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1985 Ski Nautique Performance Evaluation
Diaries | Details
This boat's story has been posted by the owner. Please contact the owner with any questions. You may use the form below to send the owner an email.
Updated:
8/14/2023 (15 months ago)
Originally Posted: 8/14/2023
Total Views: 326
Owner: Fred Clodfelter
Forum Nickname: FredC
Location: New London, NC
Phone: (703) 609-8190
Model: 1984 Ski Nautique
Length: 19
Engine: 351W
HP: 250
Hours: 1080
Modify this Diaries Listing
Forum Nickname: FredC
Location: New London, NC
Phone: (703) 609-8190
Model: 1984 Ski Nautique
Length: 19
Engine: 351W
HP: 250
Hours: 1080
Modify this Diaries Listing
My college-age daughter, Caroline, named this 1984 Ski Nautique “Jolene” on our first outing a month ago. So far… Jolene is putting out good vibrations!
After traveling hours to see newer 5x-the-price boats, I paid $10,000 cash for Jolene and her trailer. She was only 20 miles from my favorite house, grandpa’s cabin I’ve adored since 1972. Didn’t haggle. I always haggle some. But, this time I paid the helpful seller-gent’s price in my rare listening mode with total handshakes and smiles. Seemed like a fair deal for both of us.
I’ve had her a few weeks. My first boat with a motor I cannot lift with one hand. I am 50-more-than-something years young. Older than Jolene but somehow I feel we are contemporaries so that Jolene gets-me. I like machines and most machines like me back. Lucky state for a self-admitted Tool-Junkie. I’m not fond of brand-new for me. There’s not enough character and not enough to do. However, I am fond of brand new for my new-driver daughters, figuring if new breaks down in an unsafe way it’s unlikely and not my fault.
Jolene had only two minor flaws as divulged by the honest helpful seller-gent. One, some upholstery wear. Two, non-working speedometers. She’s been to the lake seven times. Starts every time. Steers. Fuel gauge doesn’t lie (much). Luckily she fibs on the safe side claiming she’s empty when she’s not. Burns only ten gallons per long half-day of dragging four teens around on a tube. So, she’s delicious entertainment for a table of six at a bargain price.
When I raise the engine cover to look at the motor it looks and smells as familiar as bacon and eggs on a white plate. It’s a simple old-school V-8 with a carburetor, and easier to access than automobile engines that I saw before you got your first baseball glove. I was crawling over them and laying under them before I could walk. Thanks Dad. Yesterday was his birthday. He would have liked Jolene too.
Refer to my prior post about a stubbornly stuck prop. It’s still stuck. I immediately bought a new Acme 540 prop because I wanted to buy Jolene a present so she’d be good to me. Her current stuck prop is super smooth up to 3800 RPM. Above 4000 I feel some vibration. Bought a new backup prop to try. With way more than average mechanical smarts, I can’t convince Jolene to let go of her old prop. Tools, heat, clamps, hammers, patience, and minor cussing haven’t worked.
This morning, my superstitious self is going with, “Jolene doesn’t want to turn faster than 4000 RPM. She likes chucking kids, and boarders, and skiers up to 2500 RPM like dads enjoy tossing five year olds in a four foot deep blue-water pool. That’s when daddy is his most serious muscle and a hero to the kiddos. Jolene is that in bigger water with a girl’s name. So, I might put the prop-change on hold for now.
The real cherry-on-top. The gold-nugget omen. The supermodel on the runway is the speedometer incident.
The broken speedometers. My back hurts. My spine. Too much twisty pickleball, racquetball, golf, tennis with not enough stretching and it hurts lately. Chainsaws and shoving thousand-pound farm machinery doesn’t help either. But, I keep going and the ailment comes and goes especially after a prolonged hunched-over chore.
Attempting to repair the speedometers, I twisted in an unhealthy way under the dash and under the swim deck blowing out and cleaning speedo-stuff as per the Google-expert advice. Not a good recipe for my back ailments. The damn speedos wouldn’t work. Lines are clear. I blew in the backs and the needle didn’t budge. Figured they were dead. Took them to Badin Lake. Still didn’t work. Started my search for more repair, replace, or upgrade. Reluctant to upgrade because I like the old chrome look.
My back ailments demanded that I leave the speedometers alone for a while. Then a miracle happened. In a few more outings, JOLENE FIXED HER OWN SPEEDOMETERS. BOTH OF THEM! How does that happen? I understand one coming to life. But Both?! That’s ANTI-Murphy’s Law!
Dolly Parton sings a mean Jolene. Turns out Jolene is a man stealer. After all the evidence, I see the light.
Jolene is putting on her make-up. 💕
Jolene’s gonna steal her a man! 😲
Listen to Dolly’s Jolene
After traveling hours to see newer 5x-the-price boats, I paid $10,000 cash for Jolene and her trailer. She was only 20 miles from my favorite house, grandpa’s cabin I’ve adored since 1972. Didn’t haggle. I always haggle some. But, this time I paid the helpful seller-gent’s price in my rare listening mode with total handshakes and smiles. Seemed like a fair deal for both of us.
I’ve had her a few weeks. My first boat with a motor I cannot lift with one hand. I am 50-more-than-something years young. Older than Jolene but somehow I feel we are contemporaries so that Jolene gets-me. I like machines and most machines like me back. Lucky state for a self-admitted Tool-Junkie. I’m not fond of brand-new for me. There’s not enough character and not enough to do. However, I am fond of brand new for my new-driver daughters, figuring if new breaks down in an unsafe way it’s unlikely and not my fault.
Jolene had only two minor flaws as divulged by the honest helpful seller-gent. One, some upholstery wear. Two, non-working speedometers. She’s been to the lake seven times. Starts every time. Steers. Fuel gauge doesn’t lie (much). Luckily she fibs on the safe side claiming she’s empty when she’s not. Burns only ten gallons per long half-day of dragging four teens around on a tube. So, she’s delicious entertainment for a table of six at a bargain price.
When I raise the engine cover to look at the motor it looks and smells as familiar as bacon and eggs on a white plate. It’s a simple old-school V-8 with a carburetor, and easier to access than automobile engines that I saw before you got your first baseball glove. I was crawling over them and laying under them before I could walk. Thanks Dad. Yesterday was his birthday. He would have liked Jolene too.
Refer to my prior post about a stubbornly stuck prop. It’s still stuck. I immediately bought a new Acme 540 prop because I wanted to buy Jolene a present so she’d be good to me. Her current stuck prop is super smooth up to 3800 RPM. Above 4000 I feel some vibration. Bought a new backup prop to try. With way more than average mechanical smarts, I can’t convince Jolene to let go of her old prop. Tools, heat, clamps, hammers, patience, and minor cussing haven’t worked.
This morning, my superstitious self is going with, “Jolene doesn’t want to turn faster than 4000 RPM. She likes chucking kids, and boarders, and skiers up to 2500 RPM like dads enjoy tossing five year olds in a four foot deep blue-water pool. That’s when daddy is his most serious muscle and a hero to the kiddos. Jolene is that in bigger water with a girl’s name. So, I might put the prop-change on hold for now.
The real cherry-on-top. The gold-nugget omen. The supermodel on the runway is the speedometer incident.
The broken speedometers. My back hurts. My spine. Too much twisty pickleball, racquetball, golf, tennis with not enough stretching and it hurts lately. Chainsaws and shoving thousand-pound farm machinery doesn’t help either. But, I keep going and the ailment comes and goes especially after a prolonged hunched-over chore.
Attempting to repair the speedometers, I twisted in an unhealthy way under the dash and under the swim deck blowing out and cleaning speedo-stuff as per the Google-expert advice. Not a good recipe for my back ailments. The damn speedos wouldn’t work. Lines are clear. I blew in the backs and the needle didn’t budge. Figured they were dead. Took them to Badin Lake. Still didn’t work. Started my search for more repair, replace, or upgrade. Reluctant to upgrade because I like the old chrome look.
My back ailments demanded that I leave the speedometers alone for a while. Then a miracle happened. In a few more outings, JOLENE FIXED HER OWN SPEEDOMETERS. BOTH OF THEM! How does that happen? I understand one coming to life. But Both?! That’s ANTI-Murphy’s Law!
Dolly Parton sings a mean Jolene. Turns out Jolene is a man stealer. After all the evidence, I see the light.
Jolene is putting on her make-up. 💕
Jolene’s gonna steal her a man! 😲
Listen to Dolly’s Jolene
