My Official build thread. 27 1/2’ GA

[json]

Nice! That rigging looks clean, so does your boat!

[Rbob]

Todd,

You have built an amazing boat and the motors are icing on the cake!
I like the rigging tube that is on the kicker, can you share what it is?  I can see you have a tie bat set up which works great. 

I cant help myself, pic edit:
 

[Todd j]

Thank you.  Im not sure what the used for the rigging tube, but it looked great.  When I get it home I can take a closer look.
 I lose my patience trying to resize the photos.  It’s a pain with what I have. Thanks for the resize!

[ghelland]

Wow, you did a really nice job.  Please let us know how you like your throttle position.  Having it on that steep face definitely saved you some room for fishing.

[Todd j]

Sure. Will do.  My expectation is to use the throttle in its middle third of range at the aft station.  With the maximized cuddy and PH I need all the room I can get back there

[Todd j]

Well it was a good news bad news day.  Good news my youngest daughter had her first baby on Thursday, a boy.  Bad news I missed the wetting of The boat for its shake down cruise.  I intentionally didn’t say splash because that’s for me!  Notes from the dealer Maxxim Marine, in my case.

1) no discernible lean side to side as equipped
2) can’t feel the boat break plane
3) drives like a sports car, handles like a dream, and takes high speed turns well
4) 42 mph on prop checks without any trim adjustments or jackplate fiddling

Re: jack plates.  With the atlas I cannot reach all the way down with engine trimmed up and locked for travel.  With the steering hard over as Chuck mentioned you do gain some clearance.  For someone not pushing up against overloading the transom I suggest the 4” jack plate and a 2” spacer between it and the transom.  That would allow a space for the hydraulic fittings.  3” would be better to allow for the looping radius of the hydraulic hoses.

[json]

Congrats on the grandkid! Sounds like your boat is ready for you to take her out, and sounds like she is a screamer! Interesting stuff about the jack plate, it seems like quite the balancing act to get that all right and working correctly. Aren't you supposed to lower a jack plate all the way down for travel or am I misremembering that?

[Todd j]

That’s what I have said that I remember reading.  Well.  It ain’t gonna happen. 

[Grady300]

Congrats on getter her in the water. She is one more AMAZING GA, such awesome boats!!!!

[Todd j]

I did a dry run overniter in the driveway.  I will take her out this weekend to do some engine break in and overnight on the lake.  This time of year 2 full days doesn’t satisfy the the time needed with available daylight.  We will see how it goes.   The fridge and the Wallas were on for about 20 hours-ish.  I used about 40 amp hours out of my 200AH SOK battery.  I was on and off charging my phone and using some lights along the way. 

My initial impressions. 
 1) the bin style  fridge I built works absolutely awesome and doesn’t run much at all.  I suspect the way I built it has a lot to do with that. 
 2) the two cabin lights I installed in the wheel house are adequate.  I would not hate double what I have in there now.  I really like the lights I used in the v-berth.  They can be aimed to any position, are activated by only a touch, have a cosmic blue night light feature and also have usb charge ports, and they turn off by gradually go dim.  They are cool!
 3) the Wallas howls like a banshee even on low fan setting.  It’s really kinda annoying how loud it is.  I suspect if I add a register in the PH it would reduce the velocity in the duct and quiet it down.  On the thermostat setting it ran at around 40% when set at 95*F.  The screen said 94*f cabin temp.  It is off by miles.  So far I’m not in love with it, but I’m still learning how to work it.  I will try to run it manual and see how it goes this weekend as I plan to overnight on the water. 
 4) like them or not, the Origo works well.  I think I’m happy with it.  So far…
 5) the CO detector went off in the PH.  This happened about 3 hours after I finished cooking breakfast.  I aired the cabin out and it kept going off.  It went off later in the day and my wife could hear from in the house.  I took it outside and took the batteries out of it and it seems to be working as expected.  I’m wondering if the alcohol from the stove burners could have evaporated and some how set it off.  It’s the only possibility I can think of as the Wallas had been off for a long time. 

[json]

That's scary/annoying about the CO alarm. Hope you can figure that out. In our previous house one night the CO alarm started going off in the dead of night, every ounce of my being made me want to yank the batteries out of it and go back to bed, but I started looking around and sure enough, the range cooktop burner was left barely on. I wonder if your heater is maybe somehow the culprit... Sounds like you are going to have an adventure regardless. Good luck! Sounds like a good first shakedown trip...

[Todd j]

Idk. The heater had been off for hours

[Todd j]

Great hull design Brian!  Spent today and yesterday going through the break in procedures for the Suzukis.  Dad and I overnighted on the boat.  After dinner we played cards and had a few beers.  A real good time. 
  To everyone’s surprise nothing went wrong.  I wonder if people were taking bets?  Everything went great and all systems and gizmos worked flawlessly.  The boat planes at about 15 mph I think.  Sure don’t feel it break plane.  I was impressed by how well it took high speed corners.  We slept very comfy in the heated v-berth.   It’s a big boat for a small lake with small boat ramp.  The optimized PH was fantastic for two to move about and do stuff. 
  I am a much bigger fan of the Wallas in manual mode vs. thermostat mode.  At one point it said the cabin temp was 140.1*F.  So thermostat mode is dead to me.  I started the heater from my phone 15 miles from the lake while driving.  Not a good idea!  I proved my CO detectors work. At the lake I opened the PH door and it looked like a Cheech and Chong show in there!
The CO detector went off again about 1 hour after turning the stove off.  I am now certain that alcohol evaporating causes the alarm.  We then made a point to put a silicone pad over the burners immediately after use and it never went off again.  It is reassuring to k ow the detectors work.  The fridge I made works like a champ and uses little power and keeps the goodies chilly.
   The fly by wire 250 is awesome.  Super smooth and quiet and easy to switch from station to station.  Someone asked about the angle of the surface at the second station and it feels just like it should to me.  I didn’t get any mpg numbers.  I topped out at 42.5 mph or 36.9 knots or 68kmph.  Trimming the motor helped, but adjusting the jack plate had no noticeable affect.  I made 5000rpm.  I think I need to check and see if that is WOT. 
   The 20 Hp kicker is good for about 5 mph.  It’s annoying how bad it shakes and vibrates compared to the 250.  I will never have another kicker without electric start and ptt. 
  The autopilot is totally amazing with the things it can do.  I had no idea it did so much stuff.  The new electronics are truly amazing!!

[Brian.Dixon]

Great to hear all the good news and good times!  The hull speed, e.g. maximum speed without trying to lift the boat onto place, is about 6.6 knots, so your 20 hp kicker sounds like it's working as good as it will.  As you approach hull speed, the amount of horsepower required goes up fast and it's not worth trying to maximize beyond what you're getting.

[Todd j]

Also, forgot about this.   When I put on the bottom paint I came up the hull 2” past the plan dimensions.  In my case as loaded I had about 1” to spare at the transom and about 1/2” of fancy paint in the water at the bow end.