1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Splash Day Redux

My 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 is floating in Rock Creek, MD, after a successful splash with a nearly dry bilge, followed by an idle speed maiden voyage out to the Herring Bay jetty and back!

New Forespar Marelon 1″ seacock to replace the leaking OEM one

Installation was super easy. The boat was ready to go back in the water.

Time to light off those Cummins 6CTAs!

Once the Travelift dropped me in the creek, I turned the starboard key to the START position, but the engine made the dreaded CLICK sound as the bendix engaged and the starter turned the engine over for just a fraction of a second, then nothing. The same exact problem from Splash Day had returned! And that was after lighting off four times while the boat was blocked on land still in the Travelift slings!

After doing a bunch of pointless things, a buddy mentioned that sometimes marine starters get hung up and can be awakened with a firm smack of a hammer. He volunteered to turn the key while I manned the hammer in the engine room. At my signal after a good smacking with the mallet, he turned the key and…the engine fired up normally!

My buddy shut down the engine and I went to the helm, very happy that the sledge seemed to have worked. I gave the key a twist to restart the engine and…it made the same massive CLICK sound again and then nothing!

I said something about me being jinxed, and I asked my buddy to give it a try with me standing there. He turned the key and…the engine lit right off! He was laughing his butt off at this point as he shut the engine off.

I stepped up to the helm and, with my buddy still laughing beside me, turned the key…the damned engine barked a massive CLICK and refused to start. My “buddy” appeared to be experiencing physical distress, he was laughing so hard.

At my request, he once again turned the key and started the engine as if this was all perfectly normal. I was becoming more and more convinced that some demonic presence had possessed the boat…a ghost of past tents, perhaps? Maybe a wraith from the Super SeaMaster engines the Cummins 6CTA’s replaced? Was Belphegor, the archdemon of sloth (one of the Seven Deadly Sins), perturbed that this boat that lay fallow for so many decades was expected to move under its own steam???

It just occurred to me that Belphegor would have been a great name for this boat’s transom…

Anyway, my buddy’s laughter was certainly sounding kind of demonic to me at this point. But he took a breath and told me to try again. “Turn the key slowly,” he said, just as the howling laughter started again.

So I did. And the engine started perfectly normally, and it has ever since.

The problem, it turns out, wasn’t a finger-tight starter bolt (though it’s very good that I found and fixed that). It was that one of the brand new Sierra (Made in America?) ignition switches I installed is defective. When you turn a key to START, it usually engages the starter simultaneously with hitting the pin that stops the key from turning more. That’s how all my cars and other boats have always worked, including the port ignition switch on my Roamer. But on the starboard side, the START contacts line up before the stop pin. I was twisting the key past the point where the contacts closed. The contacts would close momentarily, but when the key hit the pin and stops rotating, the contacts are no longer closed. Which is why the bendix would engage so enthusiastically and the motor would start to rotate, then stop dead with a little hiccup as the START contacts closed briefly when the key returned to the RUN position.

So, having figured out the secret to starting my starboard engine, I had a few other things to work out before going for a ride. Like confirming that the automatic mode for the bilge pumps works. So I brought a hose onboard and intentionally flooded the forward and aft bilge compartments. The aft bilge pump worked perfectly. The forward pump…not so much.

That’s not right

After flooding the forward bilge compartment for three minutes, I wondered why the forward Jabsco pump was running and running but not actually clearing water from the bilge. Upon investigating the problem, I was surprised to see that since I installed the pump, the plastic hose barb fitting broke.

There’s less than 1/16″ of critical plastic holding that barb together

These Jabsco pumps are the most expensive bilge pumps around. Yet they rely on hose barbs that strike me as very flimsy. This thing is up against the forward bulkhead. It can’t be stepped on or otherwise abused. the hose connections were straight, so no stress. Yet the plastic broke.

Swap the expensive Jabsco pump out for a slightly less $$$ Shurflow pump and we’re in business

The Shurflow pump is quieter and faster than the Jabsco pump…and half the price. I don’t think these Jabsco pumps are worth $400 when you can get a better Shurflow pump for less than half that. If anybody thinks the Jabsco belt-drive diaphragm pumps are better, please let me know why in the comments below.

With the automatic function proved to be working for the aft and forward bilge pumps, the boat was ready to get wet.

I opened the galley window at the bow seat since….well…I could

It’s warm and humid near the Swamp (AKA Washington, DC) and being able to open this window had the exact benefit I’d hoped for. A nice breeze wafted through the salon after I opened it.

It looks good, too!

The open window at the bow seat also lets me listen to music when I’m on the bow, without having to crank up the volume and disturb others.

Backing out of the Travelift well

My videographer buddy couldn’t make it today, but marina staff enthusiastically helped out with pictures of the Roamer finally splashing. A video might have been better, but here you go anyway.

The water spraying out of the thru-hull in front of the exhaust is a tell-tale

Most of the main engine raw water exits via the exhaust. But I welded a hose barb at the top of the showerhead when I made the dry-stack exhaust, which connects to the thru-hull that’s dumping raw water in the pic above. If water is pissing out of the tell-tale, it means the showerhead is fully cooled.

I touched the dock just long enough for a boat buddy to jump aboard

Those tinted windows look soooooo good!

And we were off and running…

…slowly…

…with zero local knowledge…

…in a fairly shallow Chesapeake tributary…

…but everything turned out fine

Back at the dock after a run out to the jetty

The shaft logs were dripping, so I adjusted them to stop the leaks when they’re no longer moving. The rudder logs are dry, as are the seacocks. This will be a dry bilge boat, I think (hope).

That’s a good looking boat

It’s so different seeing the whole boat vs what I could see when it was in the tent.

Booyah

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Installing the Transom Name and Home Port