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Opened the sea cocks, checked the fluids, started her up and went for a ride today. Ed Curry made the trip with me, blowing an easy 20 knots, ran out a few miles into the bay and then back in.

Best weekend of 2011!

Congratulations! Report? Vibrations? Shaft & props seem OK?

Peter

20 knots is pretty dam good. Best I ever did at 3000 RPM was 19.5.

Did you put the props on yet? If you did, what are the top end RPM's. Hopefully they came down.

Thats awsome.

Tony, it was blowing 20kts. I am bringing the boat over to the marina next weekend will have the new props, cutlass bearings and a few other things done. I hadn't bothered putting up the electronics but Ed said we hit 25 mph on his hand held, that was at 3200rpms.

Thus far everything seems to be in good order, the starboard motor does produce a bit of white smoke at the higher rpms. I didn't notice any vibrations but I was up on the bridge while the boat was moving and it was a little snotty out.

I love that "1st ride of the season"... or at least I do when I get back to the dock with a short and easy checklist of things to do before making the second and third trip.

Hopefully the white smoke is steam and only requires at little TLC...impeller, heat exchanger cleaning, pickup cleaning...or in my case...open the Seacock ALL the WAY.

Sim,

You are absolutely right when things go well it is a great day!

I had that same smoking issue last year, dropping it off at the yard this weekend I will have them take a closer look.

Peter

I always had the same issue when I had the big blocks. The starboard engine always had white smoke early in the season. As the water warmed up, it would get less and less.

Sounds like she is running well otherwise. I am sure you will be off to a fun season.

Smoke. If your wife does not choke to death on it, its fine.

I always have free time. How come you guys never call me?
I'm starting to feel like the black haired step child.

PeterPalmieri wrote:Sim,

You are absolutely right when things go well it is a great day!

I had that same smoking issue last year, dropping it off at the yard this weekend I will have them take a closer look.

If I remember correctly, once all the fogger and stabilizer is out of the system, that white smoke usually cleared up.

Harv I will surely extend the invite next time the more the merrier.

I had the smoking issue in the fall too, might be the cold weather but it's not the fogging.

Getting on a private jet NY to Pittsburgh this morning will follow up with photos if I can snap off a few.

Lobby at teterboro



Sister plane in the hanger where we landed.

26000 feet -43c
430 kts Mach .80

While in the air 200 miles from destination arrival in 30 minutes.

Cool stuff

Peter

I spent a year in Pittsburgh many years ago. Actually lived in the hotel for the full year. Great city. Some great restraunts.

I ran the New York Office of a Pittsburgh based company. A VERY underrated city. Good food, nice people, beautiful outskirts. If you owned a home there, you got a lot for your money. I could never get anyone from NY to even consider moving there.

Pittsburgh is a great little city and the people are really nice. Generally people that grew up here stay here. I spend about 4 weeks a year here and luckily a good friend I grew up with lives here so I have some things to do in my down time.

The housing market is good here never went through the roof and never had a big drop off. It's very reasonable the same house and lot that goes for 500k in Babylon NY in a Pitt suberb goes for about 125k and the average salary is not 75% lower then it is in NY so it's much more affordable.

Lots of boating on the river here too. I personally couldn't live inland but it's one of the better places I've been to. Great seats to. Baseball game are $25 and you can walk up and get tickets same day no problem.

i went to college in pittsburgh...lived there for 4 years. not a big fan.

private jets however...big fan. drive the 10 minutes to east hampton airport...jump on clients jet. stop in teterboro....pick up client. fly to vail and snowboard all day. be home in time for late dinner. big fan.

Randall personally I get the shakes when I am more then an hour from the coast for more then a few days. But for those that don't know any better or love the salt water Pitt is pretty nice.

The jet is great i have never been to pitt any other way, unfortunately I have to drive to Teterboro I don't carry the kind of weight that theyd make a special stop in farming dale or islip for me. Still better then commercial flights.

What I really need is the guy who designed the interior of the falcon 900 to redo the interior of my B 31. Great use of space in the small galley and head. Beautiful wood and seating arrangement. If there are no big wigs on the return I will try to snap off a few photos. I am not shy about looking like bush league when I whip out the iPhone camera.

way to go randall but will not do the hellicoter thing on top of mountain at vail . ken rubenstein owns a house on mountain . compare to him i am worthy of the "bunny slope".

Pittsburgh has some great bars/pubs, nice friendly locals too. Even if they do cheer for the Steelers!

Primanti Brothers- nuff said

JP if you know the area I stay at the omni William Penn. It's about 7 block walk to the original Primanti Brothers not the nicest of walk ThT area is a ghost town at night. My plan was to go last night but it was raining pretty hard and my buddy is out of town. So it was a no go.

Fancy work dinner tonight. I am hoping for lunch tomorrow at Primantis At worst I will go to a place closer to the office for a Pittsburgh salad which includes cheese, sliced steak, fries and slaw.

There used to be a great seafood restaurant at the old railroad station. Wonder if it's still there. Stained glass domed ceiling that had been painted black in WWII. The new owners (1980's) discovered it by accident when they were cleaning the place up.

well....to b honest my opinion is probably tainted by being a very long haired teenager in what was still a very blue collar steel town. some great visuals however....blowing off the converters....spacey.

i flew to vail and back a bunch of times in the six passenger falcon and once in the 15 seat variety. the six is quite bare bones and their were girls in my high school that were wider. but it does cruise at 660. its a little bullet. i loved it but landing in a stiff cross wind was um...sporty. also...no head.

bob....the thing with helicopter skiing is once you jump out.....theres no turning back. i did the snow cat deal in vail pass....high altitude...like 12.5.

Walter this is very wierd. P&LERR Pennsylvania and lake Erie railroad. The restataunt was opened in 1972 according to my doctor friend I had dinner with. He was invited to the grand opening, also had his wedding in the grand concourse the main room with the stained glass ceiling. He also said the original owner went missing on his boat in the Bermuda triangle.

I heard the same story about the stained glass the inside was dirty from the smoke from the coal fired engines. The exterior on top was painted black as they were concerned if we were invaded in WWII that with a glass ceiling would be an easy target for German bombers.

The best part of the story is that I didn't ask him about it because of your post but rather he surprised me by taking me to his favorite restaurant. Is wasn't until I just got back that I saw your post.

Beautiful place.

It's sad that we do not build stuff like that anymore.

I know (I was a kid) that it was mandatory that the top half of car/truck headlight seal beams were all to be painted black during WWII as well as "Blackout Curtains" placed on the windows of all our houses. When there were Air Raid drills ALL lights had to go out for what were called "Blackouts". Aerial photographs were taken by the military and violations were searched out and penalties were given. Blackouts were taken very seriously. For that reason, I DO believe that roof WAS painted black in 1942. If I am not mistaken that railroad station was no longer used and fell into disrepair for a long time after the war, so the story has some credibility with me. I was taken there by the Chairman CEO of my Pittsburgh based agency who was born there and was a WWII fighter pilot who flew Thunderbolts. He was shot down on his first mission and spent the rest of the war in a German POW camp. He's the one who told me the story. I still remember a lot of oak, white octagonal tiles, and ice cold oysters.

that really is a nice room.

Brew the lobby of the hotel ain't so shabby either. Lots of beautiful architecture here.

Peter

So the William Penn still lives. I remember from when I was there in 75. I can remember the name of the hotel I stayed at but it was right across from the Civic Arena and a short walk to the Steel Building.

Is Tambellini's on the Mountain still in existance?

Downtown always became a ghost town at night. Never bothered me back then. But then I was 24 years old and could outrun most people, and figured after being in NY I could manage anything. Today I probably woudl have been shot.

I worked for Met Life at the time. We moved quite a few guys out there. In fact we had a couple we tried to bring back to NY but they said no way. They were Brooklyn and Queens born and raised and usually those guys never leave NY but they did.

The civi arena was renamed the Mellon arena but they opened a new hockey area in the fall. Not sure if they are knocking the old one down. I've been up to mt Washington but never tambellini not sure if it exists. There is an old hotel between the arena and steel building which is now a double tree. Would guess it was something else years back.

There are at least two vacant buildings I've walked by that seem to have a lobby as fancy as the hotel. The court house and allegheny jail are also beautiful buildings in the city.

when i lived there my favorite thing was the "bridge to nowhere". 3/4 of the way across the river to where 3 rivers stadium was yet to be built. i lived right down the street from forbes field. like a giant little league stadium. times have changed.

There it is! Also got confirmation that my console pod arrived at the house today. Can't wait to get home!

Also got confirmation that my console pod arrived at the house today. Can't wait to get home!

Don't bother trying to open just on end of the box, thinking it'll slip right out...

It's a box within a box and those two puppys are married together. I do, however, bag those damned packing peanuts so you won't have them flowing out across the living room floor.

Thanks again Capt Pat. Do you think if I walk in the house tonight and bypass my wife and son for the console pod I will offend them?

That is if I'm not headed directly for the bathroom after that sandwich.

One last image from downtown Pittsburgh. The allegheny county jail.

Back in the swing tomorrow and get the boat over to the yard on Saturday. Thanks for keeping me company this week.

Love that sandwich, my heart is thankful I only go 3 times a year