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  1. tpenfield

    Portable Vacuum Cleaner Recommendations - for the boat

    I have been thinking of getting a new vacuum cleaner for the boat. The carpet in the cabin seems to collect all kinds of dirt and debris. I have a wimpy no-name 12v plug-in vac that is not up to the task. Looking for something that would be good for carpet as well as hard surfaces and even...
  2. tpenfield

    Bilge Pump Wiring

    My bilge pump bit the dust during one of my recent outings with the boat. I accidentally left it on while anchored and it seems to have burnt out the motor. When I checked on it this past weekend, I noticed that there was an indicator light illuminated inside the instrument panel switch that...
  3. tpenfield

    SSD Upgrade for my MacBook Pro

    After a couple years flirting with low disk space and declining performance, I am upgrading my 7 year old MacBook Pro to a solid state drive. The original hard drive is a 250 GB hard drive of 2009 vintage. The new one is a 480 GB SSD. So far, so good . . . I got the OWC upgrade kit from...
  4. tpenfield

    Avatar showing up as the wrong image

    I noticed this morning that my avatar icon comes up as a different image on some, but not all, of the posts. The icon is correct on my profile ( thunderbird emblem) but on some posts shows as a set of engine parts. Database Indexing issue perhaps?
  5. tpenfield

    New website style & color scheme ???

    noticing a new style and colors on the website this morning. Not sure what is up . . . :noidea:
  6. tpenfield

    New 'Classic' Boat in the Neighborhood . . .

    Heading off to work this AM and i notice this boat in the neighbor's driveway. :) Looks to be a late 1950's - early 1960's vintage. Scott 40 HP Engine too :) Cool 'fins' on the stern :) Flat bottom . . . Anyone have an idea what this boat (brand) is?
  7. tpenfield

    Closed Cooling System on Port Engine Running Hot(ter)

    I am on the 4th year of my (2) closed cooling systems on my twin Merc 7.4 LX MPI engines. They are the FULL version of closed cooling, so they do the block and the manifolds. I added them to 16 year old 740 hour 'fresh water only' engines when I bought the boat up over at Lake Winnipesaukee in...
  8. tpenfield

    Mercury 7.5 HP Steering Swivel Repair

    The steering swivel on my 1969 Mercury 7.5 HP outboard has been stiff for quite a few years. I have done the greasing thing . . . heated up the area to try to loosen the grease up and get it to flow, etc. but it still stiffens back up after a short while. This year the steering won't even move...
  9. tpenfield

    Mercury "Power Tune" Question . . .

    I bought (via iBoats :) ) a few cans of Mercury Power Tune to de-carb my various engines. I got the Mercury stuff, as a slew of web postings favored the results over SeaFoam and the similar decarb products. When the Power tune arrived (thanks again iBoats) I noticed that on the can it says...
  10. tpenfield

    Trailer Refurbishment . . .

    My 19 foot O'Day sailboat came with a pretty decent Load-Rite galvanized trailer, but it does need a little bit of work. The rollers are old and the black 'hull marking' kind One of the rollers is missing, And the tires are shall we say 'end of life' . . . I think that galvanized rims are...
  11. tpenfield

    Driving Through (or around) Snowmaggedon 2016 ???

    This weekend happens to be when the Admiral and I drive her father's dog to the winter home in Florida. The trip from MA to FL usually takes 2-1/2 days, and the dog travels in luxury (of course). This year, the snow forecast is presenting quite a challenge, as we usually travel the I-95...
  12. tpenfield

    Oh what a feeling, to fix a Toyota . . .

    2009 Corolla S . . . my kid's car that we bought new on her 16th b-day. She announced recently that the radio was not working properly. So, I checked it out and it appeared to be the head unit. Virtually no sound, right front speaker not getting anything, etc. I ordered a used refurb unit...
  13. tpenfield

    Smokey - 1980 Johnson 4.5 HP

    I just picked up a 1980 Johnson 4.5 HP ( model J5RLCSS ) and have run it a few times in a barrel. Probably a total of 1 hour of running. The engine runs well, idles well, shifts well , etc. The only thing I noticed is that it puts out a tremendous amount of smoke from the 2-cycle fuel mix. I...
  14. tpenfield

    Mercury 7.5 HP 1969 Spark Plugs - at end of season

    The boats came out of the water yesterday and I am checking the plugs on my 1969 Mercury 7.5 HP outboard (serial # in my sig below). I noticed the lower plug was very clean versus the upper plug. I am thinking that I am getting water in the bottom cylinder, since the plug is so clean...
  15. tpenfield

    O'Day Mariner Sailboat Restoration

    We don't often see sailboat restoration work on this forum, but since I'll be restoring my newly acquired O'Day Mariner sailboat (Sail #3224), I thought I would run a thread for those who may be interested. The boat is a 1976 model and has the "2+2" design which means the cabin has aft berths...
  16. tpenfield

    O'Day Mariner (sailboat) Wet Foam . . .

    I did some cleaning and checking through everything on my new-to-me O'Day Mariner (Sail #3224) over the past few days. The boat has 'positive flotation' via foam-filled chambers in the bow (v-berth) and the aft-berths. V-berth area Aft-Berth area (one on each side of the hull . . . I...
  17. tpenfield

    Comcast doing away with Personal Web Pages

    I think that I might be one of the few folks that use Comcast web page hosting on these forums instead of photobucket or similar. Anyway, I got notice that Comcast is discontinuing their web hosting services as of October 8, 2015 . . . Much of my picture posting on my threads are from my...
  18. tpenfield

    Mercury 'Gnat' 4HP (1980-81 ish)

    I came across one of these engines on CL and noticed that it was only in production for a few years. Also, I have yet to see a positive comment about this model. What's the story on this engine? Should I not bother and keep looking ??? (this would be a kicker motor for my newly acquired 19...
  19. tpenfield

    Thinking of getting a sailboat . . .

    I had a Catalina 22 for about 7 years (1997 - 2004) and sold it to buy my Formula 242 powerboat. There are days when a couple hour sail would be nice, so I have been thinking of getting a smaller sailboat . . . 17-20 foot range. Something that would not be a lot of hassle to use. A couple of...
  20. tpenfield

    Long Term GPH Realization

    When I went from a single engine sport cuddy to a twin engine day boat a few years ago, I was a bit concerned about the increased fuel usage. I was getting about 6 GPH overall on my 24 footer and was thinking double on my 33 foot twin engine boat. Now that I am 3 years into the 'new' boat I...
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