Brian_M
Member
Monday, ahhhhh the first full day of fishing. The collie wouldn't come near the dock so I left her in the cabin listening to Canadian Public Broadcast radio to teach her a lesson. I backed smartly from the dock, slid the throttle to forward and applied power…much to my surprise, the boat lurched into reverse at an accelerated pace. Pushing the throttle into neutral, the boat picked up speed in reverse, threatening docks, boats and wildlife. Panicked emergency shutdown procedures led me to turn the key off and we became a safe floating derelict. Preliminary investigation showed the entire linkage system had come apart; some how shedding cotter pins, backing out nylock nuts and tossing springs. Calmly, I set the hook and referred to the Clymer manual I bought for the engine and drive system OOPS, it is on the living room table merely a thousand miles from here. Luckily a little common sense and spending untold hours in the bowels of the engine box over the last year helped me sort it all out and I was motoring up the river in no time…I never did find the cotter pin in the bilge…a spare piece of wire substituted nicely although I've never seen a nylock nut back out. The rest of the fishing day was uneventful (read everything worked, but once again I was skunked)
On Tuesday, I was unhappy with the performance of the V20, I decided to initiate a field modification of the prop, first by adding pitch then double cupping the blades. Lacking the proper tools, I simply ran over a rock. The incident re-worked each blade individually resulting in a variety of pitch opportunities while causing a substantial vibration throughout the speed range which was severely limited due to the flow through torques hub being spun. The nearest prop repair shop, or retailer was in Val'Dor, a 60 mile, 2 hour drive. Without a phone (the nearest working phone was in Malartic, 40 miles and 1.5 miles away) I decided to rework the blades myself, either by finding the offending rock and backing into it to reverse the damages, or haul the boat and beat the blades into submission…. I choose the later. Much to my surprise, the prop came off the shaft easily since the hub had separated totally, the hub splines were even easy to remove, I guess the impact loosened everything up pretty good. A bit of hammering and the prop was near normal, a dab of 5200 tightened the hub insert and all was good in Quebec land, at least for slow speed excursions up river. Needless to say, I made sure my kicker motor was operating well before I went too far
Tuesday night brought a thunder storm in front of a cold front arrived at 230 am with 40 knot winds, torrential rains and blinding lightning. I shined a light toward the Wellcraft through the storm to see her hanging on to the remains of the dock, with the bilge pump running OT. Luckily both batteries supply the pump, and I had got into the habit of setting the anchor on shore as the dock was deteriorating in front of my eyes. The storm lasted an hour, I went out at 330 to check on the boat and about froze solid. The storm brought a temperature drop of at least 20 degrees, and set a cold northwest wind in place.
Wednesday was a quiet day, up at sunrise to hit the fishing grounds early. The northwest winds brought the best fishing resulting in a few walleye and a decent 40 inch pike were caught. Of course, this was the day that I forgot the camera so you just have to take my word on it. (Not being a seafood fan, I practice catch and release) Back at camp, the dock shed another board, this time my fault, a moments of inattention at the wrong time. A camp fire and bull session with others, I found out Hydro Quebec was going to close vehicle traffic for a day or two for renovations. No problem, there is a logging road that I can take to head south towards home if I need to. Off to bed with visions of fat walleye and long pike dancing I my head probably induced by the campfire tradition of drinking heavy, dark, Canadian beer and donating substantial amounts of blood to the Quebec provincial bird, the mosquito.
The Hydro dam that holds back the Ottawa River to establish Reservoir Decelles
Yes, the Dam, built in the mid 40's needs work
My trusty Collie guarding the boat
The prop after reworking
On Tuesday, I was unhappy with the performance of the V20, I decided to initiate a field modification of the prop, first by adding pitch then double cupping the blades. Lacking the proper tools, I simply ran over a rock. The incident re-worked each blade individually resulting in a variety of pitch opportunities while causing a substantial vibration throughout the speed range which was severely limited due to the flow through torques hub being spun. The nearest prop repair shop, or retailer was in Val'Dor, a 60 mile, 2 hour drive. Without a phone (the nearest working phone was in Malartic, 40 miles and 1.5 miles away) I decided to rework the blades myself, either by finding the offending rock and backing into it to reverse the damages, or haul the boat and beat the blades into submission…. I choose the later. Much to my surprise, the prop came off the shaft easily since the hub had separated totally, the hub splines were even easy to remove, I guess the impact loosened everything up pretty good. A bit of hammering and the prop was near normal, a dab of 5200 tightened the hub insert and all was good in Quebec land, at least for slow speed excursions up river. Needless to say, I made sure my kicker motor was operating well before I went too far
Tuesday night brought a thunder storm in front of a cold front arrived at 230 am with 40 knot winds, torrential rains and blinding lightning. I shined a light toward the Wellcraft through the storm to see her hanging on to the remains of the dock, with the bilge pump running OT. Luckily both batteries supply the pump, and I had got into the habit of setting the anchor on shore as the dock was deteriorating in front of my eyes. The storm lasted an hour, I went out at 330 to check on the boat and about froze solid. The storm brought a temperature drop of at least 20 degrees, and set a cold northwest wind in place.
Wednesday was a quiet day, up at sunrise to hit the fishing grounds early. The northwest winds brought the best fishing resulting in a few walleye and a decent 40 inch pike were caught. Of course, this was the day that I forgot the camera so you just have to take my word on it. (Not being a seafood fan, I practice catch and release) Back at camp, the dock shed another board, this time my fault, a moments of inattention at the wrong time. A camp fire and bull session with others, I found out Hydro Quebec was going to close vehicle traffic for a day or two for renovations. No problem, there is a logging road that I can take to head south towards home if I need to. Off to bed with visions of fat walleye and long pike dancing I my head probably induced by the campfire tradition of drinking heavy, dark, Canadian beer and donating substantial amounts of blood to the Quebec provincial bird, the mosquito.
The Hydro dam that holds back the Ottawa River to establish Reservoir Decelles
Yes, the Dam, built in the mid 40's needs work
My trusty Collie guarding the boat
The prop after reworking
