13-Aug-04 Friday ACTIVATE Little Squirt Too
The
title of this story might be a little melodramatic, but I feel I
desearve it. It took a hunge effort, but my pocket cruiser Little Squirt Too
is finally ready to go into the water. The panel covering the battery
box is the only one installed, and there is no wiring. I took the old
wire that powered the trolling motor on my old 3-in-1 and just ran it
through the middle of the cabin and out through the main hatch
opening. I then just used spring clamps to attach the leads to the
leads on the electric engine. Most of the cabin is not painted yet,
and the cockpit isn't started, but I had run out of time. I have to
prepare the boat to go to Ottawa in the next couple of days so ready
or not here we go.
I started to install the gas motor when I found out it did not fit on the transom. With the rubrail installed the mount was too deep. This would not normally be a problem except the movers had already been at my house for the prepack. All my tools were packed away. I had no way to cut out the rubrail at that point. I would have too take my pocket cruiser out with only the electric motor. This had me worried because I had been warned on the BYYB forum on several occasions that the electric motor was no good for a pocket cruiser. I decided to take her out anyway.
6:47PM Launched from the dock in Appleton. I decided to use this dock because the launch there seems to be deeper. Also the dock walls are lined with boards making a smooth surface. The dock in Glenwood is on supporting logs which means a small boat like mine partially goes under the dock wile in Appleton it would just rub against the boards. At launch the voltage was at 12:43Volts. That would be about 75%.
6:56PM Passed Goat Island. From launch it took 9 minutes. The Pocket Cruiser seems to be going just as fast as the 3-in-1 went with the same setup. I am going to compare the time for this trip with my second engine test from this site to compare the speeds
7:05 PM Passed the two cabins I used to believe were part of Glenwood Park. It is now 18 minutes since launching. On my previous 2nd Engine test with my 3-In-1 it took 17 minutes. My voltage is now at 12.39V which is slightly less then 75%. I'm passing a lot of boats on this trip. They all seem to be fasinated by my boat. They slow down to look and wave. Little Squirt Too seem to be the centre of attention on the water. Which of course is what she desearves to be.
7:20 PM Stopped to check voltage. 12:30V which I guess would be a touch over 60 %. I am looking these percentages up after the fact. The table I usually use to get reading are attatched to the battery in a place which was easy to read when the battery was installed in my 3-in-1, but impossible to read now that the battery is mounted in Little Squirt Too. I found a mention in my notebook from another trip that the voltage of 12.27V was somewhere between 50% to 75%. I decided to head back when I reached this point.
7:40 PM Am within sight of the opening to Gander Lake. However when I stopped and checked my voltage It read at 12.17V which I now know is somewhere between 25% and 50%. I'm heading back. I also discovered that there is something wrong with my camera. I is stuck in PC mode and won't shut off. I removed a battery to shut it off but lost the couple of pictures I took. So that is why there is no pictures on this page.
8:13PM Passed cabins I used to think were Glenwood Park.
8:21 PM Passed Goat Island.
I don't know what time I arrived at dock things got really hectic between trying to put a new boat on the trailer and the questions and comments from spectators. I had one gentleman who wanted to know every detail about the design and construction of my boat. I thought it was a awfull lot of boat for it's size and I have to say he was right. His wife kept reminding him that he had to get his own boat out of the water, but we still talked for quite a while before I finally drove home. My first adventure was over. I could not get a voltage readin because it was too dark to read the multimeter and I have not yet installed any lights in Little Squirt Too.