jayhanig
Master Chief Petty Officer
- Joined
- Jun 27, 2010
- Messages
- 836
I bought my '85 Galaxy at the end of last August and found out that the transom was rotted on my very first trip into the sound... I was lucky to get it back out before it sank. I was warned at the time that I was stepping into a hole with apparently no bottom; that it would be smarter to just walk away and part out the boat. Well, I didn't want to do it. Call me stubborn; call me stupid, certainly call me well warned.
So I opened my checkbook and started fixing the problems as they became apparent to me: the transom was replaced, the outdrive tilt was repaired and another switch was added to the transom for access in the driveway. I had the boat professionally rewired and my panel replaced. The steering rack was replaced as it froze itself solid sometime between when I got the boat and March. The fast (3000 rpm) idle was corrected with a new throttle cable (the old one was completely makeshift rigged). I added Smart Tabs, a GPS/ chartplotter/ depth finder, and a VHF radio. I rewired the trailer and replaced the wheel bearings, rims and tires.
I named her the "No Good Deed" as in "no good deed goes unpunished" - one of my father's favorite sayings.
Today I got brave and towed it down to the municipal marina and launched her with the help of an old high school buddy. No doubt it could have been done a little better than I did but I didn't forget to put the plug in; I didn't forget to release the transom straps; I didn't forget to lower the outdrive on the way in or raise it when I came out later.
I didn't embarrass myself backing the trailer, which is an improvement over last year. I didn't hog the ramp and I was in and out pretty quickly.
So what happened? I followed some other boats and got a sense of where the sand bars are around the marina and on down towards the New Topsail Inlet. I stumbled a couple of times into shallow water but never got stuck. There was no water in the oil when I got back. Pulling the plug gave me maybe 30 seconds worth of water at the end of maybe an hour and a half of tooling around. The Smart Tabs worked great! I went on plane very quickly and there was no wandering at slow speed, unlike last year's singular effort.
So not bad. The one negative is there is still a problem shifting from forward to neutral to reverse that made for exasperating times when I was trying to dock. But I didn't crash into anything. I'm going to let my boat guys take another crack at the shifter and see if we can't get that squared away. But after a whole lot of trembling, twitching and whining, I think I have a usable boat!
I am a crispy critter this evening. I suspect rum and tonic will correct any discomfort shortly.
So I opened my checkbook and started fixing the problems as they became apparent to me: the transom was replaced, the outdrive tilt was repaired and another switch was added to the transom for access in the driveway. I had the boat professionally rewired and my panel replaced. The steering rack was replaced as it froze itself solid sometime between when I got the boat and March. The fast (3000 rpm) idle was corrected with a new throttle cable (the old one was completely makeshift rigged). I added Smart Tabs, a GPS/ chartplotter/ depth finder, and a VHF radio. I rewired the trailer and replaced the wheel bearings, rims and tires.
I named her the "No Good Deed" as in "no good deed goes unpunished" - one of my father's favorite sayings.
Today I got brave and towed it down to the municipal marina and launched her with the help of an old high school buddy. No doubt it could have been done a little better than I did but I didn't forget to put the plug in; I didn't forget to release the transom straps; I didn't forget to lower the outdrive on the way in or raise it when I came out later.
I didn't embarrass myself backing the trailer, which is an improvement over last year. I didn't hog the ramp and I was in and out pretty quickly.
So what happened? I followed some other boats and got a sense of where the sand bars are around the marina and on down towards the New Topsail Inlet. I stumbled a couple of times into shallow water but never got stuck. There was no water in the oil when I got back. Pulling the plug gave me maybe 30 seconds worth of water at the end of maybe an hour and a half of tooling around. The Smart Tabs worked great! I went on plane very quickly and there was no wandering at slow speed, unlike last year's singular effort.
So not bad. The one negative is there is still a problem shifting from forward to neutral to reverse that made for exasperating times when I was trying to dock. But I didn't crash into anything. I'm going to let my boat guys take another crack at the shifter and see if we can't get that squared away. But after a whole lot of trembling, twitching and whining, I think I have a usable boat!
I am a crispy critter this evening. I suspect rum and tonic will correct any discomfort shortly.
