Shannon Larratt is Zentastic

The engine for my boat got tuned up on Friday — I’m embarrassed to say that my problem getting it started was simply that I had not adequately primed it. Still, this being my first engine, it was good hanging out at the shop picking up knowledge for the hour or so it took to do that, as well as wandering through the boat yard peeking at all the speedboats and examining how they were put together, the steering systems being of the most interest to me right now. I don’t think I’m going to build a steering wheel for this boat, but perhaps on the next one I will.

Caitlin took these photos of me testing the boat with the engine in place. Holy fun! It runs great, corners nicely, and doesn’t take on water other than the expected flooding from being such a razor-shallow boat. I wasn’t sure if it would have issues with sliding, but the only problem is that the mounting for the engine still isn’t strong enough, even with the reinforcement I added — the “by the plans” default is ridiculously flimsy! So before I go out again I’m going to completely rebuild the back of the boat (or just go on to the next boat and not stress this one). The ominous creaking/cracking made me worry I was going to have the rear tear right off and my engine would sink to the bottom of the lake.

Nefarious chickened out and played on the beach with other kids instead of joining me — not that there was a whole lot of room in the boat once the gas tank and oar and bailing bucket were there… I pretty much dwarf it as you can see.