Project Seafari Tuna-fication

[oldbluesplayer]

Nestor -

Wish I had been running them down, running down a following sea would have been easier, but I was going head on into them... water over the bow more than a few times - the big ones seemed to come in sets, close coupled, up and over the first, and smack into the face of the next, and the third - if a buddy boat had been with me, they'd have been able to get shots of an airborn Seafari more than a few times !!

Kahuna - the specs page says the IO gas tank, original, was 38 gal, and the OB model is 47 gal - that is pretty accurate to mine. I have done the trip from the basin, out the ditch, up to Race Point, then out to SWC, troll around awhile, and back to the basin, several times. But then, last year, with all the talk about ethanol effects, I went out early in the season, staying close in, with a spare tank, to try to run the tank dry - and found that I was still running at a full 1/4 tank -Below- "E" on the guage - then I filled up and still only took 40 gal, so probably about 6 gal or so left in the tank, though I don't know at what point the pick-up won't - I figure 6 gal in my tank is only about 1" deep.

On this particular day, because I had also gone out and around the corner to Peaked Hill Bar, and because it was rough and I knew I had a bad slog home, I did go into P-Town and gas up, (took 20 gal) before I headed south to the ditch - just to get from RP to the P-Town gas dock took me 45 min, left there at 3pm, back in the basin at 6pm. That was one hell of an Ugly ride I don't care to repeat.

Scary Bits -

when I pulled the boat out, and got it up in the parking lot to prep for the trip home, and pulled the drain plug, a Lot of water came out. I was too tired to sweat it at the time, and I know my float switch needs about 5" above the bottom of the V before turn on. Sat, when I went out to flush the motor, I discovered that the bilge pump hose had seperated from the thru-hull fitting, leaving me with an open hole in the side of the boat, and a bilge pump doing nothing useful.

Also, coming down the Bay, the motor had acted a little rough, not really bad, but noticeable; seeing the water in the bilge, then discovering the pump scenario, i thought perhaps water sloshing around inside may have given me some electrical problems. Just to check, I pulled the spark plugs, was going to run a compression test - found one of the plugs had the electrode bent in shorting to the center pin, and obviously wasn't firing, and all fouled up. I'm damn sure glad that motor kept running, but think I'm facing a teardown and rebuild now - at least going to pull the head, and see what I see - might have been a chunk of carbon, but expecting worse.

Argghhhhh !!!!