On the water at long last

[tropicrows]

I took possession of my new Key West 175BR fitted with a 115 Suzuki back in July, and it has taken this long to get it into the water for the maiden voyage. It’s a long story and I won’t bore you with all the details apart from saying I needed to get my driveway pulled up, reshaped and then re-laid before I could get the boat out. Don’t ask how I got the boat into the driveway as that was a major military operation in itself. My previous boat was 150mm longer and sat on a tandem trailer. This boat is on a single axle and I did not even consider this when I purchased the boat (we live and learn).
:-[ Anyway I ventured out from Raby bay this morning and started to run in the engine, chucking along at 1000 rpm for 15 minutes heading towards Tanga. After the 15mins was up the speed was increased to just over 3000 for the next 1 ¾ hours. Currently I am restricted to 4000 rpm for another couple of hours before I can run flat out, but even at 4000 rpm the boat is cruising at 38 kph.
So far I’m more than happy, today I did 86km and used 38L, so by my calculation that’s 2.27 km/L. :) :)

[TREVELLY]

No mate no good - you need to be using a lot more fuel than that

Pretty outfit.

Are you considering a canopy mod? $$$$$$$ ;D

What are the electronics?

[tropicrows]

T top in about 12 months
FM / Ipod radio coming soon
Garmin 750 GPS
Furuno 627
Icom VHF
Bennett M80 trim taps with electronic control

[SunnyCoastMark]

Looks good - Just in time for Mackerel season.......

[fish'n'chippy]

Nice boat
Would it not have been easier (and cheaper) to just convert this trailer to tandem axle so it was similar to your previous one?

G

[burleygu]

Bloody nice one Bruce! Glad you finally got her on the water. Sounds like there needs to be another Tangalooma M&G

[netmaker]

Nice boat
Would it not have been easier (and cheaper) to just convert this trailer to tandem axle so it was similar to your previous one?

G

:LMAO: mate, we did this to death at 1770.
great to see the Olympic Flame getting doused bruce;);D

[bannana]

Good on ya mate she looks awesome and with fuel economy like that you can afford to fish twice as much.

Good luck blooding her in.

[Horse]

Looks good Bruce. I think its time to smack a Mack or two

[TimiBoy]

Sweet Bruce. I can't wait for her to smell like fish.

[fish'n'chippy]

:LMAO: mate, we did this to death at 1770.


A thousand apologies......I wasn't there, so not privy to prior discussions
I would however be interested in the reasons why

G

[2IC]

Mate it looks so much better sitting in the water than on your drive, yea ha the'' Olympic Flame '' finally went out.

[Tangles]

Good news Bruce and its great looking boat, should fly with a 115 on the back

[thelump]

Thank f### for that

[tropicrows]

Thank f### for that

I could not agree more.

[odes20]

Great set of choices there! All pretty much top shelf. so what was it that was so different about the single axle trailer that made it difficult?

Cheers

T top in about 12 months
FM / Ipod radio coming soon
Garmin 750 GPS
Furuno 627
Icom VHF
Bennett M80 trim taps with electronic control

[Apollo]

About bloody time. I had mine imported, modified, 100hrs up and written off in a car accident in the time it has taken to get yours in the drink.;)

She looks a beaut Bruce and you will love it. I use to get 2.2-2.4km/L out of mine with a F115 on the back, so similar to you. Flat out was 40knts.

I played around alot with mine to workout what trim setups work the best and it made a big difference, so suggest that once she is run in you do some experimenting.

Will be keen for a KeyWest M&G in the near future. I was going to suggest you bring it up to the BreakSea M&G but may be next year. Mine did the dash to Rooneys in chop with ease for a day trip late last year.

Just fantastic to see you out there enjoying it.

Will chat over a deathanol at Rooneys.

Steve

[Bull]

Very nice Bruce its great to see her in the drink

[deckie]

Good job Bruce. Be honest now...did u ever look at the boat just sitting there, and think moving house might be the quick way ? Just to hurry things along ? :bath:
I could live anywhere and sleep on a barb wire fence, as long as i can get on the water. Some things a man cant compromise on.
Great looking rig...worth the wait. Congrats and well done being so patient.
Steve

[tropicrows]

I spent many a sleepless night going thru the options, modify trailer, driveway, move house etc etc. In the end I modified the trailer by move the axle cowards but this still was not enough. A second axle was not an option due to the shape of the trailer side rails, however I could have purchased a twin axle trailer from the US for an extra $300, it would have been on over kill but cheap. In the end we changed the driveway, not the cheapest option but the best all round solution, for now and resale in the future. If I ever buy a caravan, we will move house first.