I’m now Chief Engineer on a boat.
Ok, so it’s only my parent’s new boat, but still I can claim the title.
My parents decided to sell their 22′ jetboat a few weeks ago and trade up to something bigger. At first they were thinking ‘houseboat’. They even went and looked at a couple. I tagged along to give advice and to give the boats the once-over. I pointed out that, though houseboats are comfortable, they are also big, slow, and hard for just two people their age to handle. A boat that size would require me to come along and help every time they went out.
I talked with them about what they wanted to do. (Stay overnight, have a galley and head, fish, runabout, etc) I asked if they’d thought about a cabin cruiser. I suggested something in the 26-28′ range. Big enough to be comfortable, small enough to handle on their own and not eat too much gas. My father said that wouldn’t work because my mom hated cabin cruisers after a bad experience/trip on one in the 60’s. Turns out he was wrong. We started looking at cruisers that afternoon. I picked out a couple nicer 28-29’ers for them to look at.
They finally found a used 33′ SeaRay with twin V-6 Mercruisers they liked. After a thorough inspection and price negotiations they bought it. It’s a pretty sweet boat. It sleeps 6 easily, has a full galley, head, generator, A/C, and even a central vacuum system for the carpets.
Last weekend my wife, son, and I took it out overnight. After waking up in the morning and having breakfast I tried to start the engines. The starboard engine was dead and wouldn’t start. Whee! Dead battery. It seems the onboard refrigerator and anchor lights killed the starboard batteries. Luckily with two engines I could still get going, though slowly. I limped back into the marina on one engine. We learned not to leave both batteries engaged all night to prevent this.
This past Sunday we took out some of the family for a ride. On the way back into the marina, the power steering started acting funny. We wrestled it into the slip and popped the engine covers. Oil was everywhere in the bilge. I crawled down and discovered that the power steering reservoir was empty. I traced the source of the leak to a hose, burning myself on the still hot engines in the process. I spent last night on my belly in the bilge trying to get to the hose clamps. I finally got off the hose after an hour and we found a nick in it. Dropped by AutoZone and picked up a new hose today. $2.50. Probably the cheapest repair we’ll ever make.
Now the family is calling me ‘Scotty’. Instead of Dilithium they’ll need to ply me with Appletonrum.