Those that follow this Report may have noticed that I haven't fished since Tuesday June 21st. On that trip I had a Grandad and his 6yo granddaughter, and we had an excellent time, fishing and crabbing and playing with the bait. But it began to get hot and the young lady had whispered to her Grandad that she was ready to go in, so we ran to the first of two crab traps and pulled it up to find a whole bunch of Conch shells with Hermit Crabs. We then eased up the river and checked the second trap and found a few nice sized Blue Crab. I had turned the engine off while we were hauling in the trap and when I went to crank it, it wouldn't start!
So I had this nice fellow and his 6yo granddaughter who had already told her granddad that she was hot and ready to go in, and my engine wouldn't crank. I knew the tide had just changed and was coming and Goffinsville Park was up river so I knew we could use the trolling motor and current to get back to the dock, but it's probably take 45 minutes to get there. Oh Boy. But luckily I was able to take the throttle out of gear, give it some gas, get it cranked, drop it into neutral, then in gear, and we made it back to the dock. Oh Boy.
Later, I had mobile marina mechanic Ken Supernor stop by and after hooking up a water hose, removing the cowling, we discovered I had a leak of water down below the Power Head. He advised me to take it to a shop where they could really tear in to it. I dropped it off to Atlantic Coast Marine where they looked at it and advised a new engine. There is a chance that there may just be a bad gasket ($700-$1000 repair), but there also could be corrosion between the two sections ($8000-10,000 repair).
This engine is a 2016 and was one of the first 200 In Line 4 Cylinders. Yamaha had come out with the 150 and liked it so much the came out with the 200. I've had numerous people advise me over the years "Don't ever buy the first model!". But this 200 was lighter and seemed just right for my boat, so I bought it. As it turns out, evidently, these first 200's were built with some cheap(er) metal blocks. You may remember that about 2-3 years ago this engine came down with a "cracked cylinder" head. Water was leaking. At that time we elected to go with "just" the $4000 repair. So it seems those blocks/heads may only have about 3 years in them.
Finding a new engine was a week long nightmare. In addition to cancelling/re-routing trips(now up to 13), engines are very hard to find. There was a Suzuki 225 down it Lake Placid with a 2 month wait time for install. There was a couple of Suzuki 200's down in Daytona but there was a 6-week install wait time. Both would require new cables, controls, and gauges. Old Towne Marine had a 150 Mercury, which would again need new cables, controls and gauges, and didn't have the power I needed. I ALMOST went to Maitland and had a Yamaha 150 installed, but after getting advice from fellow Captains, I pulled the plug on that idea. - not enough power. There were also a good handful of false leads, phone calls, messages and Emails trying to track down an engine.
I finally talked to a big Yamaha dealer down in Tampa who didn't have any ( I could be #82 on the
waiting list) but he "knew a guy" -Beagle(that's his name) who had two Yamaha 200's. But they were called for, maybe. This dealer,
Alafia Marine in Gibsonton, Florida, just south of Tampa, also had TWO white Yamaha 200's coming in. The prospect was going to decide whether he wanted the silver or white. By this time, they could have been PURPLE and I would have taken one! I got the call Thursday that the guy took the silver engines and I could have the opportunity to buy one of the white ones, a Left Hand model. Evidently, as a single engine, it doesn't matter if it's left or right. And speaking with Beagle, supposedly Yamaha is building the blocks with a better metal. Let's hope so!
The alarm was set for 5am Friday morning and after a quick stop at Gate for a cup of coffee, I was on the way to Gibsonton, and arrived just past 9am. Carol and I were already debating whether the engine would fit into the back of my truck, even with my cap open. I bet that it would but I didn't account for the huge crate the engine was encased in. Carol won the bet. One look at my truck and Beagle and crew advised me to go rent a U-haul. Three stops later, the last being back up in Tampa, I was the proud renter of a Uhaul. After arriving back at Alafia Marine the crew quickly loaded it up, Beagle did the paperwork and I was off!
Crazy how wives seem to be always right. Carol had mentioned that driving on I-75 on the Friday of a 4th of July weekend may not be very fun. It wasn't. When I got just south of Ocala traffic came to a standstill. I put me behind about 45 minutes but I had smooth sailing once I got on 301 up to I-10, where I hit more traffic. That, along with some severe rainstorms made for some anxious moments all the way into Jacksonville, but I made Atlantic Coast Marine by 4pm. We had to wait about 30 minutes for the rain to let up but then after I backed it into a bay, their techs were able to offload the engine.
The Angler's Mark is now at Atlantic Coast along with the new engine and hopefully I'll get it back before the end of next week. Cross your fingers.
