New Sea Captain of the SS Shark Bait!

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Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.

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New Sea Captain of the SS Shark Bait!

Thought I would share a few vacation pictures...

This is a view out the back of the boat as we're leaving a small boat launch behind one of our local restaurants called Finz which is a seafood restaurant just down the road from Autogeek.

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This is my son Rand manning the helm... his favorite thing to do so far is get past the speed limit buoys and then shove the throttle down as far as it will go...

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And this is the Stuart Inlet which opens up into the Atlantic Ocean...
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Hard to know how many young men and ladies have learned to drive a boat over the 44 years in this 1967 Starline Deville but my guess is more than a few and besides being a lot of fun to take out fishing or snorkeling everywhere we take it we get nice compliments about the condition of the boat.


This boat has a 120 horsepower Iron Duke, which is a in-line 4 cylinder car engine mated to a Mercruiser outdrive. It actually gets really good gas mileage and purrs like a kitten.


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The boat didn't come with the Bimini Top originally, we added that while we were still out in California but it's a life saver here in sunny Stuart, Florida.

Besides learning how to navigate a boat Rand is also leaning how to maintain the boat including detailing because after a day of boating fun you have to flush the engine with fresh water to help prevent the rust and corrosion and then you have to wipe all the salt spray off the hull and windshield as it gets everywhere with the wind and the waves.

Yesterday we saw 2-3 Sharks in the water plus a couple of Manatees. We're guessing these were sharks as the dorsal fins were triangular or A-shaped with little curve to them, kind of eerie looking.

Next up is a big breakfast then hook up the boat and back on the water!


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Rand looks right at home! A natural. I have gone out and into that inlet hundreds of times when I patrolled there in the Coast Guard many years ago. Good to see it again. Great share of a beautiful day Mike!
 
Are you able to trim the outdrive or just tilt it up? As I recall it was tilt only.
 
One other question please sir.........do you run a lead substitute in the fuel or is it happy on unleaded? It's really nice that you and your boy are able to spend some time together with your wicked work schedule.
 
Good to see you're having a great time Mike!! And thanks for sharing with the rest of us.
 
Very cool Mike, my wife and I ate at Finz while we were at Detail Fest, good food, and the Key Lime pie was excellent!

I hope you both are having a great vacation :)
 
that's awesome mike! in NJ you have to be 16 to drive a boat and have to take a test to get your boater's license. that's great that your son gets to drive at a young age and learn! engine looks good!
 
So do you have him cleaning and polishing it yet Mike? :)
 
RTexasF said:
Are you able to trim the outdrive or just tilt it up? As I recall it was tilt only.
Click to expand...

This boat is equipped with only a tilt feature. One of the hydraulic rams and one of them was leaking so I called around to all the local Marinas and was lucky to find one that matches the ones on my boat. I joined iboats forums and asked a few questions about the proper way to remove and replace the leaking ram and then how to bleed the system and one of the forum members shard the link to a PDF file for the manual on my Mercruiser outdrive. I followed the directions and did the swap and the and bled the system in about 20 minutes using just a few standard wrenches. One thing about old technology, it's easy to work on and just another success story thanks to a discussion forum.

The guy behind the counter where I purchased the ram told me they're no longer available to order and he'll try to get me a seal kit so I can rebuild the one I removed in case I need to replace the other side down the road.


RTexasF said:
One other question please sir.........do you run a lead substitute in the fuel or is it happy on unleaded?
Click to expand...

I run premium and no additives. I'm fairly familiar with the lead issue with older engines without hardened valve seats have owned my share of pre unleaded gas engines. So far I haven't experience any problems and the boat was used regularly by the original owner so could be he's had the head off or could be there's never been any problems, I don't know for sure. Everything, including the engine looks to be original and never taken apart.

I broke speedometer tang that sticks out of the back of the boat off by accident, it was very brittle and haven't replaced it yet but when it was on there I think the fastest it went was 35 mph and plenty of power to pull tubes.


RaskyR1 said:
So do you have him cleaning and polishing it yet Mike? :)
Click to expand...

He's very good at helping to keep her shiny as well as launching an then loading her back onto the trailer. This boat is actually very easy to launch and load, my drag boat was the fastest and easiest boat I've ever launched and loaded or even seen launched and loaded, just run her onto the trailer, attach the pin to the hook and v-bracket and go...


Back to work tomorrow...


:xyxthumbs:
 
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