What Did You Do To Your Boat This Week?

Got in my old nemesis today AKA Pinch Me the DE 185
We are friends again. I brought some tools and fixed up the rigger with a new counter and a brake adjustment. Took it for a cruise on a majestic day and tried a little ling jig.
I think Sidney is picked over already. Still never even hooked one of those bastards.
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Got in my old nemesis today AKA Pinch Me the DE 185
We are friends again. I brought some tools and fixed up the rigger with a new counter and a brake adjustment. Took it for a cruise on a majestic day and tried a little ling jig.
I think Sidney is picked over already. Still never even hooked one of those bastards.
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we got into a few last weekend. one told me to keep my hands off his PBR
 

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Well I’m back in the game. Took me quite a while but found the right one.

2005 Polar 2300 WA. Has a 2005 Mercury 225 4 stroke EFI with 195 original hours on it. Newer merc 15 hp pro kicker with very little use. Both engines run and purr like kittens. Boat over all is in immaculate shape and shows very little wear and has been well looked after. The owner had all the service papers for it right back to new and shows service every spring and any additional work it had. The cuddy shows like new, seat covers are like new, all cabinetry shows no wear whatsoever. Boat has spent its life in fresh water most summers in a marina slip hence the bottom paint. Yes it does have the expected Polar spider cracking on the upper part of the decking but very minimal and for me it’s not a big deal as my boats are kept in a dry shop. But it’s very minimal at that. Main engine shows some rub marks but are buffing out easily and new stickers are on order. Boat does need upgraded electronics which I will get over the next while. Also bought a set of new Scotty downriggers for it as it had no riggers on it. Also needs some upholstery work in a couple places but nothing serious and I want to put new canvas as it is faded and the plastics faded from being in the marina in the summer.

Over all I am impressed with the way the boat is put together and the fit and finish on it is very nice with good quality parts used. All wiring is in very good shape, doesn’t seem to be any issues with anything everything works as should. It’s no Grady or Pursuit but for a mid level boat I am very impressed. Much nicer put together than the wellcraft I had in many ways. Very nice sized rear deck for the size of boat it’s a good split and use of space between the cuddy and rear deck.

I will have more photos once I get a chance to do a good cut and polish on it and touch it up more and get it ready for the water.




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Finally got my boat back yesterday after losing power a few weeks ago. Suzuki DF300’s died while underway. Huge water intrusion into both fuel tanks due to plugged carbon canister. The water got past the fuel/water separators and in to the injectors and the VST —— there was so much of it it over-powered the 10 micron filters.

The plugged carbon canister left me with two non-vented tanks which produced vacuum build-up in both tanks —— any rainwater pooled-up near the filler caps got pulled down the filler tubes into the tanks. This had been going on for at least a year

They pulled 40 liters of water out of the starboard tank and 15 liters out of the port tank….

The big issue was poorly-placed filler caps —- during boat construction they were mounted alongside the wheelhouse at the rear of a sloped surface so they constantly sat in a pool of either rainwater or salt spray

Plan NO. 1 was to place shims under the caps to raise them. Plan NO. 2 was to completely re-route the filler tubes

The boat builder rose to the occasion and decided to go Plan No. 2 and completely rerouted the filler caps….I know this was a HUGE ordeal due to the difficulty of gaining access to the filler tubes. They had to completely remove all the galley drawers and get into the skeleton of the boat but they got it done……it’s like having a new boat!!!

You can see the original placement of the filler caps during construction (at the base of the railing just ahead of the forward bumper)—-

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This is where the filler caps sit today: More or less on a vertical surface—-easy access for making fuel stops. Look at that glass work to cover up the foot-print of the old filler caps just at the base of the railing—-like it was never there!

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Then there’s the new radar and the SCX-20 compass I just installed…felt good to finally get the last piece of Garmin off the boat and all that stinking water out of the tanks!

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Finally got my boat back yesterday after losing power while underway a few weeks ago. Suzuki DF300’s died while underway. Huge water intrusion into both fuel tanks due to plugged carbon canister —— this resulted in two non-vented tanks = vacuum build-up in both tanks = any rainwater pooled-up near the filler cap got pulled down the filler tubes into the tanks

They pulled 40 liters of water out of the starboard tank and 15 liters out of the port tank….

The big issue was poorly-placed filler caps —- during boat construction they were mounted alongside the wheelhouse at the rear of a sloped surface so they constantly sat in a pool of either rainwater or salt spray

Plan NO. 1 was to place shims under the caps to raise them. Plan NO. 2 was to completely re-route the filler tubes

The boat builder rose to the occasion and completely rerouted the filler caps….I know this was a huge ordeal due to the difficulty of gaining access to the filler tubes but they got it done……it’s like having a new boat!!!

You can see the placement of the original filler caps (at the base of the railing just ahead of the forward bumper)—-

View attachment 117113




This is where the filler caps sit today: More or less of a vertical surface—-easy access for making fuel stops. Look at that glass work to cover up the foot-print of the old filler caps just at the base of the railing!

View attachment 117114


Then there’s the new radar and the SCX-20 compass I just installed…felt good to finally get all the Garmin off the boat!

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NMI for the win! I can’t imagine how the hull manufacturers from overseas will do fixes like this but there was talk of the owner of gospal boats flying to vancouver and buying back one of their hulls, but I don’t know if they actually did it.

What year is your boat?

New radar one of the ones that can identify birds feeding on bait? I have dreams of tuna fishing with my boat down south and getting a more accurate radar for that.

Where do you keep your inflatable? I’m torn about solar panel placement and dingy storage. I know Michael one of the NMI owners sewed his soft panels into the dingy canvas cover.
 
NMI deserves a huge shout-out. I know that was a huge project for those guys, especially going in to the summer with all the other boat-builds going on in their facility. When picking up the boat a few days ago I was prepared to cut a very big check for all the work they did, knowing the water intrusion that I’ve been fighting for two seasons was finally a thing of the past but Michael told me to put my check book back in my pocket—I just about fainted….what a guy and what a wonderful gesture from a builder to make!!!!

The boat is a 2022. I purchased it with approx. 100 hours on the Suzukis. But the first thing I had to do when taking ownership of the boat was hire a professional to pump water out of the tanks. Not the way you’d want to start off a relationship with a new boat. In retrospect, I think that carbon canister plugged up two years ago and I’ve essentially been running a boat with un-vented fuel tanks for several seasons.

Yes, the Furuno NXT radar picks up birds though I put it on the boat for collision avoidance. Last summer, while running that Garmin, I almost ran in to two boats in Johnstone Straits in a thick fog. The Garmin Fantom radar did not paint a target when it absolutely should have… one of the boats was a 20 foot sailboat (skinny hull) but what the heck—it absolutely should have produced something on the screen….it did not.

I was really rolling the dice because after almost plowing in to that sailboat, I decided to run all the rapids in Cordero Channel from start to finish in a pea-soup fog. I think I pulled off that bit of silliness because no other boat owners would have been nuts enough to try that so I was the only boat on the water and the Garmin at least kept me off the rocks.

My Furuno NXT will paint a target if there are ducks on the water…. It’s so sensitive that sometimes it’s scary —-I had the same Furuno NXT on my Skagit Orca several boats ago and while crossing Q.C. Strait back to Hardy in pea-soup fog I mistook a flock of seagulls the radar painted for a cruise ship—-that’s how dramatic the target was it painted on the screen. I could hear the cruise ship so I knew something big was heading in my direction….scared the crap out of me

Solar panels—-I try not to hide those panels under an inflatable. With both a refrigerator and a freezer running (and piles of marine electronics) I need all the regenerative power I can get to keep the LiFePo batteries happy. I’ll sometimes keep a kayak up on the wheelhouse roof so it’s centered between the panels but I boat with a dog (or used to; I had to put her down last weekend) so I had to have my inflatable ready to go for beach assaults so the dog could do her business

This is generally where I keep it unless it’s blowing. Yes, it keeps me from running two rods but as I fish alone, one rod is all I can handle anyway

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NMI deserves a huge shout-out. I know that was a huge project for those guys, especially going in to the summer with all the other boat-builds going on in their facility. When picking up the boat a few days ago I was prepared to cut a very big check for all the work they did, knowing the water intrusion that I’ve been fighting for two seasons was finally a thing of the past but Michael told me to put my check book back in my pocket—I just about fainted….what a guy and what a wonderful gesture from a builder to make!!!!

The boat is a 2022. I purchased it with approx. 100 hours on the Suzukis. But the first thing I had to do when taking ownership of the boat was hire a professional to pump water out of the tanks. Not the way you’d want to start off a relationship with a new boat. In retrospect, I think that carbon canister plugged up two years ago and I’ve essentially been running a boat with un-vented fuel tanks for several seasons.

Yes, the Furuno NXT radar picks up birds though I put it on the boat for collision avoidance. Last summer, while running that Garmin, I almost ran in to two boats in Johnstone Straits in a thick fog. The Garmin Fantom radar did not paint a target when it absolutely should have… one of the boats was a 20 foot sailboat (skinny hull) but what the heck—it absolutely should have produced something on the screen….it did not.

I was really rolling the dice because after almost plowing in to that sailboat, I decided to run all the rapids in Cordero Channel from start to finish in a pea-soup fog. I think I pulled off that bit of silliness because no other boat owners would have been nuts enough to try that so I was the only boat on the water and the Garmin at least kept me off the rocks.

My Furuno NXT will paint a target if there are ducks on the water…. It’s so sensitive that sometimes it’s scary —-I had the same Furuno NXT on my Skagit Orca several boats ago and while crossing Q.C. Strait back to Hardy in pea-soup fog I mistook a flock of seagulls the radar painted for a cruise ship—-that’s how dramatic the target was it painted on the screen. I could hear the cruise ship so I knew something big was heading in my direction….scared the crap out of me

Solar panels—-I try not to hide those panels under an inflatable. With both a refrigerator and a freezer running (and piles of marine electronics) I need all the regenerative power I can get to keep the LiFePo batteries happy. I’ll sometimes keep a kayak up on the wheelhouse roof so it’s centered between the panels but I boat with a dog (or used to; I had to put her down last weekend) so I had to have my inflatable ready to go for beach assaults so the dog could do her business

This is generally where I keep it unless it’s blowing. Yes, it keeps me from running two rods but as I fish alone, one rod is all I can handle anyway
Sorry for the loss of your pup. Thanks for the summary of the radar and inflatable. I have an AIS receive radio on my boat, tied into my chart plotter and it's so helpful in the fog, I had two ferries coming up my port side before it was installed and wasn't sure if there was one or two targets on my radar, now I know for sure as they show up as both AIS and radar targets. Not helpful for the smaller vessels though! Glad they took care of you, I know Michaels wife a little bit and stories like this help me continue to promote the company.
 
NMI deserves a huge shout-out. I know that was a huge project for those guys, especially going in to the summer with all the other boat-builds going on in their facility. When picking up the boat a few days ago I was prepared to cut a very big check for all the work they did, knowing the water intrusion that I’ve been fighting for two seasons was finally a thing of the past but Michael told me to put my check book back in my pocket—I just about fainted….what a guy and what a wonderful gesture from a builder to make!!!!

The boat is a 2022. I purchased it with approx. 100 hours on the Suzukis. But the first thing I had to do when taking ownership of the boat was hire a professional to pump water out of the tanks. Not the way you’d want to start off a relationship with a new boat. In retrospect, I think that carbon canister plugged up two years ago and I’ve essentially been running a boat with un-vented fuel tanks for several seasons.

Yes, the Furuno NXT radar picks up birds though I put it on the boat for collision avoidance. Last summer, while running that Garmin, I almost ran in to two boats in Johnstone Straits in a thick fog. The Garmin Fantom radar did not paint a target when it absolutely should have… one of the boats was a 20 foot sailboat (skinny hull) but what the heck—it absolutely should have produced something on the screen….it did not.

I was really rolling the dice because after almost plowing in to that sailboat, I decided to run all the rapids in Cordero Channel from start to finish in a pea-soup fog. I think I pulled off that bit of silliness because no other boat owners would have been nuts enough to try that so I was the only boat on the water and the Garmin at least kept me off the rocks.

My Furuno NXT will paint a target if there are ducks on the water…. It’s so sensitive that sometimes it’s scary —-I had the same Furuno NXT on my Skagit Orca several boats ago and while crossing Q.C. Strait back to Hardy in pea-soup fog I mistook a flock of seagulls the radar painted for a cruise ship—-that’s how dramatic the target was it painted on the screen. I could hear the cruise ship so I knew something big was heading in my direction….scared the crap out of me

Solar panels—-I try not to hide those panels under an inflatable. With both a refrigerator and a freezer running (and piles of marine electronics) I need all the regenerative power I can get to keep the LiFePo batteries happy. I’ll sometimes keep a kayak up on the wheelhouse roof so it’s centered between the panels but I boat with a dog (or used to; I had to put her down last weekend) so I had to have my inflatable ready to go for beach assaults so the dog could do her business

This is generally where I keep it unless it’s blowing. Yes, it keeps me from running two rods but as I fish alone, one rod is all I can handle anyway

View attachment 117118
Radar reflector should be mandatory imo, radar are expensive so yes it’s a choice , but a reflector is 100$, specially for smaller boats, I just about took out a dad and his son in a small boat coming in around Owen point one year, had my old JRC back then, no target fak, my Raymarine fine tune don’t skip a beat
 
NMI deserves a huge shout-out. I know that was a huge project for those guys, especially going in to the summer with all the other boat-builds going on in their facility. When picking up the boat a few days ago I was prepared to cut a very big check for all the work they did, knowing the water intrusion that I’ve been fighting for two seasons was finally a thing of the past but Michael told me to put my check book back in my pocket—I just about fainted….what a guy and what a wonderful gesture from a builder to make!!!!

The boat is a 2022. I purchased it with approx. 100 hours on the Suzukis. But the first thing I had to do when taking ownership of the boat was hire a professional to pump water out of the tanks. Not the way you’d want to start off a relationship with a new boat. In retrospect, I think that carbon canister plugged up two years ago and I’ve essentially been running a boat with un-vented fuel tanks for several seasons.

Yes, the Furuno NXT radar picks up birds though I put it on the boat for collision avoidance. Last summer, while running that Garmin, I almost ran in to two boats in Johnstone Straits in a thick fog. The Garmin Fantom radar did not paint a target when it absolutely should have… one of the boats was a 20 foot sailboat (skinny hull) but what the heck—it absolutely should have produced something on the screen….it did not.

I was really rolling the dice because after almost plowing in to that sailboat, I decided to run all the rapids in Cordero Channel from start to finish in a pea-soup fog. I think I pulled off that bit of silliness because no other boat owners would have been nuts enough to try that so I was the only boat on the water and the Garmin at least kept me off the rocks.

My Furuno NXT will paint a target if there are ducks on the water…. It’s so sensitive that sometimes it’s scary —-I had the same Furuno NXT on my Skagit Orca several boats ago and while crossing Q.C. Strait back to Hardy in pea-soup fog I mistook a flock of seagulls the radar painted for a cruise ship—-that’s how dramatic the target was it painted on the screen. I could hear the cruise ship so I knew something big was heading in my direction….scared the crap out of me

Solar panels—-I try not to hide those panels under an inflatable. With both a refrigerator and a freezer running (and piles of marine electronics) I need all the regenerative power I can get to keep the LiFePo batteries happy. I’ll sometimes keep a kayak up on the wheelhouse roof so it’s centered between the panels but I boat with a dog (or used to; I had to put her down last weekend) so I had to have my inflatable ready to go for beach assaults so the dog could do her business

This is generally where I keep it unless it’s blowing. Yes, it keeps me from running two rods but as I fish alone, one rod is all I can handle anyway

View attachment 117118
Also sorry to hear of your travel companion, always look forward to reading/seeing your travel posts.
You have what I believe is the best and nicest rig on here!
 
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