Yesterday we launched the boat! The actual boat launch went without a problem. The night before however was full of problems. It turned out that either Ed's Marine or Mercury forgot to include a very important custom washer that keeps the propeller in place. So I spent most of the night on Friday jerry rigging a washer from home depot w/ the dremel tool. Then, the next morning I found out that there was a missing part from the hitch which sent me off on another trip to home depot. In the end it was worth it though.
Ultimately we launched the boat on Saturday morning. Surprisingly, things went well and we couldn't find any leaks. There was some water in the boat but I think it was mostly from missing sealant around the lower bolts holding the motor in place. It was also probably from water seeping through the motor well which is easily fixed. When we finally got moving the boat was going at about 40 miles per hour! There was a lot of bouncing around when we crossed the water ski boats and I have to learn how to trim the boat correctly at different speeds. Overall, its a very fun boat with a lot of power. There should be no problems taking this boat water skiing, fishing, or diving!
Here are some pictures of our boat launching. The second pictures also shows our new 4Runner.
From here, I'll start working at a slower pace on the many details that are remaining.