Yesterday was one of the best days of my boating life. We consummated
the deal for "Just Crusin'", to be renamed by next season.

She's a 1977 Sea Ray 240 SRV, which is an enclosed cockpit with a cuddy-
type berth. In the catalog they call it a "sedan" boat (catalogs are
available from Sea Ray back for quite some time). She has a new bilge
pump, steering cables, the baffles are very recent and only 321 hours on
her. Her 255 Mercruiser passed a compression test.

Things we found:
1. Sharp changes in RPM cause her to veer sharply.
2. I didn't notice a distinct "plane" point, as I have on smaller ski
boats. I don't know if that's a semi-displacement hull talking, or the
size of her or just the way she is. The transition between displacement
and plane isn't clear -- that it, the transition is so smooth as to be
indistinct.
3. "Cruise" speed: there wasn't any obvious way to figure out where to
maximize mileage (knotage?). She got up to 3800 RPM and 27kts
(according to fish finder) at WOT, and I've read that cruising speed is
about 65% of RPMs, but she seems to need 3000 RPM to plane, and then
we're only going 17-18 knots.
4. When replacing the steering cable it looks like the trim tab sensors
were disconnected. While they have been reconnect to power, I have to
see if they can be reconnected to the trim tabs. The water pump isn't
working, and I don't know where
5. I still need to inventory the boat and see what kind of things I
need. The old owners also owned a Marine supply store and were kind
enough to give me new flares, boat hook and fire extinguisher. We need
to get some extra life jackets (we bought enough for three of us, but we
expect we'll have more people on board eventually.
6. We're docking it at a local marina, and we are clearly the crappiest
boat there. The docks are so high that getting down to our boat is a
real challenge. Not just for us, but for our Lab, too. We're looking
at ladder and plank ideas that include something a Lab can do.