[Paddlewise] Dave's Mothership: Surf Scoter

I think I mentioned this before:  I'm pretty close to finished with my 20-4 
Bartender, now dubbed "Surf Scoter," which will be our mother ship for 
transporting ourselves and a pair of folding kayaks to sheltered bays and 
inlets in Canada.  We have enough joint issues that multiday self-supported 
paddling trips are a real strain, so this boat is our way of continuing to 
explore the places we love.

Photos of initial sea trial begin here: 
http://i.pbase.com/o4/62/812762/1/92098082.53ro065i.P1230003.JPG

Here is the full report (Craig made me do this):

Had a sunny, fine day down here, so we tested Surf Scoter at a local lake. 
  Now that it has gotten wet, I think it can be known by its given name. 
Christening comes later ... kind of a chick thing at my house.

We had a lot of fun, running up and down the lake, playing with high and 
low speed turns, fine-tuning all the stuff on a new boat that needs 
adjusting.  Every time I ride in a Bartender, I am stunned anew at how 
smooth and solid it is in turns.  Feels just like a quality sports car, 
with no sliding out, skittering, or skipping.

The Westerbeke 70GA performed well;  its 65 horses are ample power for this 
size boat.  We ran it loaded (three 200-lb guys, all sitting just forward 
of the engine box) and got 20 knots at 1800 rpm indicated, and 14.5 knots 
at 1400 rpm indicated.  [Have not calibrated the tach yet; these rpm 
figures may change.]  Got up on plane smoothly, almost unnoticed, perhaps 
around 11-12 knots.  This engine needs a little throttle on startup to keep 
it going, but is an easy restart when warm.  We had some surging and a 
couple shutdowns at 1800 rpm, later chased down to a loose fitting at the 
fuel pump.

The only other glitch was an overly tight shaft log packing, which 
overheated badly.  Now removing my error ... painfully.

We set up the 10-foot oars and each took a turn rowing and turning the boat 
with these monsters, managing a knot and a half or so with some effort.  I 
can see these oars are going to be really handy for positioning during 
anchoring, and entering tricky slips.

Photos courtesy of longtime buddy Gary; the ones at the link above are 
smaller format.  When he gets the originals to me, I'll post some more on 
the PBase site.  Gary also got a little video footage.

Thanks to Gary, Stan Johnson (of Beertender fame), Jim Coughlin (Orcinus; 
the 22 ft aluminum Bartender down here) and Lifeboat Tim (working on 
restoration of a really nice 26 footer) for coming out today.  Tim and Jim 
had to split to go earn a living, so I owe each of them a shot at running 
this boat.  The remaining three of us were all grinning ear to ear as we 
took turns at the helm.  It was a hell of a day!

-- 
Dave Kruger
Astoria, OR
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