By George, you've done it again! I've bought another boat. A 1999 Crownline 180 BR. It has a 3.0 Mercruiser. It's no speed merchant but enough to pull a light weight skier. I don't think it would drag my carcus out of the drink.

We have an appointment with Kunkel Marine on Thursday (7-13-2017) to have it checked out. This is the first time I've ever had a professional even look at one of my boats. It starts hard (some Youtube videos indicate that the Merc 3.0 has this nature, because it has a mechanical fuel pump). If Kunkel finds anything significant wrong, I'll be calling the previous owner.

So what does "BR" stand for? It makes me think of Jr. Sampe's phone number, BR-549. (July 14: it dawned on me yesterday, BR = bow rider)

First photo - tucked safely away in the garage.

July 8, 2017

I've been doing some cleaning and I fixed the left side lights today. I noticed some water in the bilge. I want to pull the bilge inspection cover and see what's going on there. Also, when I pulled the drain plug at the lake after our trial run, I notice a bunch of crap in the water that drained out. I want the bilge to be clean!

I had to get the tail lights working. I discovered that this has sealed lights, as in permanently sealed.

I worked on the tail lights (actually the stop light wasn't working). Got it fixed but found that the lights are sealed. You cannot change the bulbs. You replace the entire light fixture. I suppose they should last a long time, but I'll be glad to replace them with LED units at some point.

July 14, 2017

I got a call from Kunkle's Marine and everything checks out good on the boat, so I'll pick it up later today and get ready to go boating. I just purchased a new anchor, chain, and rode, throwable cushions, LED "flares", and a new cover. Already we're throwing money at this thing ;-)

Here are a couple of boating excursions we want to do:
1) Boating on Portage Lakes in Akron
2) The Erie Canal (technically NY Barge Canal) and the finger lakes.

A new photo - July 21, 2017

2018 Boating Season (as of September 4, 2018)

We had two trips to Clearfork Reservoir. Well, three. On the first we experienced a dead battery. The engine started, ran fine, and we loaded everyone up and idled out beyond the no-wake bouy. When I hit the throttle, the engine died and the battery was totally dead. Aaron and I started paddling, more as a distress signal than a serious attempt to row back to the ramp. It worked and in short order another boater was on the seen with this little booster pack. It started the engine right up! We motored back to the ramp and headed to Walmart for a new battery.

Later that evening we went out with John and his family.

A few weeks later we got out with Laura's family.

Finally on Labor Day weekend, our annual trip to Lakeside, We took the boat up to Lakeside, Ohio with hopes of letting Alex do some skiing (Alex hasn't been on the boat and I haven't attempted to pull a skier as yet). The powers at Lakeside told us to park in a particular spot in the back of the parking lot. We complied and recognized that someone could come along and block us in, but didn't really think anyone was so dull. Wrong!
Long story made short, the boat was blocked in and we didn't get to take it out at all.

So I pulled it up to Lakeside and back to no avail. However, it did have me get the boat and trailer in shape for towing, and we did have no issues towing it, so that gave me some confidence for oher trips when they come up.

2020 Boating

We made it out on the lake a couple of times and had the boat with us at Lakeside. We went out on Sandusky Bay.
I've documented the winterization process this year to help myself be more efficient next year, but maybe others can benefit as well. Winterizing the Mercruiser 3.0.

2021 Boating

Lakeside & then Pleasant Hill Resevoir

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