Upper Chesapeake Tricab Rondezvous going on right now!

P-Dogg · Post by **P-Dogg** » Mon Sep 17, 2012 9:26 pm

There is just one catch -- to participate, you have to turn your boat into a tree fort.

Even before I closed on my boat, Sir Aaron of Baltimore recommended his mechanic to do some of the items flagged in the survey. Aaron's boat was still in the yard when it was time for mine to be hauled, so I asked to be blocked next to him. It is funny to watch people do the proverbial double-take.

Here is a hint, okay, not a small one, about the topic of an upcoming post, and may be the reason that I'm not performing the work in the water.

This pic is of the underwater exhaust with the outer clamshell removed.

Note the bronze tube welded to the plate.

The tube extends up into the boat to right about the LWL. This is the view with the bellows removed. Attention tricab owners, the bellows are not even fabric-reinforced -- just formed rubber. A piece of reinforced exhaust hose acts as a washer between the bronze tube and the bellows. My vintage 1985 bellows look and feel fine, and are not terribly stiff or obviously deteriorated. Nevertheless, my 2012-vintage 4-ply reinforced silicone bellows are on order.

The careful eye will note the black ooze eminating from under the low side of the thru-hull backing plate. The survey revealed a leak between the bottom of said plate and the inside of the hull. That plywood backing plate is being replaced with waterjet-cut structural fiberglass sheet. Stay tuned.....

prowlersfish · Post by **prowlersfish** » Mon Sep 17, 2012 10:57 pm

Great photos of both boats . I see Aaron needs to get a name on his .

Great looking boats btw

gettaway · Post by **gettaway** » Mon Sep 17, 2012 11:55 pm

Great photos, curious if the underwater exhaust is really quiet?
Love the name!

aaronbocknek · Post by **aaronbocknek** » Tue Sep 18, 2012 3:53 am

prowlersfish wrote:Great photos of both boats . I see Aaron needs to get a name on his .

Great looking boats btw

her name,as you know is ENTERPRISE. i have the name and hailing port already made up in true star trek federation microgamma font, black letters with red outline. now all i need to do is find someone to put the bloody thing on. i love seeing two tri cabs side by side. impressive indeed.

perry..... are you going to post more of the underwater system including the clamshell jet, or, did you want me to include my pics of yours on here? don't
want to step on your toes on this thread.
aaron

aaronbocknek · Post by **aaronbocknek** » Tue Sep 18, 2012 4:03 am

gettaway wrote:Great photos, curious if the underwater exhaust is really quiet?
Love the name!

actually it is. when you start up, two things happen. there is a rumble as some of the gasses are pushed under the boat, yes, it shakes and rattles a bit until the engines stabilize (the dog HATES that part as it goes through his entire body, the poor thing). if the engines are @ about 1000, you can see bubbles along the side of the boat where the exhaust is, and, there is the sound of water/exhaust jettisoned from the side discharge clamshells. sounds like a genset almost. once you throttle back, the exhaust gasses and water are diverted to the idle overflow on the side of the boat. very quite. at speed, it is really quite, but, when you hit a wake and the underwater assembly gets to the surface of the water, you can hear an audible rumble. not loud, just a different sound to get used to.

now that i've seen the entire assembly in puzzle form, i have new respect for the system. i had no idea how heavy the tube/plate assembly was and the quality of the welds is fantastic. the thickness is roughly 1/4" SOLID bronze. simple in form and function, it does what it does rather efficiently and has done so all these years. i would love to know the design background on this, who thought of it at trojan and why it was not incorporated in more vessels. john, my mechanic, tells me that as the boat approaches near planing speed, the 'jets' from the exhaust actually break the vacuum between hull and water. it breaks the boat free, letting it rise up and get up on plane faster. and she does too. she will jump on a plane in a heartbeat.

another noticeable difference what at cruise is the absolute lack of exhaust gas smell. virtually none. no station wagon effect at all. of course, at low speeds and idle, you do smell some exhaust fumes jettisoned out the side exhaust port.

P-Dogg · Post by **P-Dogg** » Tue Sep 18, 2012 7:44 am

perry..... are you going to post more of the underwater system including the clamshell jet, or, did you want me to include my pics of yours on here?

Post whatever you want. I plan to post a DIY thread with all of the info and pics in one place once the job is complete, including scrubbing the bilge and repainting with gray polyurethane paint to get rid of the years of grime and freshen-up my man cave.

I was furious the other night Aaron. Since the pictured were taken, I removed the trim tabs and some other stuff in order to re-bed everything, so my boat looks a little unkempt. I was hanging upside down in the bilge behind the fuel tank, supporting my weight with one hand while I used my other hand to tidy-up wires and clean the screen on the bilge pump and other stuff that. I heard some passers-by comment that "That one looks like it's really been taken care of." I know that they were not talking about mine! I guess that they don't know what a boat looks like while it is in the PROCESS of being taken care of, but I didn't say anything. Considering all of the rotten boats on the hard at Sue Island, ours look show-room new. I just dusted the bottom of the fuel tank, aligned all of the screw slots on the fuel sender so that they were pointing the same direction, and carried on.

aaronbocknek · Post by **aaronbocknek** » Tue Sep 18, 2012 8:00 am

P-Dogg wrote:
perry..... are you going to post more of the underwater system including the clamshell jet, or, did you want me to include my pics of yours on here?

Post whatever you want. I plan to post a DIY thread with all of the info and pics in one place once the job is complete, including scrubbing the bilge and repainting with gray polyurethane paint to get rid of the years of grime and freshen-up my man cave.

I was furious the other night Aaron. Since the pictured were taken, I removed the trim tabs and some other stuff in order to re-bed everything, so my boat looks a little unkempt. I was hanging upside down in the bilge behind the fuel tank, supporting my weight with one hand while I used my other hand to tidy-up wires and clean the screen on the bilge pump and other stuff that. I heard some passers-by comment that "That one looks like it's really been taken care of." I know that they were not talking about mine! I guess that they don't know what a boat looks like while it is in the PROCESS of being taken care of, but I didn't say anything. Considering all of the rotten boats on the hard at Sue Island, ours look show-room new. I just dusted the bottom of the fuel tank, aligned all of the screw slots on the fuel sender so that they were pointing the same direction, and carried on.

pay them no mind perry, for they do not know of what they speak. they were there to get intoxicated, eat crabs, smoke a few virginia slims and behave(?) like heathens. very few of them know that sue island is an actual WORKING boat yard. you are correct though in one respect. besides the amazing trojan international near the lift, the fact that there are two tri cabins side by side is unusual at best. as long as you are there, get her buffed and polished. you know how these old ladies polish up. that maroon stripe on mine was dull beyond belief. it took a compounding and waxing to bring it back, but look how it shines. now i have to get my screw driver out and 'parade' all of my exposed screws. gotta at least keep up with ya! did you notice the bronze paraded screws AND finishing washers in the salon where the access panel for the windshield bolts?
again, just pay 'em no mind.
aaron

i'm going to start a new thread for the underwater exhaust system broken down in parts. that way all the folks on here can get an idea of what it looks like.

aaronbocknek · Post by **aaronbocknek** » Tue Sep 18, 2012 9:18 am

gettaway wrote:Great photos, curious if the underwater exhaust is really quiet?
Love the name!

this is what the exhaust looks like from the side of the boat.

this pic highlights the 'idle' side discharge and some of the exhaust gas bubbles from the underwater jets. this bubbling action usually occures when the rpms are around 1k and above.

once the engines are pulled back to idle, the underwater bubbles cease and all exhaust, water and gasses, are expelled out the side.

more pics to follow.
aaron