I've bought and brought back to life a few old boats, each with stories of its own. The first twin engine boat we puchased about 15mi south of Milwaukee. It was not a Trojan. A Trojan would not mis-behave the way this boat did on its first voyage with new owners. The previous owner was on board with us to the Milwaukee Harbor where it was place on a flatbed and trucked to LaCrosse WI on the Mississippi wihout incident.
The helm was mostly dead except for fuel guage and the port tach but the owner claimed it had been that way for 2-3 years and he just had not got around to getting it fixed. I knew it had issues, but we paid next to nothing for the 25 year old boat and we could build some equity by fixing it up.
On the big Miss, we had a 95mi trip upstream to RedWing, MN. There are 7 locks to clear and at 12-20 mph, with locks, it should be 1 long or two decent days on the water.
Splash in, fire up, and off we went. 2mi out of Lacross, our youngest son, about 9 at the time asked if it was OK to use the head. He did, and then flushed. The starboard engine quit with the flush and an electrical fire started burning off the + lead to the starter and other wires around it! Smoke poored from the hatches and blower ports, the family prepared to jump as I opened the hatch, extinguisher in hand. The smoke cleared, it didn't seem that we were going down. I started up the port engine with the Mrs at the wheel and we headed north again.
I spent the next 4 hrs in the bilge removing wires and replacing enough to get the starter and ignition back together. The big problem was about 10 + leads sneaking through the bulkhead wall to the + terminal on the starter with no fuses! A little corrosion and the flush was just too much and you can't put the majic smoke back in burnt wires.
Back in the capt' chair, I fired up the startboard and got back on plane, for about 100 yds, and the port engine lost power. With the Mrs at the wheel again, I was back down below. Not getting fuel. So, up to a sandbar (I'm crazy enough to rewire one while underway, but I shut everything down when working on gas issues). Clogged up filter in the base of the Rochester carb. #*@#$% ethonal fuel! New filter in, varoom! Back off the sand-bar and we are on our way.
Made it nearly an hour this time. Crossing the wake of a cruiser going southbound, we took a rock side to side with gusto. A moment later, the majic smoke was coming out from down below.... Wife at the helm and down I went again. Wires off the alternator of the starboard engine burnt black for an inch off the back, but still had voltage and the engine was running. All the cabin 12v was dead. Seems that the old house battery let loose a few plates and shorted out. Thank God the fuse did its job. Next Marina, tank of gas and a new battery. A little electrical tape and off we went for an hour and then sunset, drop anchor, day 1
Day 2. Port engine starts. Starboard just grunts, won't turn over. Hatches up, check wiring on starter. Touching starter case causes first injury, a blister off the sizzling starter case. Its Sunday. No parts available. OK, not so bad. We have one left to run on. Lets go. We can do about 6-7 mph on one. With the Mrs at the helm, I wired up the head again so we could flush. (I've found over the years that the crew will put up with a lot if the head works
). Plotted out the rest of the trip, figured, we'll be home in a day if we don't get held up at the locks.
Mid afternoon, the port engine starts to surge. A little more RPMs it smooths out. 10-20 minutes later, more surging. A little more RPMs. 10 minutes more surge, surge sputter, ran on a couple cylinders for a bit then backfired and quits! Try to start it. Dead. Won't turn over. As we drifted out of the channel, we dropped anchor. Hatches up, down I go. The battery is dead. Swap batteries and she fires up. Huh. Check for volts, not charging. The alternator must not work on that side (no guages, how would I know). So, with fingers crossed, we idled to the next marina on what was in the battery for ignition power and got a transient slip for the night (with power) and charged up the batteries.
Next day, got a starter for the starboard engine and an alternator for the port. It was bout 4PM before the repairs were done. Eager to get home, we headed north again. Two engines purring. 18 MPH and on plane again!
With the Mrs at the wheel, I decide to go sit on the bow deck and enjoy the moment. That's about all I got. We slowly fell off plane. I kept telling my first mate to speed it up but eventually, we settled back into the water. As I got up off the deck to walk back, I noticed how LOW the transom was in the water. I also notice that both bilge pumps were sending out steady stream.
Just idling now, hatches up, and crap, there was about a foot of water in the bilge and the starboard engine was making an awful racket with water splashing everywhere from the spining engine couplers and the smell of exhaust was thick. I had the Mrs shut down the starboard. Water was still pouring in. There was hole the size of a golfball in the outboard exhaust tube at the manifold. The exhaust had gotten two hot, starved for water, and burn right through! With the boat sitting low, water was flowing in through the exhaust and out the hole. 20 yards of duct tape and some bailing and the bilge pumps finally caught up. Dirty and wet, we all took a little swim, had dinner, and called it a day. (figured out a week later that the exhaust manifold had cracked).
Day 4, we travled the last 20 mi without incident, learned to dock on 1 engine (offset which at the time was new trick for a guy that only had single screw experience).
Back in the truck for the ride home, everone was quiet. The Mrs broke the silence after after about a 1/2 hour with "well...." I hung my head and asked if she wanted me to get rid of it. She said "no, we all had a great adventure. Besides, in next 10 years, nothing else can go wrong with that boat, its already happened
". I asked if we were still planning to go back to the river next weekend. "I'm going if you are" was the simple reply.
Gotta love that girl. In the past 30 years, she's rarely said no to one of my crazy adventures....
FYI, that project boat took 4 years to finish. It had to go when I found the Trojan sitting on the hard, begging for someone to polish her up and bring her back to life.
It has almost been three full seasons on the beautiful "Liberty Call" and the only bad day is when I have to leave her behind and go home. The only raw occurance we encountered was a blown trim tab line and a strong Nothern wind that created 3-5 swells. So fortunately I cannot complain. On highsight we all know boats are a lot of fun in many different avenues of great enjoyment. On the other hand there are many small, fast moving parts that require a lot of attention. Eventually they will fail but sometimes with proper maintenace we can catch the small problems before they multiply into a true Quadmire. So, with that in mind I will not complain. For example, when I am navigating down the C&D Canal and pass the fishing piers. What are those people thinking? They might be saying I wish I could own a boat. Saying that, I trying to convey that we are fortuanate, blessed people who can share and enjoy the great boating adventure. We are very lucky!!!!! But not to kill the thread stories are also part of the adventure. A bit%$# sailor is a happy Sailor. 