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View Full Version : 3rd Time a Charm or Never Give Up



slick
05-25-2004, 12:06 PM
My project a 1996 22' Classic bought back in September 03 in Miami at auction made it to AOTH IV and ran STRONG achieving our goal set at AOTH III. What a fun but close call getting it all together and flying around Lake Cumberland with the other Donzi Boats. We brought this 96 back from the Dead, it had a small block 5.7 LX with Bravo I Drive, engine frozen, the boat sat under a bank repo for five years in South Flordia outside with no love. Buying this project sight unseen was probably not the wisest of moves but, nothing ventured nothing gained. The small block was replaced with a big block 454
Mag MPI that had a Procharger already attached, it was a take out on a new boat sale whose owner wanted more power for his Cat. His loss my gain. Once the motor went in and all the electrical hook-ups were replaced the count down to AOTH began. The trailer had to be totally overhauled to even make the trip, new everything. Devoting 9 hours to compounding and waxing the fiberglass finish just five days before leaving for Lake Cumberland, getting the replacement carpet installed two days before leaving and getting one hour in the seat driving the 22' Classic one day before Thursday, the departure date for AOTH was all rather stressfull but fun. The last addition was a drive shower and that was added on the way to AOTH at Lake Cumberland Marine on Thursday around noon. Into the lake around 4:00 pm and as we left the no-wake area my stomach rolled, passing 2000 rpm the motor spun to 3000 rpm and the boat did not respond, it slowed as the motor revved-up. O :bawling: all this anticipation and to be let down and back on the trailer. The next morning the guys from Turbo Props, Steve and Jim, gave their pitch :biggrin: and we got to try new props, thinking that we had spun a prop hub or smoked a coupler, our fingers were crossed that the easy fix would be a prop. On went another Turbo Lightning 27 pitch and out of the no wake zone only to spin-out again. In his wisedom Steve had left us with one more prop on the boat, a Turbo 26 pitch Vector. The 3rd prop was a charm and as we powered-up the 22' Classic flew down the Lake as the supercharger kicked in and we ran to max of 5200 rpm it was no stopping until we arrived at Lee Ford's Marina some 35 miles on the other side of the Lake for a relaxing Lunch. What a great time we had at AOTH IV, thank you to everyone who helped-out and made this one special event. Also thanks to Lake Cumberland Marine, Marine Sales and Service, Turbo Props, and the many Attendees(FRIENDS) who guided and consoled us into Not Giving Up. :beer:

rayjay
05-25-2004, 12:40 PM
Kewl!! Good luck with finding the right prop. Are you running a standard length Bravo with 1.5's?

rayjay

slick
05-25-2004, 01:12 PM
Kewl!! Good luck with finding the right prop. Are you running a standard length Bravo with 1.5's?

rayjay


You Got That Right rayjay, will be testing further with Steve from Turbo to find the "Correct" Prop, thinking we want to try a Turbo One 27 with reinforced hub. :eek!:

Ranman
05-25-2004, 02:04 PM
LEo,

It was good to see you again and I'm glad everything worked out for you. I'm sure your legs are thanking you for trading up the 15 for a 22.

BTW. It's good to see you posting on the board too. The boat looks great. What she end up running for speed???

slick
05-25-2004, 02:51 PM
Hey Randy,

Was good to see you and everyone else again on Lake Cumberland here in Kentucky. As to speed achieved just don't know man, Sam lent me a GPS on Saturday but we had a full boat, three people, 50 gallons of 93 octane, and a cooler with ice cold bud light...........sooooo no speed runs. Now on Friday with two in the boat and half a tank we ran with GregK(Formerly known as the Dork), in the Red Boat, and others up to and back from Lee Ford's Marina but hey man, just got into the drivers seat and I am gonna need time to learn how to pilot this new to me 22, once the prop thing is a done deal we will GPS it and post. :yes: Until then I'll just take a SPEEDPASS. :jestera: