UPDATE: 7/4/2012 Maiden voyage was a success!!!
I can finally say that I got my boat out on the water for the first trip and it went pretty well. We hit the docks at daybreak and ran into it hit the water without any issue and the 9.9hp motor started up on the first pull. We had a slight "bump" in the road as we started taking in water pretty hard because I put the plug in too far and it started rattling loose as the motor vibrated. We docked it and re-plugged the drain and we didn't have any more issues. The stability of the boat was awesome! I was afraid she would be top heavy with all of the weight I added, but we had no problem standing on the front and back decks simultaneously while casting. Here's a picture of the "Minnowtaur" at the docks when we started:
Here's a picture of the trailer. It sits pretty low to the ground, but it gets the job done.
Here's a picture of the boat after we dunked it. My friend's manning the trolling motor:
The boat got up on plane once we got out to open water. We didn't check our top speeds, but I think it was moving 10+mph. We traveled about a half mile from our boat ramp without issue and I caught my first fish on the boat...a whopping 7" white bass
It was 100+ degrees out and without a bimini top, we got fried so we decided to head in at lunch time. I went to start up the motor and couldn't get it to kick in. It seemed to be choking out, so we had to let it sit for 10 minutes. Luckily I had a golf umbrella to keep us out of the sun. It sure was hot when we weren't moving. The trolling motor got us a little closer to the ramp, but even that overheated and kicked out on us. I have a 50amp circuit breaker on it...I have to find out why it died since the battery was fine. Half-way to the boat ramp we got the motor to finally kick in. It seemed to be only running on 1 cylinder and it fired up a good cloud of smoke before the second one kicked in. I'm thinking it might be the spark plug or power pack. I don't think a bad impeller would cause that, but I have one so I'm going to put that in along with some new spark plugs this weekend.
The only other issue I had was pulling the boat out onto the trailer. The bolt on the front of my boat that my winch clamps onto was apparently rusted and painted over, so when I pulled my truck out of the water, it broke off and sent a metal missile flying through the parking lot 100ft over my suv! Luckily it didn't hit anyone or any cars. I had a safety chain on that kicked in and saved my boat from flying off the trailer. I was able to get home using some straps and added it to the list of things to repair.
Overall, the outing was a success. She floats, gets up on plane, isn't wobbly, and the motor seems to run okay other than the possible flooding issue. The next trip will definitely be an evening trip, though, as it is way to hot to be out on the water after the sun comes up. Thanks again to everyone that helped out with advice along the way. I'm going to post the motor issue in the outboard section and see what people think about it. Hopefully it was just flooded and the spark plugs/impeller prevent it from happening again.
