Well, the maiden run of the new (to me) Spectra didn't exactly go as smooth as desired. After spending the last couple days washing, waxing, polishing cleaning, tuning, etc., we headed to the River to try her out. Had the battery on charge for most of the morning and started in the driveway right off.
Backed it down the ramp, went to start it, and it cranked, tried to fire, but no dice. Fuel, yep. Spark, yep. Hmm. Pulled the flame arrestor and noticed a cap on one of the vacuum ports was deteriorated. Quick trip to Circle K for some electrical tape for a temp fix, and it fired right up. YEE-HAAA!
Launched and headed up to the dam. Ran flawlessly. Don't know the RPMs it was running, cause the tach seemed off. Idle sounded correct but showed 1500 RPM. Got up on plane and cruised nice, but the tach was showing 5,000 RPM, when it should have been around 3,500 just on plane. Showing 7,500 RPM at WOT. I KNOW that wasn't correct.
Got up to the Dam, shut it down for a float and a swim, and then went to start it up. Err...Err...Click, click, click. %$&#$*&$%@$. Looked at the battery. Warranty expired in 2001, so I knew that was the culprit.
So we floated/paddled to the dock at Floater's (The old Winner's Circle), my son's apartment is there, so we woke him up (he works graveyard) and borrowed his truck for a run to Havasu Springs Boat Repair for a new battery.
Back to the dock, new battery. Turned key, fired up before a full revolution. YEE HAAA! (Again)
Rest of the day was no hassle, cruised by the upper Sandbar, then through the Keys. Stopped and chatted with RD and his band of thieves for a while, before heading back to the ramp, and the long (8 mile) trip back home.
All in all a pretty good day. Shake-down wasn't without minor aggravations, but I would call it a success. See ya on the River!