THE LAUNCH OF THE THUNDERBIRD

We went out to the hangar Thursday and set the boat up for summer use.  In the spring and fall in the hangar I use an electric fry pan and kettle, along with a coffee maker as we live on board on work weekends.  At launch time, that all gets put in storage as I set up my gas stove, with kettle, frying pan and percolators.  We put all tools in storage and generally prepped the boat for our launch, with fenders and ropes all rigged and ready.  We took our new Captain's seat out to the lake with us, in the back of the truck, but we did not put it on board and wont until we are at our home dock, where it's a simple walk down the dock and in the side door. So, we are as set as we can be. 

There she is on the trailer and heading out the door of the hangar. 













The Thunderbird always looks huge to me, coming down Center Street in Gimli. 

So, here we are Launched and floating for another year. 

Well, we are launched and floating, but not going very far.  Right off, she wouldn't start.  We figured it was just the batteries, so we charged batteries all day, still no luck.  Then they traced the problem to the starter.  That was the culprit.  So all day Saturday Dan & Sean worked on the starter, removed it, got it working then re-installed it.  Once the engine was running they discovered there was no water flow cooling the engine, so off came the water pump to discover the impellers are shot. 

 

So here we sit in Gimli Harbour, we will take the water pump in to Winnipeg and hopefully we will be able to get new impellers installed and have the pump ready to be installed back on the boat next weekend.  Then we will be off to our home port of Boundary Creek Marina and on with the rest of our Summer.