First off, thanks to everyone who contributes and maintains this site. There is so much valuable information here. After driving to a few thousand miles in March and going out for a quick sea trial upon returning home, then the boat spending seven weeks in the shop, we finally had a day on the water. We love the boat, it's been a long wait, I think I first discovered these boats several years ago, after waiting so long to get one, whats a few more months huh? Well it was killing us, lol.
We spent about 11 hours out on the water and put about 5 hours on the Honda. It was overcast with a few pop-up showers with 2ft waves, great day for the boat. For our sunset cruise back to the landing everything smoothed out and we had a blast. It was nice to have some smooth water as the only other time we went out right after getting the boat was a small craft warning. My daughter isn't a fan of the "bumps".
We did make a few mistakes and banged up the boat a little, luckily no one got hurt. The worst being that I forgot to latch the trailer on the ball. The locking mechanism is more like a knuckle than the lever you usually see, I dropped the trailer on the ball and put the locking pin in without ever rotating the latch. I didn't realize it until towing about 26 miles round trip to the landing and back, including interstate. It could have been tragic. Luckily theres a good bit of tongue weight on the ball. I don't understand, I've been towing trailers my whole life, first time for that, phew. I also forgot to put the plug in, nothing like going back to the cockpit to start the boat and finding a ft of water :sad compounded by the fact that I had just unhooked the winch cable, which was also a mistake, note to self, start the engine first. That about covers it except that my daughter thought it would be cool to pick up the fender while docked, the boat banged the rub rail and caused about a 6" section to separate about ⅛'' from the boat. Add that to the fall projects. I also need to pull the boards that sit just forward of the fuel tanks. The screws on the ends have pulled up from the cockpit floor, exposing the core to water. I'm going to get that fixed after our next trip this week. We're going camping for the week at a great campground right on the ICW. It's just inland of one of the largest reserves on the East Coast. I'll leave you guys with some pics and a reminder to not forget to latch your trailer tongue.
We spent about 11 hours out on the water and put about 5 hours on the Honda. It was overcast with a few pop-up showers with 2ft waves, great day for the boat. For our sunset cruise back to the landing everything smoothed out and we had a blast. It was nice to have some smooth water as the only other time we went out right after getting the boat was a small craft warning. My daughter isn't a fan of the "bumps".
We did make a few mistakes and banged up the boat a little, luckily no one got hurt. The worst being that I forgot to latch the trailer on the ball. The locking mechanism is more like a knuckle than the lever you usually see, I dropped the trailer on the ball and put the locking pin in without ever rotating the latch. I didn't realize it until towing about 26 miles round trip to the landing and back, including interstate. It could have been tragic. Luckily theres a good bit of tongue weight on the ball. I don't understand, I've been towing trailers my whole life, first time for that, phew. I also forgot to put the plug in, nothing like going back to the cockpit to start the boat and finding a ft of water :sad compounded by the fact that I had just unhooked the winch cable, which was also a mistake, note to self, start the engine first. That about covers it except that my daughter thought it would be cool to pick up the fender while docked, the boat banged the rub rail and caused about a 6" section to separate about ⅛'' from the boat. Add that to the fall projects. I also need to pull the boards that sit just forward of the fuel tanks. The screws on the ends have pulled up from the cockpit floor, exposing the core to water. I'm going to get that fixed after our next trip this week. We're going camping for the week at a great campground right on the ICW. It's just inland of one of the largest reserves on the East Coast. I'll leave you guys with some pics and a reminder to not forget to latch your trailer tongue.
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