April 16. 2016 I replaced the water pump impeller on the Honda yesterday. It was the first time I had ever been in an outboard's lower unit and it went much better than expected. Supposedly it had been replaced just before I purchased Chameleon and we have run the engine less than 10 hours since then, but I figured since it is recommended maintenance every 2 years it should be done. I do wonder about the previous owner's (or his mechanic's) abilities though, as the old impeller was obviously installed incorrectly with two veins twisted backwards. I always thought the indicator stream was weak but since this was my first outboard I wasn't too concerned. Also when I purchased the boat, I was told I may want to replace one of the mounting bolts for the lower unit since it was not stainless steel and had been replaced because the threads had been stripped and then repaired with helicoil. Well, the bolt is fine but appeared to have been "glued" in place instead of helicoiled. When I extracted the bolt a fine pink powder came out of the bolt hole. No clue as to what that was but if I had to guess, I would say someone used Bondo to get the bolts to stick in the hole and let her go out the door. I've never seen anything like that used to repair threads. Anyway, I now have a M10 helicoil kit on order and will hopefully get the lower unit re-assembled early next week.
April 23, 2016 The Helicoil kit arrived mid-week and I was about to start drilling out the hole in order to re-tap it. For whatever reason, my eye was attracted to the bolts laid out before me that I had removed from the lower unit. As a mechanic, I always remove bolts and lay them out in order as to where they belong. It saves hassle when reassembling the project and can help diagnose issues putting things back together. I noticed the two bolts that had been "Bondo'd" into the holes had a finer pitch than the other two. This struck me odd since they were all mounting bolts and all the same length. Out of curiosity I threaded one of the courser thread bolts into the back bolt holes. Guess what? They screwed in with no issues and tightened right up. Basically, this motor has been running around for who knows how long with only half the mechanical support it was designed to have. I guess at least I know nothing ever struck the lower unit very hard while the boat was in motion prior to our purchasing her, LOL! Ah well, another excuse to visit the hardware store. I wonder what I have around here I can Helicoil...
May 14, 2016 Well, here in the middle of the Midwest we are not big on the metric system. Finding M10X40 bolts is difficult at best. Finding M10X40 SS bolts is nigh impossible. Even Fastenall didn't have them, however, they were willing to machine them for me at a bargain price. They would only cost $127.00. EACH! Time to jump on Ebay and see what is available out there.
June 11, 2016 I found a pair of SS bolts for a decent price in Las Vegas of all places. Ironic since that is where we bought Chameleon. For a mere $3.34 (shipping included) and an additional week of down time, I procured the necessary bolts to finally get the lower unit back together. While I was that deep into the motor, I decided to go ahead and purchase the Honda recommended upgrade kit for the indicator fitting. This increased the passage opening by 400% and was a simple swap of the old fitting with the new and installing a new discharge line. With fresh fuel in the tank and a barrel full of water, the test run went well. There is a nice, steady indicator stream now.
April 23, 2016 The Helicoil kit arrived mid-week and I was about to start drilling out the hole in order to re-tap it. For whatever reason, my eye was attracted to the bolts laid out before me that I had removed from the lower unit. As a mechanic, I always remove bolts and lay them out in order as to where they belong. It saves hassle when reassembling the project and can help diagnose issues putting things back together. I noticed the two bolts that had been "Bondo'd" into the holes had a finer pitch than the other two. This struck me odd since they were all mounting bolts and all the same length. Out of curiosity I threaded one of the courser thread bolts into the back bolt holes. Guess what? They screwed in with no issues and tightened right up. Basically, this motor has been running around for who knows how long with only half the mechanical support it was designed to have. I guess at least I know nothing ever struck the lower unit very hard while the boat was in motion prior to our purchasing her, LOL! Ah well, another excuse to visit the hardware store. I wonder what I have around here I can Helicoil...
May 14, 2016 Well, here in the middle of the Midwest we are not big on the metric system. Finding M10X40 bolts is difficult at best. Finding M10X40 SS bolts is nigh impossible. Even Fastenall didn't have them, however, they were willing to machine them for me at a bargain price. They would only cost $127.00. EACH! Time to jump on Ebay and see what is available out there.
June 11, 2016 I found a pair of SS bolts for a decent price in Las Vegas of all places. Ironic since that is where we bought Chameleon. For a mere $3.34 (shipping included) and an additional week of down time, I procured the necessary bolts to finally get the lower unit back together. While I was that deep into the motor, I decided to go ahead and purchase the Honda recommended upgrade kit for the indicator fitting. This increased the passage opening by 400% and was a simple swap of the old fitting with the new and installing a new discharge line. With fresh fuel in the tank and a barrel full of water, the test run went well. There is a nice, steady indicator stream now.
Also this spring we found a mascot for Chameleon. Meet Cham, whom we found at the checkout line in Kohl's. He was one of their promotional plushes supporting children's health services. For $5.00 we supported a good cause and got a bargain on our new mascot!
Sept. 11, 2016 - Today was the poster child of perfect sailing days. 77 degrees with 10-13 mph steady wind, no gusts. We thought we would check out Smithville lake since it is now off season and should be relatively quiet. I was excited since this would be our first time on Smithville lake and I could add another review to our local lake page. In the back of my mind however, I knew circumstances were too good to actually have this perfect day happen. Our youngest crew member told us she had the same foreboding that morning.
Hitching up and pulling the boat out of the boat house went smoothly and just as expected. Everyone loaded up and all the day's supplies stowed, so off we went to explore new waters. Smithville is about an hour's easy drive from home and we were tooling down the highway at 65 mph very smoothly. It was interesting because something in my left mirror kept drawing my attention. There was nothing visible and no odd sensations, but when we were 3/4 of the way there, the left rear trailer tire exploded with a tremendous BOOOM! Rubber flew everywhere in a great cloud. I can only imagine the thoughts running through the drivers of the two cars beside me. It truly sounded (and looked) like a bomb had detonated. I became a firm believer in tandem axle trailers this day! There was no sway and barely any feel in the driver's seat as the tire disintegrated. I pulled over onto the shoulder, engaged my hazard flashers and proceeded to limp on down the highway to the next exit spewing chunks of rubber as we went. Now, there isn't exactly a lot in the way of civilization apparent at this exit, but in the distance could be seen a great white building with rather ornate gold domes on the top. Assuming this is a church, it should have a decent sized parking lot in which I can put on my original 1997 bias ply tire...eww...shudder.... It turns out this is the LDS temple and it is a huge, beautiful building on Searcy Creek PKWY. Y'all can stop knocking on my door as I have no plans to convert and believe my soul is in good hands, but I really do appreciate you allowing me to use your lot in my time of need.
Hitching up and pulling the boat out of the boat house went smoothly and just as expected. Everyone loaded up and all the day's supplies stowed, so off we went to explore new waters. Smithville is about an hour's easy drive from home and we were tooling down the highway at 65 mph very smoothly. It was interesting because something in my left mirror kept drawing my attention. There was nothing visible and no odd sensations, but when we were 3/4 of the way there, the left rear trailer tire exploded with a tremendous BOOOM! Rubber flew everywhere in a great cloud. I can only imagine the thoughts running through the drivers of the two cars beside me. It truly sounded (and looked) like a bomb had detonated. I became a firm believer in tandem axle trailers this day! There was no sway and barely any feel in the driver's seat as the tire disintegrated. I pulled over onto the shoulder, engaged my hazard flashers and proceeded to limp on down the highway to the next exit spewing chunks of rubber as we went. Now, there isn't exactly a lot in the way of civilization apparent at this exit, but in the distance could be seen a great white building with rather ornate gold domes on the top. Assuming this is a church, it should have a decent sized parking lot in which I can put on my original 1997 bias ply tire...eww...shudder.... It turns out this is the LDS temple and it is a huge, beautiful building on Searcy Creek PKWY. Y'all can stop knocking on my door as I have no plans to convert and believe my soul is in good hands, but I really do appreciate you allowing me to use your lot in my time of need.
With my tire changed and the very heavy duty fender bent back out of the way, yeah, the tire tried it's best to suck it into the wheel, we took the back roads over to NTB where they had a replacement trailer tire. I am no longer a fan of NTB since they "made over" their stores. I believe a tire store should look like a tire store and display their wares in the show room so customers can see exactly what they are trying to purchase. I don't believe they should look like a sterile version of Starbucks! Seriously, are you selling tires or coffee. It's kinda hard to tell... Anyway, upon rolling into the lot I notice two of the tire busters aren't even in uniform, but wearing T-shirts. The salesman wants me to use my tools to take the spare off so he can take it into the shop where he hopes he can find someone to mount the new tire. Hopes? He then asks me to pull around to the bays and wants to know if they can use my jack to lift the trailer. No problem, I hand him my little bottle jack and he looks at it perplexed. "How do you operate this?" he asks. Really? Are you guys actually in this business? Would you like me to mount the tire for you while I'm teaching you how to operate the jack? I can actually do that you know. I've done thousands of them. So anyway, the tire comes rolling out ready to be mounted on the trailer when I notice there is no weight on the front and an old weight on the back. I ask if it has been balanced, you know, since I paid for balancing. After a moment of the salesman looking at the tire buster, the reply I get back is a sly "no, we are out of weights". A tire shop out of weights! That's a good one! Did you plan on mentioning that before or after you billed me? "Oh, we can take a little off the bill since we can't balance it" says the salesman. No you can take the balance completely off the bill. After this most entertaining afternoon, and I know everyone thinks at this point I'm about to go ballistic but I really did find this entertaining, we decided there really was no point continuing to the lake. We would only have about 2 hours before having to load up once again and head home. There was a Sam's Club nearby where we did a little shopping and then had an early dinner at The Corner Cafe which redeemed at least a little of the day.
If you have been following the logs then you know I replaced all four tires in Kingman, AZ when I purchased Chameleon. Last year one of the tires developed a huge bulge in the sidewall and was replaced. Now another one has blown out on the highway. They have less than 1500 miles on them. Today, Sept. 12th, I spent shopping for another replacement set with a higher load range. It turns out 8 ply D tires are the strongest you can get for 14 inch tires so I have ordered a set of Kumho tires to replace all of my trailer tires. The one I bought Sunday will go on the spare and I may keep the one I bought last year so it can take up space in the boat house. The Kumhos are the highest rated tires I could find at 2150 lbs whereas most others are rated 2040 even though all have the load range D classification. If any of these tires fail I will go up to 15 inch wheels where I can get E rated tires. I've towed many different trailers all over the country without ever having tire trouble. Not even a flat. I expect no less of my boat trailer which has cost me more in maintenance than all my other trailers, past and present, combined.
If you have been following the logs then you know I replaced all four tires in Kingman, AZ when I purchased Chameleon. Last year one of the tires developed a huge bulge in the sidewall and was replaced. Now another one has blown out on the highway. They have less than 1500 miles on them. Today, Sept. 12th, I spent shopping for another replacement set with a higher load range. It turns out 8 ply D tires are the strongest you can get for 14 inch tires so I have ordered a set of Kumho tires to replace all of my trailer tires. The one I bought Sunday will go on the spare and I may keep the one I bought last year so it can take up space in the boat house. The Kumhos are the highest rated tires I could find at 2150 lbs whereas most others are rated 2040 even though all have the load range D classification. If any of these tires fail I will go up to 15 inch wheels where I can get E rated tires. I've towed many different trailers all over the country without ever having tire trouble. Not even a flat. I expect no less of my boat trailer which has cost me more in maintenance than all my other trailers, past and present, combined.
Sept. 18, 2016 The day was warm with a forecast high of 83 with light winds around 7 mph when we finally made it up to Smithville Lake, this time without incident. With no wind in the morning we intentionally arrived late, around 13:45 to catch the strongest winds of the day. I've heard Smithville referred to as Kansas City's ghetto lake but the only thing ghetto we found are the roads leading up there. The lake was busy on such a beautiful afternoon as would be expected, but Smithville has a special, sailboat only, launch ramp in a quiet cove of the lake which makes launching and retrieving the boat much more relaxing. The people we met were very nice. One fellow in the parking lot stopped by during setup to point out that they had a mast raising system available for use near the dock. We declined since we are used to using our gin pole but appreciated the offer. Set up and take down took much longer than normal. Probably due to lack of practice since we got such a late start this year. It is amazing how much you can forget in a year's time. We managed to spend about 2 1/2 hours sailing these new waters. The Tridata showed the dam about 1.2 miles from Sailboat Cove and it took us a full hour to reach it. We definitely weren't breaking any speed records today even with the 150% flying. I think all the lines on the boat had developed a memory from being coiled so long. Every line on the boat managed to snag something at some point during the day and it was becoming frustrating. On the way back from the dam the sun had started to go down along with the wind. We were ghosting along so slowly that the Admiral was able to start dinner on the stove while under sail. Not something I would normally recommend but we were certainly in no danger of being heeled over by a sudden gust. The aroma wafting out of our galley would have had the crews on other boats salivating had there been any close. We managed to sail back into the cove just as dinner was finishing cooking and tied up at one of the courtesy slips at the yacht club. We ate in the cockpit while watching a sailor bring his West Wight Potter 15 into the slip beside us. He was very friendly and chatted with us while he tied up. The little 15 was well maintained with nice custom brightwork and crisp, colorful sails. After supper, we loaded up on the trailer and commenced breaking everything down all the while continuing to fight every line on board to keep them from getting entangled on anything they could. All in all it wasn't a bad day, but I just wasn't really into it. Maybe I just wasn't feeling well or maybe it was too much sun and heat, not enough wind. Maybe 2 1/2 hours of sail time for 5 hours of drive and prep just isn't enough. I definitely want to explore more of Smithville and plan to return. I think it's worth a second chance.
Saturday, Oct. 29th 2016: It's very late in the season now but you wouldn't know it by the temps. Today it is 83F with bright blue skies. The wind is predicted to be 13 dropping to 8 by evening. Predictions around here are seldom right however. When we arrive at Longview we find the conditions to be closer to 17 mph winds gusting to 23 directly out of the south, which is bad for Longview since it is oriented north to south. Also the southern topography creates a natural funnel increasing wind speed. We arrived late, by choice this time, and were in the water by 1530. This sail had a few first for us. Since our youngest ensign was across the state attending school activities, we invited friends to join us on board. This was the first time taking passengers (friends) out and not the best weather to do so in. We opted to sail under the main only, due to the wind since this was the first time any of the 3 had been on a sailboat. I didn't want to terrify them to a point where they wouldn't want to come back. Without the headsail however, our ability to point into the wind was extremely hampered and once we got to the north end of the lake we spent most of our time in irons and unable to make way to the south. After about an hour of tacking back and forth and making little headway to the south we decided to motor sail to the other end of the lake where there is a swim beach. Here we could beach the boat (another first) in the soft sand and plan dinner. While intently scrutinizing the lake bed to make sure we weren't going to grind a hidden boulder into our hull as we approached, I managed to momentarily forget there is also 35 feet of space above us I need to pay attention to also. As we oh so smoothly slip onto the sandy beach I hear a rattle in the rigging. Yep, I had pulled right up into a tree. Luckily it was a willow with very soft branches and it was nice enough to allow us to push through with no damage. With the sail down and the bow snuggly nestled into the sand we began to pull the grill out and unwrap the steaks which of course were still frozen even after 4 hours of being stored only a cold sack. This actually turned out to be a good thing because no sooner had we discovered our dinner was a hockey puck, our young ensign calls to say they are running way ahead of schedule and are only an hour out from our location. Thanks for the heads up kid!! The steaks go back in the cold sack, the grill gets stowed once more and the motor gets chucked into reverse to pull us off the bank. Now it is a race to get back to the marina and everything broke down so we can pick the kid up without everyone having to wait on us. Luckily for us there was very little traffic on the lake today and both docks were empty upon our arrival. We managed to dock quickly without putting on a show for the land lubbers, got the trailer in the water and extracted Chameleon without incident. We were stowed and on the road in about 30 minutes which is faster than we've been able to do before. It turned out to be a fun afternoon albeit probably a little boring for our guests. We got to spend a wonderful sunny day with friends and enjoyed great conversation. They had a lot of good questions about sailing which tells me they may actually go back out with us again. Next time I'll make sure the winds are favorable and fly the genoa to give things a little spice. We managed to pick up the kid on time. Pulling into the school's parking lot with the boat was another first. I was cracking up when one of the kids saw us pulling in and they yelled to their instructor "there's a REALLY big boat turning in!" Oh, and as for dinner, we didn't miss out. We decided to all meet at the local Mexican restaurant and enjoy a really good dinner together. With the sailing as it was, I can't rate today as outstanding, but all in all, it was pretty dadgum good.