the rain and get a fan assembly off a dead car.

punkgoose17 > functionoverfashion
07/30/2018 at 09:44

I was feeling down Friday and Saturday and played Skyrim to escape. Saturday night I went to a house show; I had fun despite still not feeling well; I made perogies for the bands and hosts, and everyone enjoyed the perogies. Sunday the wife and I went out with friends to see a local artists yard, museum, art-space ; then, we got hot dogs and walked around a section of the city counting how many dogs we saw.

Mercedes Streeter > functionoverfashion
07/30/2018 at 09:47

I had what I’m still calling the best day of my life so far. Everything was as perfect as it could be. <3 I had a wonderful adventure with Madame DeLorean that was capped off with a helicopter tour of Chicago.

Kinja'd!!!

I have a feeling she’s going to figure out how to even top that day. :3

functionoverfashion > Mercedes Streeter
07/30/2018 at 10:00

That is awesome!

functionoverfashion > MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s
07/30/2018 at 10:00

Ah yes, all it takes is a few people with a lot of money and a strong opinion to keep something like that going.

functionoverfashion > If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent
07/30/2018 at 10:01

Ugh, well here’s hoping for a full and speedy recovery!

Future next gen S2000 owner > functionoverfashion
07/30/2018 at 10:05

I moved. Hiring movers was a good decision. Found out my couch won’t fit through any of the doors so now it is in the garage next to the boat, which had to be angled so it takes up the whole garage.

Garages should be 30' deep with 9' doors.

functionoverfashion > interstate366, now In The Industry
07/30/2018 at 10:49

Ah! Gotta love when things escalate like that....

functionoverfashion > Future next gen S2000 owner
07/30/2018 at 11:00

Hiring movers is a great plan. I’ve only moved once in the past 10 years but trying to imagine it now with kids... I just can’t. We renovated our kitchen almost 2 years ago and it was many late nights on my part just packing and unpacking one room into our basement . So yeah.

Bummer about the couch, but now you can sit on it while you admire the boat and dream of sunny days on the water, lol.

When we build a garage I will push for 28' deep. And for sure, at least one door will be 9'

Future next gen S2000 owner > functionoverfashion
07/30/2018 at 11:02

How are you going to fit a 26' express cruiser in a 28' garage? ;)

functionoverfashion > Milky
07/30/2018 at 11:03

Haha, wow that is quite a contrast. I’ve driven all kinds of boats back to back, like a 25' pontoon boat to a 13' outboard or a jetski. Then a 22' inboard ski boat, etc. it’s quite interesting.

And thanks, my father loves it. I found it for him a few years ago, by complete accident. A guy called me up and said he was trying to sell his wooden boat, thinking our lake would be a good market. I’m like, “uh, sure, and why can’t you just sell it yourself? I guess send me some pictures and we’ll go from there.” He sent pics and a rough price and I immediately called my father, then called the seller back - Hey not only do I think I can sell your boat, I think I already did.

functionoverfashion > Future next gen S2000 owner
07/30/2018 at 11:07

haha, well in all seriousness, my 21' boat is more like 23' with the swim deck on the stern; then with the trailer out front, it’s rapidly approaching 26' LOA on the trailer. The tongue swings and the swim deck comes off, but still. A 24' garage would be extremely tight.

Future next gen S2000 owner > functionoverfashion
07/30/2018 at 11:14

My boat is technically a 15', with the outboard in travel position and no swing away tongue it jjjuuussttt squeezed in a 23' garage.

functionoverfashion > Future next gen S2000 owner
07/30/2018 at 11:25

Exactly. A local marina got a bunch of crap for charging customers for winter storage by the length of the boat, as it sat on the trailer. So you’d be paying $32/foot x all 23-ish feet whereas other places just charge for the length of the boat.

This might make sense if they were all stored on a single level on a flat surface, but they are not. They are racked 4 high in a building. I don’t think that policy worked out for very long.

interstate366, now In The Industry > functionoverfashion
07/30/2018 at 12:35

Yeah, yesterday we were all over the place trying to find stuff. I got free food and gas (the TL has no chill on fuel consumption) out of it, plus I saw a few exotics I had no idea were around Richmond: Cayman GT4, 458, and a what looked to be a Mexico Blue 996 GT3. All of which were going the opposite direction as me.

functionoverfashion > interstate366, now In The Industry
07/30/2018 at 12:50

I helped a friend move some camping stuff off an island last night, had to fix a very minor electrical part on the boat (yet, one that disables literally everything) - but I got a beer, a cigar, and a nighttime boat ride so I wasn’t complaining. And he gave me gas money for the boat, because he uses it from time to time.

MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner > functionoverfashion
07/30/2018 at 14:09

Glad to hear it was an easy fix on the boat!

I was camping this weekend down in Ohio for a big yearly Geocaching event. Great time as always.

functionoverfashion > MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner
07/30/2018 at 14:16

Nice! Sounds great.

Yes, it was great to find that crap under the cap, at least then I knew it was simple. The best part was that my friend had one of these sitting on his workbench. He’d been working on a boat that had a TSB for a run issue, and the first step (to eliminate simple issues with the same symptoms) was to replace the offending spark plug, plug wires, and cap & rotor. Nothing was wrong with them, and he had to take the next step but he now had a perfectly good dist. cap on his bench, paid for by warranty by Volvo Penta - of course, it’s the exact same as on my PCM marinized engine, so hey, free tune-up for me.

MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner > functionoverfashion
07/30/2018 at 15:02

N ice win there! Man, there’s nothing better than an easy fix. It might even feel better than when it all just works right.