So the boat made its maiden voyage today and it didnt go well.
I went to one of my favorite local crappie lakes. Its a small electric only lake. I went there specifically because I knew there wouldnt be any boat traffic. First off, the boat floats incredibly well. I was a little worried that a 36" boat would be a little more wobbly than I would have liked but its actually fairly stable. Much more stable that I was expecting. I can move about pretty easily without getting that tippy feeling. Thats a huge plus since I plan to fish with my 5 year old!! So, I trolled all the way across the lake to a little cove where I always catch crappie. First cast went right into the brush and I was snagged. No problem, I'll troll up in there and get my jig back. I got out of the snag and tried to back out of the brush and the trolling motor suddenly has no power. How is this? It has worked in every test during construction and just trolled all the way across the lake without fail. I decide to dig out my emergency paddle and start making my way back to the ramp. Well, its windy and the wind is stronger than me and my paddle. Im paddleing like mad but the boat is only moving sideways. The wind is pushing me toward the dam. This is a lake with absolutely nothing to keep a boat from running over the dam. It dosnt have any gates or anything. I started to panic and dedcided ODNR is just going to have to write me a ticket because Im not going over the dam. I ran back to my little outboard and fired it up. I started cruising toward the ramp and my outboard quit. What the heck? Ive only run this outboard in a barrel prior to this point but it has never quit. Why is it quiting now. I pump up the tank and fire it back up. I did this two or three times before I got to the ramp. I got out of the water, got everything strapped down and decided to mess with the TM. While looking everything over, I discovered a switch I wasnt familiar with. On the left side of the foot pedal is a 3 way switch. Forward allows the momentary foot switch to work. Backward turns the power on continuosly and the middle is off. Somehow while I was fighting the brush for my jig, I must have bumped this switch with my foot and cut the power to my motor. Now Im relieved that theres nothing wrong with the boat but mad that all this happened, I decided to just call it a day and come home. On the ride home I was thinking about my outboard cutting out and why that could be and then realized that everytime it quit, I had to pump up the tank again to get it to start. Then I remembered the other day, I backed the cap off on the tank to relieve pressure and never tightened it back up so the pressure coming from the motor thats suppose to pressurize the tank was all escaping through the cap. So, all my problems were my own fault and Im still mad that I ruined what could have been a good day on the water. Oh well. If nothing else, I learned some things about my rig and I can garauntee these things wont happen again!! My wife also got a kick out of my story. Oh and the game warden must have been off today cause no one was waiting for me at the ramp to write me a ticket for running a gas motor in an electric only lake!!