On the Water, but not quite right yet.

[Fr. Frank]

After far too many 80-100 hour work weeks between the church and West Marine, I finally put my '71 Seafari in the water today. It ran, but not well.

It was difficult to get started, and as it also did on the hose, it backfired through the carburetor repeatedly, then would run smoothly. Even after having the carb cleaned by a trusted professional with a major carb kit (my re-install), still won't idle without pulling fuel out of the main jets. It ran very smoothly once past about 1200 rpms.

The props that came with the boat were both old 3b Mercury Black Max 14.5x17P. I ran right at 4000 rpm trimmed down, WOT, but ventilated very quickly when I trimmed the drive up.

I put a 4b Hustler 14.5x17P on it just to try, and got a WOT reading of 3700 rpms trimmed down, 3850 trimmed out, ventilating at about half-trim. So I figure I need to come down to a 15P 3b, or 14P 4b.

Re-manufactured R2-2GC carburetor is ordered, and I need to check the cap and rotor, as well as the firing sequence to check for crossed wires. I've heard of these motors running pretty smoothly with crossed wires, depending on which ones are crossed.

Still, it was SO nice to get back on the water in my own SeaCraft.
I went out of Destin 2 weeks ago with a friend on his 24' Sportsman Bay Boat in 4-6 seas, and we took every 2nd or 3rd wave over the bow trying to troll at 3-4 mph. Definitely not a SeaCraft.