Surprise! The boat is in the water

Getting the boat in the water on a particular date in the spring at Portland Riverside can be problematic. Months ago, we put Act Three on the list to be launched on April 23. Our friend Rob, who has a Luhrs 34 Express, put his boat on the list for the same date. We both expected our actual launch date to be at least two weeks later than that.

We were surprised on Tuesday afternoon when Karen from the boat yard called to say that our boat was in the water.  We drove down after work to check things out and there she was, in the well.

We climbed aboard and checked things out. No issues that we could see. No water streaming into the bilge. Just a lot of dirt from 5-plus months in winter storage.

Luckily, we had spent one late afternoon waterproofing the roof of the bridge enclosure.  We hung it off the deck in the back of our house and sprayed it with 303 Fabric Guard Water Repellent. (They don't pay us to mention the product name. It just seems to work.)

On Saturday, after tending to some important business stuff, we gathered up the sections of the bridge enclosure and headed back down to the boat.  By now, it had been towed into a slip.

Watching me (Bill) install the 12 sections of bridge enclosure is really good for a laugh.  The top is the most difficult and we noticed that it had shrunk ever so slightly, probably from the water repellent. The 11 side pieces, all of which zipper together, should be obvious, but somehow they never are. In a hour or so, we had them all installed. Looked pretty good to us.

We just had to sit down in the helm chair and look out the front. There's our Roadmaster up there waiting for us.

With the bridge enclosure up, we took a shot at starting the engines.  After all the re-wiring we did last winter, we wondered if everything was connected properly.

We primed the port engine with a teaspoon of gas, turned the key and after one preliminary fart, off she went.  Great water flow out the exhausts and the engine settled down to a nice 600 rpm idle without stalling.  Excellent oil pressure and charging voltage and as we watched, the electric choke opened and the engine temperature came up a little.

Then the same routine for the starboard engine. It farted twice before settling into a nice idle. No issues that we could see.

With all new transmission and throttle cables now installed, we checked the transmissions. Smooth, easy shifting forward and reverse.  All that work last winter has paid off.

The fly bridge looked like home. I wish we could have shoved off for a little cruise.

Even the gas gauge was good news, although we've learned not to reply on its accuracy.

We took one more picture as we left for the afternoon. She may be a little dirty but we think that even after 33 years, she looks okay.

That's our friend Rob's Luhrs next to us.  For you sharp-eyed readers, notice the similarity between the hulls?  Luhrs and Silverton were made by the same company and shared 34 ft. hulls. Actually, we like our boat better but Rob would probably say the same thing.