Aeromarine Avenger + chop + wind = BAD

[dannyual767]

I took my older Avenger out for the first time since I moved to Ft Walton Beach. I took it into the salt water since there really isn't much fresh around here. Anyway, it was a real calm day so I loaded it up in the van and the family and I headed out with the full size jetski in tow.

Chop wasn't too bad. About what I normally had on a typical choppy day on my local pond that I used to use. Anyway, all was well until I pointed it into the wind (and into the waves) and squeezed the trigger. It was a real sight as my wife and son were watching this thing jump up on plane and pick up a lot of speed. Then, I guess the boat hit a small swell and all I remember seeing was a big "wall" of Avenger hull pointing straight to the moon ! It landed upside down and the Zenoah died of course. My wife wanted to take off on the jetski to go get it but I thought that she'd have too much trouble by herself so I just swam for it.

The whole back end of the boat (including radio box) was under water. Lucky for me I was wearing my life jacket when I swam for it because it was so full of water that I could barely lift it out to dump the water so that it would float!

Anyway, got it back to shore and I was super surprized to see not a drop of water had made it into the radio box ! I pulled the spark plug to get the water out. I never did get it all out and I was worried about the engine so I just squirted a lot of nitro engine "after run" oil into it and pulled the rope again and again.

By the time we got home I washed the boat down and got to messing with the dunked engine. I eventually got all the water out and got the thing started back up and running good ! I've taken the flex cable out and wiped it down. I hosed down the inside of the boat to get all the salt water out. Tomorrow, I may clean it one more time because I fear salt water!

I was happy to see the boat running good after about 7 months of sitting idle. I was also happy to know that it can handle some light salt water chop. I guess I'll just have to be a lot more careful heading into the wind and waves next time!

 

[Mike G]

Good to hear you had fun!

Now, some extra care for running in Salt water, always, always run the engine after a dunking! The water will get in the bearings and only running with some heat will get it all out. Pull the plug, turn the boat over, pull the starter through 5-6 times. Then take some WD-40 and squirt it in the plug hole, cover the hole with your hand and pull the engine over a couple of times slowly (this is to make sure the WD-40 coats everything) then flip the boat over and pull the engine over 5-6 times again. Now it should be good to go. The WD-40 displaces the water. You will need to invest in lots of WD-40 as it is good to spray down all the metal parts with when your done. If you do it before opening your radio box then it doesn't go everywhere.

 

[[email protected]]

Oh man, always let the wife go fetch your boat..... :lol: :lol: I'll bet when you got out there you were kickin' yourself. HAHAHA

Just kidding, salt water is a mother on the boats but hey, sounds like you took the right precautions to save the boat from salt wear. Definitely spray everything with the WD-40 to kill the salt like you said. Next time buy a can of "air spray" it's good to flush all the salt water that sits inside of the lines.

What type of radio box tape did you use???

 

[nitrotoys]

Just what mike said, and i want to say MUST ALWAYS START engine after it dunks.

or next time, nooooooooooo turn over.

Tom

 

[dannyual767]

[email protected], by the time I got to my boat, I was really wishing that I'd let Amy take the jetski to get it! And boy was I glad that I had my lifejacket on! Seriously, though, she would have had a hard time handling this dunked boat by herself on that ski. Maybe if my son had gone with her they could've recovered it together.

I think that the radio box tape is Prather.

Guys, I'm definitely going to restart the engine today. I oiled it down with plenty of homemade "after run" oil (Marvel Mystery oil and Mobil 1 synthetic car oil) at the beach. I did turn the boat upside down and pull on the starter rope. I couldn't believe how much milky white water/oil kept coming out. I probably pulled that starter rope a hundred times .

I even tried to start it at the beach because I really wanted to get that dunked engine running again asap. This was after about 20 rope pulls to clear the water and before I had turned the boat upside down. (Little did I know how much water was still in the engine!) I put the plug back in and pulled on the cord. The engine kinda "backfired" or something because it viciously pulled the starter rope right out of my hand. As it came out, it wacked the living daylights out of my left hand . It was as if some drummer had taken his drumstick and wacked the heck out of my hand. It broke a vessel under the skin and it started swelling up a big knot real fast; red and blue under the skin like a huge blood blister because that's basically what it was . Oh man did it hurt! I started thinking that maybe I may have to have it looked at but thank God, it started to go down slightly and didn't get any worse. Needless to say, I didn't try to start it at the beach again but I did get plenty more water out of it!

 

[[email protected]]

OOOUUUCCH! That's almost as bad the guy who wanted to spit water out of his gas motor so thinking he'd get more torgue used his left hand to grip tightly onto the prop and pull with his right hand. His palm looked like it went through the blender and his pinkie was gashed to the bone. NASTY STUFF.

 

[nitrotoys]

You can also add about 1oz of nitro fuel, and she will start for you, Run it to run water out of it, but dont over heat it. Best is to throw it back in and run a few slow laps. then bring it in. that way engine is free of water, pipes got all water heated out of it.

OUCH, I have had them pull back, them little handles slide right through your fingers.

I cant beleive the guy grabed the prop and tried to start it.

 

[dannyual767]

nitrotoys, I really did want to get the boat running again after the dunking to get all of the water out of the engine. After the whacking that I got along with the resulting swelling, I gave up.

I've run the engine a couple of times at home since.

Today, I took the boat back out to the same beach, however, there were a lot of people out with jetskis and boats and the wind was stronger so it was a no go for the Avenger . I really need to find some calmer fresh water around here.