CONTINUOUSWAVE

I acquired my 1982 Sport 13 back in 1987. It had a Johnson 35-HP with manual tilt and a 13-pitch propeller. I was using it on lakes in the Dallas area (at 600-feet elevation), and--on a good day--it might get all the way up to 26-MPH. It also took a while to get on plane.

I moved to Colorado in 1996, refinished the wood with fairing compound and brightwork paint in about 2000, and got so busy at work that I really wasn't using it. I finally ended up storing it, literally, in a barn yard in about 2005, and covered it over with a tarp.

Then I retired.

On about Labor Day, I went out to take a look at the boat and to figure out how to remove it from the barnyard which was about to be occupied by a horse. The hull was dirty, but sound (much to my wife's surprise--she thought it was going to be fully trashed). The wood, which was in rough shape before it was painted, was in even rougher shape. The trailer was sound, with grease in the hubs/ (Bearing Buddies do work.) The tires were flat and sunk into the clay up to the bottom of the rims.

About the tires: In about 2003, I had purchased some pre-mounted Carlisle tires (4.80 x 12) on painted rims. They didn't have many miles on them and actually looked to be in reasonable shape with no cracking of the sidewalls. Since I figured I had nothing to lose, I got my handy dandy little hand-held cordless Ryobi air pump and pumped up the tires to 50-PSI. To my great surprise, they stayed up for the 12 miles back to my garage. They are still up and holding air! This is significant since I pulled the trailer from the North Denver Metro area to the South Denver Metro area to get re-engined, and then up about 100 miles into the mountains to Granby where the boat has a nice garage all of its own.

Since all of the pieces were basically sound, I decided to do some things, new interior and new engine, that I have been thinking about for a couple of decades.

Before getting it re-powered, I had to do a bit of work. I replaced all of the wood except the backrest (it has a standard Sport interior with a Sourpuss style backrest rail). I made two replacement side rails out of teak back in the time frame when I painted the boat. I didn't use them then, and had put them up into some flat dry storage. I finished the siderails out with Watco Teak Oil, cut the slot for the steering cable, and put them into service. I purchased the thwart seats (seconds), side console, and front hatch from Specialty Marine. The varnish is a bit thin on the front of the console, and the front hatch is a little warped. I evened out the warp with hatch cover tape, and also used the tape on the side rails (above) and hull (below) to hold the seats in place. It is a huge improvement over what it had. The other original items I used are the blue seat and backrest covers, the front hatch hardware (the bungee cord dates from about 2000, but it works), the side rails, battery box,the steering wheel, and the piece of teak (or mahogany) for the hub of the steering wheel.

The mechanical parts are all new: steering gear (and bezel), control box, gel-pad battery (much lighter), battery cover, engine, fishfinder (Hummingbird 788 CI), fuel line, and a 14-gallon Moeller fuel tank mounted under the front seat.

So, it is almost a brand new boat (except for the hull and other pieces) with a brand new engine.

After agonizing for a couple months, and going to the Denver Boat show and talking with dealers, I finally decide to re-power with the Mercury [40-HP] three-cylinder FOURSTROKE with a four-blade 11-pitch propeller with electric tilt and trim. The engine is heavier than the old Johnson, but with the lighter battery and fuel tank forward, the boat sits about the same at the dock.

The propeller choice probably sounds pretty odd to most of you. But, I set up the boat to use on Lake Granby which is 8,000-feet above sea level. I also wanted the boat to get up on plane quickly. It is basically my fishing platform (for lake trout) and will likely see some use for sight seeing, joy rides, tube pulling, bird watching (for osprey and bald eagles), and other idle pursuits. Lake Granby not large (6000-acres and is the third largest lake in Colorado) but it is over 200-feet deep. it has several bays and the Colorado River inlet. I don't need a lot of speed to get places.

The choice was driven by my performance baseline with the 1982 Johnson 35-HP. At 600-feet above sea level with a 13-pitch propeller, the boat could get up to about 26-MPH and would take five or six boat lengths to get on plane--not spectacular. At 5,000-feet above sea level (Denver), I had to drop down to an 11-pitch propeller, and it would top out at an impressive 21-MPH. After being re-jetted for the altitude. at Steamboat Springs (about 8,500-feet above sea level), I had to drop down to a 9-pitch propeller, and when the boat finally decided to get on a plane, would make it up to 19-MPH or so. In short, it was pretty much a dog.

There is no comparison in the performance. I did not put a tachometer on the boat, so I have report performance in GPS speed-over-ground readings. With the Mercury 40-HP and four-blade 11-pitch propeller, the boat will get up on plane in about one boat length. It now tops out at 26-MPH and will hold plane down to 12-MPH or so. The boat cruises very comfortably in the 21 to 24-MPH range. The electric tilt and trim has made a world of difference. If you have always had power trim, you likely won't appreciate how much difference it makes. The boat is now much more comfortable--being able to trim out the porpoising is a huge plus--and the trim tuning makes about 2-MPH difference in the top end. Now, for those of you with larger boats, 26-MPH doesn't seem like much. But when the chop is nearly as high as the gunwale, it seems a whole lot faster. I am curious about how the boat would perform down closer to sea level with a 15-pitch propeller, but I really don't want to pull it that far just to find out.

I am still sorting out the SONAR. To get the transducer out of the propeller turbulence, I mounted it well to starboard under the serial number plate. It may be a bit low (at the upward point of adjustment), but moving it will have to wait until winter or next spring.

More immediately, I need to sort out the trim tab. Right now the trim tab is set in a neutral position, and the boat is pulling a bit to the right. I need to figure out how to set it so that it will track straight when I am hands off the wheel. The pull to the right may be due in part to the drag from the transducer. Sorting the trim out will be basically trial and error, but if anyone has any advice on how to get started, I would appreciate it.

Thanks to all of you, especially Jimh and Tom Clark, for all of your help through the years. I greatly appreciate it.

Now, if I can just figure out how to catch a lake trout in 70 or 100-feet of water.

Great story. For advice on setting the engine trim tab, see

http://continuouswave.com/whaler/refere ... ml#trimTab

Also, what is a "gel-pad battery"?

I misspoke when I referred to the battery as a "gel pad". It is a Cabela's Advanced Anglers size 22 battery with absorbed glass mats between the plates for isolation and vibration dampening. The technical description can be found at http://www.cabelas.com/custserv/custser ... MBatteries. It is significantly lighter than the original lead acid battery. They also claim a low (~3% per month) self-discharge rate. I will have a better handle on this come spring.

Wow that engine almost looks as big as the Jeep. All a nice set-up and great you're back boating

When I picked it up, a guy at the marine dealer remarked, "When I looked at that boat for the first time, I thought that that is an awfully big motor for a little boat."

It actually weighs only about 80 lbs more than the 35 hp Johnson 2-stroke it replaced (and it is about 20 or so lbs lighter that the current Evinrude 40 hp 2-stroke). I traded weight for power, displacement, and an EFI system that would adjust to altitude.

BTW, the boat is sitting at an angle to my line of sight, and the apparent size is enhanced by the wide angle lens on my cell phone. But it still looks big (even though it is much smaller that the 4 cyl 40 and the 50).

Dr T I know these cellphones aren't cameras (even though 95% of people think they are) but it was funny angle.
I still think my 60HP Mercury looks huge on my Montauk 150. It is just the way Mercury designed/laid-out the new 4-strokes and their cowling they look huge.
I understand and knew that your weight ratio was acceptable. Also anybody can catch a lake trout at 70 to 100 feet we do it here in Lake Michigan quite often using spoons. The average is 10-15 lbs although I've caught a 33 pounder a couple of years ago.
Again, happy boating.

Dr. T,

Your boat looks great. I am curious, what 4blade 11 pitch prop you are using. I am running the heavier 130 with 4 blade 12pitch (Power Tech), and am still bit over-propped. I have an older 2 cycle, 2 cylinder Merc 40.

It is a Mercury aluminum. I believe the model is called the Spitfire. It is about 12 inches in diameter. I don't have the part number. I described the performance I wanted and where I would be using it to the to the dealer, stated that I thought that a 11 pitch sounded about right, and left the selection to him. I think we hit it about right since I am coming in within 10% of the theoretical hull speed calculation (using the hull factor 172 in the equation on the old ContinuousWave site).

BTW, I am estimating that I am getting about 8 mpg in mixed use. Ironically, this is about the same mileage that the old Johnson 35 was getting.

As an additional note, the Mercury prop selector tool using the inshore fishing hull type gets in the ball park. See
https://www.mercurymarine.com/en/us/pro ... #/step-one

Thank you. Great job with the 13.

I think that I will declare the shake down phase of my rebuilt Sport 13 as complete. There are a few tweaks left to do (transducer on the sonar, retightening of some screws, etc.), but it has now been shaken.

Yesterday I was reminded of several things: The stability of the boat as a fishing platform, its great handling, and the capriciousness of the weather in the Rocky Mountains (note: Lake Granby is about 20 miles from Rocky Mountain National Park).

It started out as a nice, slightly overcast summer day. I spent a couple of hours drifting along in a near dead calm trying unsuccessfully to provoke the lakers I was seeing on the sonar to strike (they were in 60 to 110 ft of water). About 2 pm, I decided to run up the Colorado River Inlet to talk to the rainbows, look at the ospreys, and have lunch. Running up the canyon, the wind started coming up and I noticed a parade of pontoon boats headed in the opposite directions. Coming up to the last bend, I ran head long into about a 25 to 30 mph wind (not particularly unusual in the mountains where it goes from calm to strong wind very quickly and with no warning). I turned to run with the wind just as the first raindrops started hitting hard enough to sting.

In the canyon, there is not much room for the chop to build, so the water was relatively calm until I made it back to the main body of the lake. The Jeep and trailer were at Sunset Point: The boat ramp is facing west on the point with several miles of open water for the waves to build driven by winds out of the north. The mile and a half or so in this run was rough. Certainly not the 3 to 5 foot waves you run into down on the coast. However the close wave spacing on the waves that went about 2 1/2 ft from trough to peak I ran into when I made a half mile run nearly due north to get behind Harvey Island (a sanctuary for nesting osprey) made up for it. I used the electric tilt and trim to manage the height of the bow, but I still managed to get soaked. While I sat in the lee of the island for a few minutes to get ready for the mile and a half run to the boat ramp, I noticed that I was basically eye to eye with a pair of osprey sitting on a rock about 30 feet away from me. The rest of the run reminded me of skiing moguls: I ran between 14 and 18 mph and found a line traversing the troughs and peaks. I only got airborne about 3 or 4 times in this run (I was reminded of Tom Clark's classic photo of being airborne in a much larger Whaler--it is a matter of scale). I had the boat out in much larger wave conditions and worse weather 20 years ago on Lake Ray Hubbard, east of Dallas. But, I have never seen any wave conditions come up this quickly, especially since Lake Granby is relatively small.

Docking was rough and getting the boat(s) on the trailer was another adventure.

Though this, I managed to shake loose one screw in the Sourpuss style backrest the boat has. The rubrail got a workout from banging against the dock. But, all it all, the Sport 13 came through nicely.

While it was not the day I was expecting, it was some how fulfilling (or it may just be the endorphin rush). I was reminded of why I got the 13 in the first place. It is a tough, stable little skiff, and it weathered this little teapot-sized tempest much better than a number of larger boats on the lake yesterday.