Cheap Guy
Active Member
So very true. I tell folks, if you want to get somewhere faster, leave earlier!
New powerboater with an old 240 saying hello
- Thread starter alan-bc
- Start date
So very true. I tell folks, if you want to get somewhere faster, leave earlier!
DaveKamp
Active Member
- Jun 9, 2021
- 189
- Boat Info
- 1970 SRV180, '77SRV220CC, 76 SRV-240FB, another SRV180
- Engines
- Mostly MerCruisers with R-MR-Alpha drives
Hey, Alan- you had those dogs aboard, you had auxiliary propulsion... and if you got stranded, you had food!
I've done some crazy things, and what Alan did, fits right in....
Last year, I relocated a 50 foot pontoon houseboat from Peoria, Illinois to Grafton, Illinois. The houseboat had been a liveaboard in Peoria since it was built... 35ish years ago... engine was a mid '80's Mercury V6 that had probably 50 total running hours on it... the longest runtime being probably 2 hours from one port a few miles north of Peoria, to the harbor it'd been at since. Only reason why it wasn't growing 'hair', was because it would tilt up far enough to mostly clear the water. Ran really strong on three cylinders when we STARTED.
Since it was not a 'traveller', it was not set up to run more than a few miles... no fuel tank! I brought two anchors, two VHF radios, paper and electronic charts, two GPS units, stand-alone nav and work lights, tools... and a myriad of 6-gallon cans.
Getting a thorough service process wasn't possible. I gave it a basic power test at the dock a week before, and made some adjustments. We offloaded residential belongings and rigged it for running.
Then I brought on the two most important additions: My old (long retired) USCGA flotilla commander, and my buddy Mike, who's an aeronautical structural engineer, pilot, and also an experienced boater.
The Illinois River is NOT a situation where ocean currents will wash you out to sea, but there's darned few recreational harbors (flooding took out all but ONE) and there's places where commercial tows and a poorly-propelled 'double-barrelled canoe' shouldn't meet.
We took our time, calculated our fuel, and had a chase vehicle (the owner) shuttling fuel and provisions while we ambled down the river. We made it safe, with no major failures, and only a few circumstances where the old black beastie on back conked out at the worst moments....
But by the time we made the turn into Grafton, that darned engine was running great on all six. I think it was happy to have been taken out of the nursing home, and put to work.
There's risk, and as you noted, HOW one categorizes 'risk' is an important thing. Being prepared for bad situations is part of risk management, and being able to assess the bad situations, and prepare accordingly, is everything.
Now that you've seen it, and motored it home, let's see this bugger!!
By the way... converting it to 'closed cooling' is a good idea for saltwater, but it's not a simple task...
I've done some crazy things, and what Alan did, fits right in....
Last year, I relocated a 50 foot pontoon houseboat from Peoria, Illinois to Grafton, Illinois. The houseboat had been a liveaboard in Peoria since it was built... 35ish years ago... engine was a mid '80's Mercury V6 that had probably 50 total running hours on it... the longest runtime being probably 2 hours from one port a few miles north of Peoria, to the harbor it'd been at since. Only reason why it wasn't growing 'hair', was because it would tilt up far enough to mostly clear the water. Ran really strong on three cylinders when we STARTED.
Since it was not a 'traveller', it was not set up to run more than a few miles... no fuel tank! I brought two anchors, two VHF radios, paper and electronic charts, two GPS units, stand-alone nav and work lights, tools... and a myriad of 6-gallon cans.
Getting a thorough service process wasn't possible. I gave it a basic power test at the dock a week before, and made some adjustments. We offloaded residential belongings and rigged it for running.
Then I brought on the two most important additions: My old (long retired) USCGA flotilla commander, and my buddy Mike, who's an aeronautical structural engineer, pilot, and also an experienced boater.
The Illinois River is NOT a situation where ocean currents will wash you out to sea, but there's darned few recreational harbors (flooding took out all but ONE) and there's places where commercial tows and a poorly-propelled 'double-barrelled canoe' shouldn't meet.
We took our time, calculated our fuel, and had a chase vehicle (the owner) shuttling fuel and provisions while we ambled down the river. We made it safe, with no major failures, and only a few circumstances where the old black beastie on back conked out at the worst moments....
But by the time we made the turn into Grafton, that darned engine was running great on all six. I think it was happy to have been taken out of the nursing home, and put to work.
There's risk, and as you noted, HOW one categorizes 'risk' is an important thing. Being prepared for bad situations is part of risk management, and being able to assess the bad situations, and prepare accordingly, is everything.
Now that you've seen it, and motored it home, let's see this bugger!!
By the way... converting it to 'closed cooling' is a good idea for saltwater, but it's not a simple task...
