Friscoboater's 1995 Sea Ray 220 BR Rotten Deck and Stringer Restoration: Splash Day!!!!

Well... She is splashed! I am still in shock that I actually able to drive her! We had the whole family come out and we went through the de-naming ceremony. We will do the naming ceremony next week when I have the letters. After the ceremony we spent about six hours and about a half tank of fuel running around the lake putting her through the paces. We even went out into the big water and hit some big chop. All I can say is WOW, that boat is meant for bigger water. She handles so smooth, and refined, I am still in awe. She is a bit of a dog out of the hole, but I think some trim tabs will fix that. I just really do not want to drill into the transom.

The Corsa system cannot be described. It is the coolest thing I have ever heard. When you hit the throttle it is like a pride of lions all roared at the same time. I just says " I AM IN CONTROL HERE"!!!!!!! I constantly had people throwing the thumbs up and telling me to hit the throttle. it is for sure an attention getter, and at our lake it is all about getting the attention I am afraid. It is not harsh like I thought it would be, but a sweet sweet smooth Big Block Chevy roar. The Side exhaust makes a difference on how the exhaust note sounds. For some reason it softens the raspiness that a transom exhaust has. Don't get me wrong, it is loud, but not enough hurt. To my astonishment, my wife even liked it. The video we took just does not do it justice, and the wind noise is awful. I am actually going to try to borrow a professional HD cam soon with the special mic that cuts the wind noise. You just have to hear what this thing sounds like when you throttle up. The cool thing is that you flip a switch, and it is all gone. It is WELL worth the money!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There are a few little gremlins that I need to fix this week. The gas gauge is not working, and the only thing that I can think of is the fuel sender is on backwards, and the float is hitting the side of the tank. I replaced the fuel sender gasket, and I might have put it on wrong. Also the Tack is reading wrong. It is about 1000 rpms too high at speed, and I am not sure how to fix that. The last thing is the oil gauge. When you turn on the ignition (not turning on the engine) the oil gauge pegs all the way to 80 psi. So I replaced the oil sender, and it still did it. I ran a new wire, and still had the same issue. So I went to autozone and got a cheap mechanical gauge and hooked the tube onto the engine, and I have really good oil pressure. So I am not sure what to do next besides get a new gauge. I am sure I will get it figured out somehow.

Now I need to measure for carpet. I guess I will order the template kit this week, and get started on it. For the most part, this gel coat is not slippery at all when it is wet. I was really kinda shocked.

So anyway, I am kinda sad that it is over.

Thank you everyone for all your support and advise through these past seven months. It has been a rough ride.

On to the really fun stuff.

Interior installed and cleaned for launch