WRC Guys & Gals
With a perfect weather forecast of blue skies and balmy breezes at beautiful lake Pymatuning, what could possibly go wrong ? But let me back up to couple days and the preparations of getting ready for the meet ! Our Wednesday garage meet was rather tranquil compared to the previous Wednesday when we had several project motors being worked on at the same time ! Carburetors coming apart, gaskets being made, spark plugs pulled, magnetos tested and engines being run in my test drum !
So the plan was to pull the Mark 28 out of the shed for a tank test and put it on the boat for the meet ? I had torn it down and replaced the crankcase seals because I had a hard time getting it started and thought that was the problem ! But after about fifty pulls and wrapping the rope around the sheeve I gave up and decided to bring my other Merc 200, that one I knew ran well and after a couple spark tests and lower unit checks it fired right up in the test tank ! So the next prep was pulling my little Arkansas Traveler and swapping the Elgin 12 for the Merc 200, easy peasy right ? But in order to do that I had to pull the trailer from the back yard to the front driveway so I could hitch it up to the truck, and in order to do that I always used my Suzuki Quad !
I store the Quad in my shed and it’s always been a faithful little beast that never (or seldom) let me down ! Usually all it takes is a couple pulls of the starter and it’s running ! I say Usually ! I think the little Zuki beast was feeling neglected because of all the attention I had been paying to the outboards and decided to be a bit belligerent ! After about fifty more pulls (I think it and the Mk 28 had a few discussions) I got it to fire, then Quit ! Ok pull the spark plug ( yuck ) and put in the spare, that worked barely ! I was able to pull the trailer around front and got it hitched up the the truck ! Phew
But the Zuki was dead in the driveway, Ok we’ll worry about that when we get back with the boat ! Down to the dock where I hop in the boat and Peg drives the truck back to the ramp ! So far so good, the Ark is a breeze to load and we had it out of the water in short order ! All is good as I tied it down with the straps, till I walked around to the drivers side and saw my trailer tire was flat ! Luckily the Marina shop has a compressor so I was able to pump up the tire enough to get home and put on the spare, that was the first thought ! I decided I’d better go directly over to my tire guy and see if he could patch the tire !
Bad news, good news ! Justin the owners son and a good friend said he couldn’t patch it, I told him we had a meet to go to tomorrow, Pleeeeze Nope wouldn’t do it as the cords were starting to rip and legally he couldn’t do it ! So I said do you have a couple tires you can put on ? Just happen to have two that they didn’t order but are the right size ( Hmmm co-inly-dink ) Ok need them anyway and the price was right, two new tires with rims, good deal ! So he pulls the old one and tries the new one, it doesn’t fit, wrong bolt hole pattern, how can this be their both 4 bolt rims ! Then I remember I made the trailer and the axel and the spindles I took off some foreign car !!! So he put the new tires on the old rims and all was good !
Back to my garage to swap engines, Elgin off and in the back of the truck ! Merc 200 on the boat and we were ready to go !
Up early the next morning to make a cup of Java ! Hit the road with a quick stop at the Speedway for another cup of Java and some ice for the drinks ! The drive takes about an hour and fifteen minutes and we arrived at 9:00 sharp ! A couple of the guys are already there, I see Tom Kenepp with his little red boat, Domenic and Maryann are also there with the Pramulator and a 5hp Nissan ! John Fairgrieve came with his boat in tow, Greetings all around and soon several more members and boats pull in, Bob Korosa with his newly acquired Alumacraft and our Treasurer Mr. Bob Joynt with his recently partly refinished Peterborough Sportsman and a 10 Evinrude, more on that later ! Ryan & Kelly Hollingsworth arrived with their boat in tow a little later as they got detoured because of a down power line ! Mr. Jerry Kay came rolling in with his ChrisCraft Kit boat and an electric start 18 Evinude ! Soon the boats started hitting the water !
I launched the Ark and fired up the Merc 200 with Ryan right in front of me, both of us anxious to hit the open water ! The lake had a stiff breeze blowing but not enough to bother any of our boats unless you journeyed to the North side of the causeway where the wind was wiping up white caps a wicked chop, so we stayed on the south side ! Ryan’s PO15 was running great and we were almost equal speed wise but I think he had me by about 1/2 mph !
A few more members showed up, Bill Mohat and Bob Davidson, Ron Butler and Dave Dufresne. Ron had some questions about a motor he has been working on, hope I helped him out with the answers I gave him ! Back on the water Paul Wood was out for a run with his PennYan with an 18 Evinrude but it wasn’t running too well ! Young Mason Biller showed up with his Grandfather who towed Mason’s little 12 fter with a 5hp Mercury on the transom. Everyone seemed to be enjoying the day running their boats !
Back in at the beach Bob Davidson was helping Paul figure out why the 18 Evinrude wasn’t getting full throttle, they had it figured out in short time that the fuel pump was the problem but it couldn’t be fixed there ! Jerry Kay also had a problem getting full throttle but Dom came to the rescue finding a cable problem. Mason changed motors on his little 12 fter installing a 15 Buccaneer and said “wanna race” ! So never to shy away from a challenge we were off to the boats ! Mason had the Buccaneer up and running in a flash and was off like a shot ! I fired up the Merc and was hot on his tail ! We rounded a couple corners sliding and spraying waves and water in all directions ! I hailed Mason to stop and suggested he raise his motor up a couple tilt pin holes ! That was all it took and he was really flying ! I think John Hagerman got some pictures of the big challenge ! Wait till next time Mason !
One of the orders of the day was to be sure and get pictures of Mr. Joynt’s launch of the Sportsman and it’s maiden voyage ! So cameras were all poised to capture the event ! It went well and Bob Korosa even commented it wasn’t taking on water (at that point) ! I had offered Bill Mohat a ride in my boat and we were lucky enough to capture on camera the Sportsman’s version of the “Titanic” with Bob furiously pumping, trying to keep it from sinking ! And I think I even saw an iceberg somewhere out on the horizon !
As promised Ryan & Kelly put on a scrumptious meal with Brats, peppers & onions with Macaroni salad ! And a Big box of variety chips compliments of Bob Joynt ! Thanks Robert !
A huge Sincere thank you to Ryan & Kelly for hosting the meet and ordering up such beautiful weather ! Big thanks to all that came also
Gary & Peggy