What did you do to your boat today

aero3113

YYZRC said:

I have never seen the pedestals used on the keel - usually it's wood blocks.  Classy marina!

I thought the same. Never seen them used that way.

aero3113

Makes it a lot easier than stacking blocks, and storing them.

Willhound

rasbury said:

I swear I have never understood how a boat stays up on those little pedestals,  or they don't go right through the hull with the weight!

Just goes to show how well built and strong the keel and main points of the side strakes and transom are.

davidbrooks

This has been a bad year for boating for me.  I think i maybe have put an hour or two max on it all summer.  Washed it once.  Moving to a new house has sucked all the extra time and money out of me.  So i was having some issues getting up to speed, and was trying to diagnose why.  Wires are 4 yrs old, plugs are 3 yrs old.  One wire had come off a plug.  Note to self.  Pay more attention to where your feet are.  This is what a set of moderatly used plugs looks like after 3 yrs.  New set of plugs and i now can get up to speed and the RPM's on both engines are in line with each other.  I guess you really do need all 8 cylinders.  Guess the next time i take the boat out will be to winterize.

SimcoeRinker400

Was blocks last year on the keel 😁!!! @Liberty44140 your boat looks great too.   Does yours have the aft cabin or the couch?  

Ian

rasbury said:

I swear I have never understood how a boat stays up on those little pedestals,  or they don't go right through the hull with the weight!

I never understood the physics of buoyancy and why my boat floats yet if I drop a brick in the river it sinks.

Aqua_Aura

If you sealed the brick it may actually float just at or below the water line. 

MarkB

Ian said:

rasbury said:

I swear I have never understood how a boat stays up on those little pedestals,  or they don't go right through the hull with the weight!

I never understood the physics of buoyancy and why my boat floats yet if I drop a brick in the river it sinks.

Oh that's easy. Your boat is full of air.  If it was just one big cube of fiberglass, it would sink to the bottom of the lake.  But if you fill that fiberglass with enough air, kind of like a balloon, it will float.

That air is the air in the cabin, engine room and deck.  Now if something happens and all that air is displaced by water (say due to a leak, or water coming over the transom), then you sink again, because the air is gone.

LaRea

A brick sinks because brick is twice as dense as water.  If you put the brick inside a shoebox, it will float!  But we digress ...

Ian

MarkB said:

Ian said:

rasbury said:

I swear I have never understood how a boat stays up on those little pedestals,  or they don't go right through the hull with the weight!

I never understood the physics of buoyancy and why my boat floats yet if I drop a brick in the river it sinks.

Oh that's easy. Your boat is full of air.  If it was just one big cube of fiberglass, it would sink to the bottom of the lake.  But if you fill that fiberglass with enough air, kind of like a balloon, it will float.

That air is the air in the cabin, engine room and deck.  Now if something happens and all that air is displaced by water (say due to a leak, or water coming over the transom), then you sink again, because the air is gone.

Sounds similar to lightbulbs not emitting light but sucking dark. It goes black when full of dark.

rasbury

Oh no @Ian.. now I will never sleep again...

Liberty44140

SimcoeRinker400 said:

Was blocks last year on the keel 😁!!! @Liberty44140 your boat looks great too.   Does yours have the aft cabin or the couch?  

Thanks! I have the couch, pulls out in to a nice queen bed. It's interesting I know the boat came with an aft cabin option but I have never seen one online, pics or ad's for sale, with the aft cabin. It would be nice to have, that was the one sacrifice we made choosing which boat to buy, but we have no kids so really no problem for us. t would really take away from the large living space as the walls came out in to the cabin for that option. It is nice to sit on that couch, feet up on an ottoman, and watch a movie on a cold night  

SimcoeRinker400

Since this is what have you done to the boat ..... this year! 

Installed a new 17-inch TV screen in the Hardtop ( Was missing when I bought the boat)
Installed quick disconnect for the VHF Antenna and put a new antenna on.( got broken in winter storage) 
Installed the table my son made for the boat in shop class.
Had the starboard Drive rebuilt chew forward and reverse gears (but the boat had this issue before I got it.... I just made it worse but it would still plane up to 40 mph easily)
Put on drive showers as I like to push the boat once in a while and it was recommended by the drive rebuilder.  
Lastly waxed it twice this year .... because it's Rinker Black Gelcoat    Had a great year though the boat did work great can not wait for next season! For my third season with the boat in 2023.  Plan to add NEMA sensors on the fuel tanks so I can see them on the MFD, also plan to get a rudder sensor and maybe trim tab sensors just so everything works on the MFD.  

 

YYZRC

@SimcoeRinker400 I love my rudder sensor. One of the best relatively low dollar adds for sure!!

Is your data through VesselView? If so you don’t need to change the fuel tank senders. Just wire them in with the VV fuel sender harness. It was like $30. 

SimcoeRinker400

Yeah,  I use vessel view through my Raymarine the boat never came with vessel view monitor but I added the can bus to my boat so I get all the engine data.  Do you have a link for the VV fuel sender harness??

YYZRC

8M0075945 is what I used, you need two of them.  Double check though as I believe @Dream_Inn needed a different harness and I think he also has 496s like you.

I didn't want to run two harnesses around the whole boat (since it's just one wire per tank, pink for starboard and blue for port) so I chopped up the port harness to just use the connector and the blue wire.  I then spliced the blue wire into the starboard harness.

oscar1

where is the rudder sensor locate

YYZRC

The Merc one I have is mounted on the transom assembly.  You replace the pin that holds the steering bar to the transom assembly.

The sensor is the potted white gizmo at the right edge of the photo with the pink/black/grey wires coming out of it.  The long U shaped wire clips on the new steering pin to indicate the angle.

Dream_Inn

YYZRC said:

8M0075945 is what I used, you need two of them.  Double check though as I believe @Dream_Inn needed a different harness and I think he also has 496s like you.

I didn't want to run two harnesses around the whole boat (since it's just one wire per tank, pink for starboard and blue for port) so I chopped up the port harness to just use the connector and the blue wire.  I then spliced the blue wire into the starboard harness.

I still have not connected my fuel up to my vessel view.  It was @L@LaRea that actually connected it.  I still haven't wanted to lose my analog gauges.  I get fuel burn and how much fuel I've used on my vessel view, just not how much is actually in my tank (just how much I've used out of it).

I like the rudder sensor.  That would be nice at times.  Especially right on my vessel view.  I do have the drive trim right on vessel view, which I have set to just pop up when I use it.

MarkB

Ian said:

MarkB said:

Ian said:

rasbury said:

I swear I have never understood how a boat stays up on those little pedestals,  or they don't go right through the hull with the weight!

I never understood the physics of buoyancy and why my boat floats yet if I drop a brick in the river it sinks.

Oh that's easy. Your boat is full of air.  If it was just one big cube of fiberglass, it would sink to the bottom of the lake.  But if you fill that fiberglass with enough air, kind of like a balloon, it will float.

That air is the air in the cabin, engine room and deck.  Now if something happens and all that air is displaced by water (say due to a leak, or water coming over the transom), then you sink again, because the air is gone.

Sounds similar to lightbulbs not emitting light but sucking dark. It goes black when full of dark.

Well, that's how I understand lights work ... lol.

LaRea

I love having the fuel tank levels pulled into the network.  Just one minor gripe -- the precision is only to the nearest 1/8 of a tank (whether the gauges are digital or analog).  

Precision doesn't matter when tanks are full and life is good.  It only matters when you're low on fuel.  (Do I have 55 gallons left, or is it really only 30?) 

YYZRC

Mine gives actual volume readings. Not sure if it’s accurate, though. 

raybo3

I would think getting the levels exactly is almost next to impossible. Are the tanks level when the boat sits in it's slip? How level are the tanks when the boat is on plane? Going slow? Best bet is to fill up and know your fuel burn and figure how much you used. I was told over 25 years ago "never ever trust a fuel gauge on a boat. Do the math and use the 1/3 rule". It was great advice......... Just say'n

LaRea

@raybo3 is right as usual.  Manage your fuel and don't over-rely on gauges.  Don't worry, go boating!  But there are times when I wish the gauges were more precise.  

For a 115-gallon tank, there are only nine possible readings:  0, 14, 29, 43, 58, 72, 86, 101, 115.  You can see it in this time-lapse video of the fuel gauge while filling the tanks:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JDSHA_phvw

So any reading might be off by as much as 14 gallons. This is a Merc issue, not a Rinker issue.  The culprit is the engine computer.  

In practical terms, there are only two times when I care.  One is when filling the tanks.  How much fuel I can pump without overfilling?  If the gauge says I have 43 gallons ... can I add 72 gallons, or will it overflow at 58 gallons?  

The other is the RARE event when, despite being careful, I'm low on fuel.  If the gauge says 29 gallons, could it really be only 15?  It forces me to make decisions on unreliable data.  

davidbrooks

@LaRea i an not sure it is as much a Merc issue as it is a fuel tank transponder issue.  In my case i connected Garmin NMEA fuel sensors to the fuel tanks.  They just simply connect to the posts on the senders and then tie into the NMEA backbone.  Every time i think i have them calibrated and giving me a good reading something happens and poof nothing.   It is frustrating.  It is the one thing about trying to go digital that i am not completely sold on.  To the point of where i have been looking for new fuel senders that are direct to NMEA. 

YYZRC

I was in contact with ISSPRO when I had to replace my starboard fuel sender.  I dealt with a nice guy named Don who told me that the sender Rinker spec'd has many more gradients than a standard sender (I believe the number was 19 increments).

Maybe in the spring I will fill my tanks full and do some testing.  I normally keep them around 60% so I'm not hauling heavy fuel around.

LaRea

@davidbrooks your Garmin sensors work differently because they don't go through the Merc engine computer. 

In the OEM setup, the analog fuel sender is connected to the engine computer.  The computer digitizes the signal, and creates an output signal that only has 8 steps (regardless of how many steps the sender has).  Switching displays from analog to digital doesn't fix the problem, because it's all using the same output from the Merc engine computer.  

I bought a couple Yacht Devices fuel transponders (SeaTalkNG), but didn't get them hooked up yet.

YYZRC

@LaRea do you suppose the VesselView Link software compares the actual fuel burn against the tank sender readings to estimate a more accurate fuel level?

LaRea

No, it just shows the level that's on the network.  

rasbury

I'm going to buff the port side of my boat...I have all the helm area stripped and will do that next...by the time I'm done I should be able to launch if the river goes down enough. It will be idle speed for some time however as a lot of homes along the river will be flooded for some time. It is very slow moving water, even at flood. I think I read the river bed drop an inch over 1 mile....