It Starts Today

Hello Forum,

Today I make my first post aboard our new-to-us sedan cruiser. We just took possession of a 2001 Silverton 410 Sport Bridge. The boat is currently located in Ft Myers, and we have delivery plans to bring her on her own bottom back up to Lake Superior starting in May (which was another thread). Profile has been appropriately updated.

I am spending a couple of weeks on her now performing some small upgrades (new chartplotter, radar, AIS, fuel vacuum gauges, dripless cooling crossover, etc.). I'm also performing an inventory, and I'm planning to just do a lot of sitting in the ER, learning about how everything is laid out and plan any future updates. We're hoping that my wife can fly down next weekend, so that I can finally get her out of the slip! It's a little much for me to handle solo having no experience on her yet. That will also put some pressure on me to get the work done too. Unfortunately I'm still working (remotely) while I'm down here, so I don't have a ton of time to focus on projects.

In an AMAZING twist of fate, I'm also about to perform the mythical "two-fer". My Regal has been on the market for almost 3 years now. I took it off the market for the winter, and suddenly out of nowhere my ex-broker called and said he had a buyer! Purchase agreements have been made and final papers are being sent for me to notarize today. I should receive the funds Monday.
I cannot describe how relieving that is. The old saw about "the best day of a boater's life..." both falling on the same day is insane.

I know that without pictures, it didn't happen. Here are a couple. I've already got her in various states of disrepair as I'm trying to trace the radar cable for replacement. I'll post more as I move along (including ER - don't worry). Perhaps someone can rotate the saloon picture for me, or walk me through it.

Just want to close with a very sincere "thank you" to all of the members of this forum. The learning and support I've gotten here has contributed immeasurably toward giving me the confidence and knowledge to make this big step in our lives. Our TF burgee will be flown proudly (as soon as my wife brings it down here).

BD

Congrats on your new baby and getting rid or the old baby. Don’t worry about the photos being sideways some of my photos do that and I don’t see any rhyme or reason why. Have fun with it!

Nice. Congrats. More pics please..

We too are looking for a boat and have seen many posted that are located in Florida. Our home port will likely be Ashland WI. What route are you planning to take back to Bayfield, and how long do you think it will take? Thanks, and congratulations!

I keep my Trawler in Oconto, WI on Green Bay. I have looked at the charts numerous times to take her to my old boating grounds of Duluth, Bayfield, etc. By car to Duluth is 220 miles, about four hours. By boat, several thousand miles, daunting.

pete

A fine looking boat! Congrats on both sales closing at the same time.

Try to load your photos in “landscape”. “Portrait” photos usually load sideways.

Congrats!

She's a beaut, Brad! You're gonna have soooooo much fun on that boat!

Send more pics when you come up for air.

BDofMSP said:

Just want to close with a very sincere "thank you" to all of the members of this forum. The learning and support I've gotten here has contributed immeasurably toward giving me the confidence and knowledge to make this big step in our lives.

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Glad you enjoy the Forum and congrats on your 41 Silverton. I've always admired Silverton boats and we have a few in our marina. (It also reminds me of my boat!)

Well the work day ended early, and I jumped right into it. Pulling the old radar cable now. As you can see by the photo, I'm not hesitating to get to know the boat. I'm kind of glad that my wife isn't here. She might not appreciate the level of disassembly required.

NedZ said:

We too are looking for a boat and have seen many posted that are located in Florida. Our home port will likely be Ashland WI. What route are you planning to take back to Bayfield, and how long do you think it will take? Thanks, and congratulations!

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Funny, I stopped looking at FL boats a year ago because condition often became an issue. And even if it wasn't, you still had to get it home, which would add $25k to the total, at which point you could just find a better one closer This one was priced aggressively and had a great history, and when I threw in all the features (nice dinghy, thruster, engines, etc.) AND added in the boat history (only in the water 6 months it's whole life, then in indoor storage the other six), it was worth considering. The price made it worth the trouble to get it home.

We will leave Ft Myers around May 9 and expect the boat to arrive in Syracuse before the end of the month. I'm leaving a couple weeks buffer, at which point my wife and I will bring her the rest of the way home (across the Trent Severn and Georgian Bay, Soo locks, and Superior). We have two weeks to execute that - we'll get as far as we can. If weather cooperates on Huron and Superior, no problem. If not, we'll be flying home out of Sault Ste Marie or Peterborough.

In the continuous stream of good luck with this, we're experiencing extemely low fuel prices at the point where I'm about to burn about 4000 gallons or more. Hopefully it stays low for another couple months.

Expect many posts during the trip. I also added an InReach so we can track her on the voyage.

BD

Codger2 said:

Glad you enjoy the Forum and congrats on your 41 Silverton. I've always admired Silverton boats and we have a few in our marina. (It also reminds me of my boat!)

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The OA 42 Sedans were top of list for us. Unfortunately any that we could afford were either on the West Coast (most) or unable to deliver a cruise speed that we could accept. There was one that was docked here this morning, but it's gone tonight. Not sure if it was transient or just out for the weekend now. I'll be looking for her.

Pete Meisinger said:

I keep my Trawler in Oconto, WI on Green Bay. I have looked at the charts numerous times to take her to my old boating grounds of Duluth, Bayfield, etc. By car to Duluth is 220 miles, about four hours. By boat, several thousand miles, daunting.

pete

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We have a friend who has a cabin on Chambers Island on Green Bay. We've already been forced into a commitment to come for a visit. At least I got to delay it until next summer! We'll look you up when we make it to your neck of the woods! I love cruising there. We trailered our Regal there a few times - it was well worth it.
BD

Congrats!!

Happy Boating Daze!! - Art

BDofMSP said:

The OA 42 Sedans were top of list for us. Unfortunately any that we could afford were either on the West Coast (most) or unable to deliver a cruise speed that we could accept. .

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Interesting! What cruise speed were you looking for? My boat cruises at 16-18 knots and WOT is 20.

If my memory serves (which it often doesn't) OA sold the 42 sedan from the mid 80s to the mid 90s, then reintroduced it as the Sport Sedan in the mid 00s. I thought those older ones typically came with smaller engines. Happy to be corrected if I've got this confused.
BD

Codger2 said:

Interesting! What cruise speed were you looking for? My boat cruises at 16-18 knots and WOT is 20.

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Oh how I 'love' analog gauges.

OldDan1943 said:

Oh how I 'love' analog gauges.

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Yes, indeed, IF they are accurate. I now find myself happier with the accurate-to-the-rev digits on my Foscan because on this particular boat one needs better than the 100-rev accuracy of the Faria gauge I dumped. YMMV

First lesson today. I've been working on electronics upfits all week, which are pretty standard and little opportunity for excitement. But today I had a conversation with my dock neighbor and the fun began.

She mentioned to me that you really need to keep an eye on your AC strainers here in these warm waters of Florida. I'm a northern freshwater boater so I really appreciated the tip!

Of course cleaning a strainer is about as easy as you can get, so I jumped right on it. I shut the seacock, opened the strainer and yes, it was full of various nasties. As I was leaving to rinse it, I noticed that water hadn't really stopped running into the strainer. Hmmm. Yep that seacock was tough to move. Note to self to address that on haul out.

My wife took the task of cleaning the strainer basket while I went to town on the enclosure. It was coated with barnacles and sludge and needed love. After scraping all that off, I worried about it flowing through the system so I shop vac'd it out. I swapped the shop vac for the strainer basket and reassembled.

I was going to start and test it but she wasn't back yet, so I exercised the seacock a bit. Then we tested and ... Of course no water flowed out.

In my last boat I would get air locks when I pulled it on the trailer, so that's the first thing that entered my head. I pulled the shop vac around and sucked it on the outlet to try to force prime. No joy.

I thought some of the debris might have been clogging the system. I took a hose pick and pulled one hose off the pump. Water flowed freely. Hmmm.

Then I noticed that I'd never shut off the seacock before pulling the hose. Well duh, because it was already off. When I was exercising the handle I'd left it off which was why water wasn't flowing! Easy solution and just cost pride.

Ran it for a bit and noticed that water was dripping from the hose that I'd pulled. Turns out it was brittle and the hose pick had broken it. So I pulled that again, cut a couple inches off and reassembled. No problem.

Except that tightening the hose clamp they both broke. And since I've just taken this boat over, I have no spares.

So the neighbor who got me started on this whole thing saved me with a couple of clamps. Hopefully I can get to a store and restock both of us.

Anyway. A 10 minute strainer cleaning took 2.5 hours. Seems about right! Tomorrow is another day. We'll see what dumb mistakes I can learn from then.
BD

Yes, it is a good idea to check all the hoses, clamps and through hulls to make sure of the condition. I am going through my boat and replacing the hoses and clamps if the clamps are not true 316 S/S. Going into the hardware store and buying S/S clamps doesn’t mean that they are actually all S/S. Take a magnet with you and if they are magnetic then they aren’t S/S. I buy either AWAB or ABA clamps. They are all 316 S/S, don’t have the through cuts in the band and the band edges are rolled a bit so they don’t cut the hose. They are expensive but last and won’t rust. Good that you found the problem before the clamps let go and potentially sunk your boat. Have fun and good luck.

Congratulations on the new boat! I'm looking forward to reading about your travels from Florida to Lake Superior. Thanks for sharing about your boat projects also.

You should have a long length of the most common diameter hose. Probably 3/4 inch and a supply of each size SS hose clamps plus some hose and clamps of the other diameters. Chances are there is only 2 diameter hose on board. Then add in some hose barbs and Teflon tape.
I think the life expectancy of the hoses are the date on the hose plus 5 years.
For sea water, use the black rubber hose with the wire inside. Sounds like it might be time to change out all your seawater hoses before you start the loop. Ah and dont forget to lube the barbs so you can easily get the hose off when needed.
I had 4 or 5 half in through hulls. The first trip to the hard, I had them change them to 3/4 inch bronze. The boat came with the "plastic" through hull valves. I have little faith in those so, before they became old and brittle I changed them over to bronze putting them all on the bonding system. I expect a thank you note from the next owner. LOL

Agreed. My electronic refit should be done Wednesday or Thursday and I'll be refocused on ER stuff going forward. I did get high quality replacement clamps today and a few spares but I'll measure what I really need and lay in supplies.
BD

Did our first trip out of the slip today. We warned our dock neighbors that we were going to be practicing, and didn't need help, but that didn't stop people from the other side of the marina from running over to see why we kept coming in and out of the slip.

We took her out to the Gulf (with only paper charts !) and had a very enjoyable cruise.

When we returned we got more "help" and we politely declined. Unfortunately that guy decided that he knew more and started yelling instructions and commands. I told him that I was only listening to my wife's instructions. When we successfully got tied up he yelled at me that I shouldn't let my pride stop me from asking for help. I tried to explain that it was a new boat for us and we wanted the practice, but he was still very offended. Whatever.

Anyway, at the end of the day our colors fly with satisfaction and pride.

Greetings,
Mr. BD. Well done!

BDofMSP said:

Agreed. My electronic refit should be done Wednesday or Thursday and I'll be refocused on ER stuff going forward. I did get high quality replacement clamps today and a few spares but I'll measure what I really need and lay in supplies.
BD

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"A few"? At least 6 of each. Dont forget the misc sizes....on the engine.

Yes of course. A full inventory is pending.

I started my clamp kit with an AWAB kit from Defender. It came with a flexible driver to tighten the clamps since they are metric.