Got out to the boat today..

[AustinWilliams]

Finally got a gorgeous day to get out to the boat and take a closer look after de-winterizing it almost two weeks ago. The rig needs some work before it's ready to go in the water, we'll have to find some time to do that yet. List of things to do include:

- Install new Garmin GPSmap 530 and install thru-hull transducers.

- Install new Uniden Solara VHF and additional antenna or splitter (haven't decided yet)

- Install new fishfinders.

- Remove panel and repaint, replace switches and relabel.

- Install new Big Jon Dual Multi-Set rod holders.

- Drain gas tank and readjust gauge float.

- Replace wiper motor and arm.

- Repaint bottom.

- Strip the striping and reapply new vinyl decals.

- Hopefully get a new name designed and get that applied as well.. I'm thinking either Riggermortis or I've got some other ones cooked up.

Enough on that..

Happily awaiting launch day.. quite a bit of a work ahead it looks.

Austin.

[lakebound88]

may i ask why you have to drain your tank to adjust the float? the sender is on top of the tank right? you shouldnt have to drain it to adjust one, but if you wanna i know a tank you can drain it into

that is a nice lookin rig too! i like those boats. sharp.

[AustinWilliams]

Thanks LB!

I figured it'd be a good idea to drain the tank. When I bought the boat from a dealer they did an inspection and removed the oil injector from the engine, so I'm forced to manually mix the oil and fuel together. But, when they removed the oil injector there was still a large quantity of fuel in the boat in which they just dumped a whole lot of oil into, without measuring.. which they wouldn't have been able to anyhow, because the float is incorrect. The engine runs smokey (even for a two stroke!) and the tank is almost full, so I may be forced to just burn it off. The mixture seems to be way too rich.

[chance33]

Thanks for posting the pictures of your boat with the soft top. I'm going to show them to my canvas guy

and ask him to duplicate it on my 20' Thompson. Would you change anything about it?

[AustinWilliams]

You're quite welcome chance!

The canvas was the best investment I've ever made in that boat. It's strong, sturdy and looks good too! Even if I had the choice, I wouldn't change a single thing about it.

Austin.

[lakebound88]

ahh i gotcha. thats poor maintenance on their part. hope it goes smoothly. Speaking of canvas, my sea ray is currently getting all new custom work done. i hope i like it when its done!!

[chance33]

Austin,

I'm sure that I will really like the soft top. But, as for best investiment, the soft top will have to fight with the Simrad AP14 autopilot that I installed last summer!!!! I walleye fish Erie alone a lot and the autopilot solved 99% of my boat control frustrations.

[AustinWilliams]

Just finished the design on the name! Gonna send it in to get 'vinyl-ized' sometime this week.