It's official, after spending the last three years cruising on Lil' C, a 16' Angler, I finally took delivery of Big C, a 22' cruiser, on Friday morning! Thought I'd share my adventure-packed weekend for anyone interested.
After finalizing all the papers at the dealer Friday morning, I towed the boat home to install the GPS, VHF, antenna, and load up the boat with basic safety gear, lines, fenders, ground tackle, dinghy, kicker, and weekend provisions, before launching Friday evening for the big weekend voyage!
There were a few nerve wracking moments on delivery day. Like when I locked myself out of the cabin and realized all three keys were still inside the cabin. Fortunately the starboard side window was not latched and I managed to squeeze in through that. Only later did I realize it was impossible to lock one's self out of the cabin, it was just a sticky door handle mechanism that I didn't twist hard enough. But oooh the sinking feeling of weekend plans being ruined by a rookie mistake such as locking myself out!!!Once that panic moment was resolved, I towed across town to Edmonds. But first was a fuel stop along the way in Lynnwood, on a Friday evening at rush hour at one of the busiest gas stations in town, towing a new boat twice the size (or so it felt) of my other boat. This was the second nerve wracking moment, but finally I got both sides filled up, and was rather surprised how much fuel they carry!
With the fuel tanks and ice box filled, it was finally off to the launch. A friend of mine met me at the launch, and we tried motoring out into the bay but the winds were howling so we didn't even bother, and just pulled into the vacant slip I had gotten for the night. My buddy seemed really impressed with my docking skills of a new boat in heavy winds, but honestly I was equally impressed, thanks to how well the boat and motor handle in tight quarters! Another friend came down and joined us and we chatted over a few beers and explored the new boat for a couple of hours. After my buddies took off for the night, it was time to turn in, my first night on board! The cuddy felt like a spacious palace compared to the tight confines of the 16' Angler I usually contort myself into. I slept fine, my only complaint is the stiffness of the padding in the v-berth, I'll definitely be adding some kind of mattress over the top (any suggestions?).
I awoke in the morning and before setting off, I assembled the anchor chain and 8 plait rode that had only arrived in the mail from Defender some 30 minutes before departing my house for the launch the day before. With the anchor secured in place and the rode/chain in the locker, I finally set off Saturday morning for my destination, Poulsbo, some 16 NM away. Reason for my chosen destination were 1) it's a perfect slow 2-hour cruise for the initial break-in period 2) Liberty Bay is a fine anchorage in case the docks are full and 3) lots of restaurants and shops, since I didn't have time to pack camping equipment.
After a couple of hours break-in cruising I arrived in Poulsbo around 10 AM and was surprised to find dozens of available slips, considering it was a Saturday in August, with a weekend festival going on. I picked a good slip, pulled in, tied up, and went up to pay the moorage fee for the night. Spent much of the day wandering about town, going to breweries, checking out festivities, and of course my favorite part of the day was browsing the second-hand marine shop. Before returning back to the boat for the evening, I ordered dinner to-go from the woodfire pizza place and took it back to the boat to enjoy from my new dinette! The dinette is such a nice upgrade, it felt as though I should have been drinking wine, instead of Rainier!
Sunday morning I set out early for the return trip to Edmonds, giving myself plenty of time in case of any issues, and was glad I did! After towing the boat back home across town I pulled into my cul-de-sac, put the truck in reverse to back it into my driveway, and got nothing but skidding trailer tires and spinning truck tires. I couldn't back it up, the brakes would not disengage in reverse! I tried a few times unsuccessfully before towing over to a nearby school parking lot to investigate further. Still I could not back up and had nothing on hand to manually lock out the brakes. I also noticed brake fluid leaking out all over the trailer hitch. This was already feeling like yet another episode of my infamous thread, "Trailer Rant!"!
So, back to the dealer I went! Luckily it was still early in the day, and the dealer is open on Sundays. They were kind enough to let me wash off the boat in their lot, and leave the boat there for them to check the trailer on Monday, while I drove home to see if the problem was with my truck. I spent the rest of the day trouble-shooting and fixing the trailer wiring in my truck (turns out there was no voltage going to the reverse light pin).
So upon reflection of the maiden voyage here are some of my thoughts:
1) Towing - despite the old-truck wiring issues, the boat/trailer tow like a dream with the F250! It seemed almost effortless. Really happy about that.
2) Merc Command Thrust 90 - Everything as advertised by others- quiet, tons of torque, swinging a big 15x17" prop. I will still need to install a Permatrim, but even without it, with kicker on transom and 2 full fuel tanks, and full icebox in back, I was slow-planning effortlessly at about 2900-3000 RPM and 10-11 knots. Also tried WOT for a few sec and was right in the middle of the range, not bad for such a big prop on a 90.
3) Road Runner Trailer - well this may take some time to get used to, but first impression is this is the noisiest, squeakiest trailer I've ever owned. Indeed, this will have to be added to my collection of Trailer Rants, trailers and I just do not seem to get along well! Will have to see if I can lube it up some to quiet it down, but otherwise it pulls fine.
4) Boat - I can't believe it's taken me so long to get this boat, it really felt so natural and perfectly-sized, as though it's the one boat I should have had all my life. I can't believe how much storage there is, my only complaint in regards to storage is that I found myself thinking several times, "I wish there was at least one small drawer!" for storing small items like pens, utensils and such.
Well, that's got to be the longest post ever written, and doubt anyone has read this far, but wanted to share the maiden voyage experience for those who have been following the construction photos of Big C over the last 2 months! Looking forward to spending the rest of summer getting to know the boat, motor, and trailer better, and getting everything set up perfectly!
Hope to see you out there on the water!
-Mike
Oh, BTW, photos are in my album, under "2016 Boat Trips", and construction photos are in the username "Big-C" album....sorry to mislead anyone - it's the only way I could figure out how to have 2 different boats listed in the directory. All future posts will come from this my regular account.
After finalizing all the papers at the dealer Friday morning, I towed the boat home to install the GPS, VHF, antenna, and load up the boat with basic safety gear, lines, fenders, ground tackle, dinghy, kicker, and weekend provisions, before launching Friday evening for the big weekend voyage!
There were a few nerve wracking moments on delivery day. Like when I locked myself out of the cabin and realized all three keys were still inside the cabin. Fortunately the starboard side window was not latched and I managed to squeeze in through that. Only later did I realize it was impossible to lock one's self out of the cabin, it was just a sticky door handle mechanism that I didn't twist hard enough. But oooh the sinking feeling of weekend plans being ruined by a rookie mistake such as locking myself out!!!Once that panic moment was resolved, I towed across town to Edmonds. But first was a fuel stop along the way in Lynnwood, on a Friday evening at rush hour at one of the busiest gas stations in town, towing a new boat twice the size (or so it felt) of my other boat. This was the second nerve wracking moment, but finally I got both sides filled up, and was rather surprised how much fuel they carry!
With the fuel tanks and ice box filled, it was finally off to the launch. A friend of mine met me at the launch, and we tried motoring out into the bay but the winds were howling so we didn't even bother, and just pulled into the vacant slip I had gotten for the night. My buddy seemed really impressed with my docking skills of a new boat in heavy winds, but honestly I was equally impressed, thanks to how well the boat and motor handle in tight quarters! Another friend came down and joined us and we chatted over a few beers and explored the new boat for a couple of hours. After my buddies took off for the night, it was time to turn in, my first night on board! The cuddy felt like a spacious palace compared to the tight confines of the 16' Angler I usually contort myself into. I slept fine, my only complaint is the stiffness of the padding in the v-berth, I'll definitely be adding some kind of mattress over the top (any suggestions?).
I awoke in the morning and before setting off, I assembled the anchor chain and 8 plait rode that had only arrived in the mail from Defender some 30 minutes before departing my house for the launch the day before. With the anchor secured in place and the rode/chain in the locker, I finally set off Saturday morning for my destination, Poulsbo, some 16 NM away. Reason for my chosen destination were 1) it's a perfect slow 2-hour cruise for the initial break-in period 2) Liberty Bay is a fine anchorage in case the docks are full and 3) lots of restaurants and shops, since I didn't have time to pack camping equipment.
After a couple of hours break-in cruising I arrived in Poulsbo around 10 AM and was surprised to find dozens of available slips, considering it was a Saturday in August, with a weekend festival going on. I picked a good slip, pulled in, tied up, and went up to pay the moorage fee for the night. Spent much of the day wandering about town, going to breweries, checking out festivities, and of course my favorite part of the day was browsing the second-hand marine shop. Before returning back to the boat for the evening, I ordered dinner to-go from the woodfire pizza place and took it back to the boat to enjoy from my new dinette! The dinette is such a nice upgrade, it felt as though I should have been drinking wine, instead of Rainier!
Sunday morning I set out early for the return trip to Edmonds, giving myself plenty of time in case of any issues, and was glad I did! After towing the boat back home across town I pulled into my cul-de-sac, put the truck in reverse to back it into my driveway, and got nothing but skidding trailer tires and spinning truck tires. I couldn't back it up, the brakes would not disengage in reverse! I tried a few times unsuccessfully before towing over to a nearby school parking lot to investigate further. Still I could not back up and had nothing on hand to manually lock out the brakes. I also noticed brake fluid leaking out all over the trailer hitch. This was already feeling like yet another episode of my infamous thread, "Trailer Rant!"!
So, back to the dealer I went! Luckily it was still early in the day, and the dealer is open on Sundays. They were kind enough to let me wash off the boat in their lot, and leave the boat there for them to check the trailer on Monday, while I drove home to see if the problem was with my truck. I spent the rest of the day trouble-shooting and fixing the trailer wiring in my truck (turns out there was no voltage going to the reverse light pin).
So upon reflection of the maiden voyage here are some of my thoughts:
1) Towing - despite the old-truck wiring issues, the boat/trailer tow like a dream with the F250! It seemed almost effortless. Really happy about that.
2) Merc Command Thrust 90 - Everything as advertised by others- quiet, tons of torque, swinging a big 15x17" prop. I will still need to install a Permatrim, but even without it, with kicker on transom and 2 full fuel tanks, and full icebox in back, I was slow-planning effortlessly at about 2900-3000 RPM and 10-11 knots. Also tried WOT for a few sec and was right in the middle of the range, not bad for such a big prop on a 90.
3) Road Runner Trailer - well this may take some time to get used to, but first impression is this is the noisiest, squeakiest trailer I've ever owned. Indeed, this will have to be added to my collection of Trailer Rants, trailers and I just do not seem to get along well! Will have to see if I can lube it up some to quiet it down, but otherwise it pulls fine.
4) Boat - I can't believe it's taken me so long to get this boat, it really felt so natural and perfectly-sized, as though it's the one boat I should have had all my life. I can't believe how much storage there is, my only complaint in regards to storage is that I found myself thinking several times, "I wish there was at least one small drawer!" for storing small items like pens, utensils and such.
Well, that's got to be the longest post ever written, and doubt anyone has read this far, but wanted to share the maiden voyage experience for those who have been following the construction photos of Big C over the last 2 months! Looking forward to spending the rest of summer getting to know the boat, motor, and trailer better, and getting everything set up perfectly!
Hope to see you out there on the water!
-Mike
Oh, BTW, photos are in my album, under "2016 Boat Trips", and construction photos are in the username "Big-C" album....sorry to mislead anyone - it's the only way I could figure out how to have 2 different boats listed in the directory. All future posts will come from this my regular account.
