Took the boat on its first vacation with me for a week to a cottage on Lake Beaven (Québec).
Assembly was no problem; an electric pump at the cottage (intended for air mattresses) worked fine, though it didn’t have the oomph to fill the chambers to the desired pressure; the hand pump remedied that. I’ll look into a proper electric pump for inflatables for the next round.
Getting the outboard fired up was a bot of work, though. After a year’s storage and on first use, reefing on the cord a bunch of times—as anyone who’s done it or had trouble with a hand-started lawn mower can attest—was hard on the knuckles….
Finally got it going!
July 26, 2014: first outing in the boat! under power!
Others in the family decided to canoe across the lake, and found that I was generating too many waves… so I slowed down. Really slowed down….
Rowing back to the starting point
Over the course of the week, it got better. It was an enjoyable week, with lots of learning experiences!
Next year, we’ll try the sail rig, too 😉
Corinne
As nervous as I was about being on the lake I had a lot of fun in the boat/canoe. 🙂
I agree that its performance improved over the week. Although I feel that perhaps you got accustomed to how it starts and handles. Perhaps you should take have it cleaned and submerge it in a more local body of water and see what happens.
Karljürgen Feuerherm
It’s a good idea, I agree. But I doubt I can afford the time off, this year, with my deadline approaching….
And it’s been suggested that I consider an upgrade next year. I’m doing the research now 😉
Anyway, glad you enjoyed it in the end!