The Boat has Arrived!!!

[andertonm]

Picked up the new 2320 from the dealer today. Awesome! Beautiful boat. In spite of warnings from old salts, launched on Friday with a woman on board. Parker has made many improvements since our 2002 2120. It's almost as if they heard me and this forum... I will post a detailed review soon.

But back to the portents of doom from the old salts. It was very difficult to keep the boat at break-in RPMs on this our first foray with a four-stroke. Initial idle was eerily silent and free of the smell of burning oil. We left the pier and motored out into the bay and soon began to notice that the motor seemed to be running on 5 cylinders. Very rough performance with a rhythmic miss. We had expected turbine-smooth performance and it felt more like a diesel. After about an hour or so of tooling around, we headed back to the pier and when I cut back to idle the motor sputtered and nearly cut off. Ugh! Fortunately, there is a Yamaha rep down the creek who is going to meet us at 7AM and hook up his laptop to diagnose the problem. Not an auspicious start to our new relationship, but I'm sure it's something simple.

So far the boat itself is a gem. More to follow....

 

[andertonm]

Forgot to add pix of new boat.

 

[andertonm]

Fumble fingers.

 

[DaleH]

LOVE IT!

You got sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much use out of your 2120. I have followed your Parker and websit for years and it was the love you had for your boat, like so many others here, that inspired me to establish apermanent home for Parker owners.

Enjoy!

 

[esfishdoc]

I'm sure the engine problem is an easy fix.

Nice boat!

I'm assuming you have an anchor stashed somehwere... hint hint.....

Do not go out on the water without an anchor.

Richard

 

[DLH]

Congratulations!!! Awsome boat, waiting for a 2320 also due soon. Hope all is well with the engine........maybe there is something to that Friday thing??!!

 

[Ranger Tim]

Ditto Dale's worship of your personal Parker site. I wish you many auspicious launches and may the fish you bring over the rail only be equalled in size by the ones you find on the wall in tackle shops! I will see you on the water soon. Be careful of the gel coat until it cures a couple of weeks!

What a beautiful boat!

 

[BlueSky]

Mark,

Good luck with the new boat. She is beautiful.

What kind of electronics are you going with?

Brian

 

[Porkchunker]

Very nice ride.

I remember the day I splashed mine on my own. When I took delivery, Tri-State took me down to their local ramp, showed me how to launch/recover, and run all the switches, trim, etc. before they would release it. I was so excited, I'm not sure I remembered a word they said.

[story]There I was in Annapolis, at Sandy Pt. State Park. Earlier in the day, I had washed the boat, put "Army Family" and "Support our Troops" stickers on the side windows (both sides). I was wearing my gray Army physical fitness t-shirt. Launch went A-OK...afterall I had been launching/rcovering the woodie for several years. Cruise went A-OK, but when we returned, there was a good wind blowing across the piers. Well, as hard as I tried, I could not get that boat to snuggle up to the pier from the down-wind side. I wanted the down wind side so that I wouldn't have to fend off so much (remember this is a brand new boat, and I didn't want any dings on my first trip). There were a couple of old salts standing on the pier next to me watching these festivities...one had a Navy cap. I finally gave up and went in on the up wind side...and the old salts chuckling a bit...discussing something about the Army.[/story]

Moral of the story is if you do something for the first time, don't do it in front of expert critics. :shock: :shock: :shock:

Good luck and good fishing with that new boat. And, don't forget to have two anchors on board...one in the pulpit, and a spare (including spare rode).

The standard rode that most dealers give you won't have enough chain on it. From first hand experience, I can attest that strong currents (like those around the CBBT near Norfolk, VA) can sweep a danforth and 15' of chain back up to the boat and slam the anchor against the chine.

Recommend you move the rode and keep it as your spare rode. Make up your own rode with chain that is 1.5 times overall boat length. The 1.5 times boat length comes out of Chapman's.

 

[cbigma]

Mark

She's a real beauty,,, what's her name?

 

[Megabyte]

Beauty... and you added photos!
Extra special cool and multiple CP points to you...!

Oh, and Dave... it seems you did learn something from the anchor clankers that day.

I had an old Navy salt teach me years ago to "look at the wind" before approaching a dock.
Of course... it took me a little while before that intel sunk in. :lol:

 

[andertonm]

The problem with the new motor turned out to be a couple of bad spark plugs. When I asked how you got bad plugs straight out of the factory, the answer was "Happens all the time." Our tech took the boat out and got it up to 46 MPH per the gauge and that was not full throttle. We were a little jealous since we have been holding it to 3000 RPM for break-in. He said he was allowed to do it 'cause if he blew it up, Yamaha would give us a new motor.

Now to mount all the electronics and all the little stuff we came to take for granted on the old boat.

I really learn a lot from this site. It never occurred to me that the ingredients that make up the boat are still curing, but it makes sense. Thanks.

I appreciate the kind words about my site - nice to know someone is looking, but what it all all boils down to is that this is a great product that generates a lot of loyalty and admiration. If I had bought another brand, I doubt very seriously I would be participating in a "community conversation" like this. Maybe five years from now I'll be writing about my new 25 or bigger.

 

[andertonm]

Boat spent a week on the trailer for installation of electronics. Yesterday we put her back in the water, anxious to see the results of the new spark plugs and play with the new autopilot. Motoring out of Lynnhaven inlet, it was obvious to me that the motor is still missing badly.We ran around a little bit, hoping the problem would clear, but it didn't. When you pull the throttle back to what should be idle, it actually quits running sometimes.

When we got out into the bay, we found a two and a half to three foot chop out of the northeast starting to turn to whitecaps. Not great conditions for any small boat. The first thing we noticed is that the 2320 ride in this kind of stuff is much harsher than our old 2120. In the 2120, when you put the trim tabs and motor down, you could power right through rough water. Don't try it in the 23! I'm guessing that the problem is that you are seated farther forward in the 23 and farther forward is not what you want in rough seas. Drivers head actually hit the roof at one point.

We stayed out for a while and did the autopilot sea trials, aligning the compass, etc. then we limped home in our five cylinder bouncey boat. By the time we got back, we were having fond memories of our old 2120 SC with its workhorse 2-stroke 150.

The 23 is a big beautiful boat, and I'm sure when we work out the motor bugs, we will grow to love it, but right now it's a little discouraging.

 

[Phil]

You need to take some time and familiarize yourself on the handling characteristics of the boat. There is a certain wave interval in which the boat will launch off the crest of one wave and land smack on the crest of the next wave right under the helm area. You need to adjust so that doesn’t happen. Trim down on the tabs and engine as much as possible. Change speed slower or faster—sometimes faster is actually better. Change the heading 10 degrees or more.

Bigger tabs would help. I still have the factory tabs and can’t justify the upgrade until the old ones die. Instead, I load the front of the boat with crap load of stuff—2 batteries, liferaft, portable generator, portable gas tank, emergency canned foods, bottled water, spare prop, electric & manual winches, tackle, hand tools, ect... I have ran on plane for 50 miles in true 3-5 footers on this boat—it’s not the best riding boat but you’d be surprised what it can do once you get to know it. Good luck with the engine—probably something simple.

 

[JC]

I'm guessing that the problem is that you are seated farther forward in the 23 and farther forward is not what you want in rough seas.

You are correct. By extending the length of the hull with the bracket, the Arm has been increased. Add the weight of the motor/bracket combination and the boat becomes less stable in certain conditions. This could be the reason Parker stopped offering the bracket on the 2120. The boat does not weigh enough to compensate for the change in moment.
Your Armstrong bracket is designed with an air chamber to compensate for the extra weight. This added flotation eliminates the transom from squatting when at rest. However it has less effect when the hull is on plane.
The complete explanation to your experience is more complex and too technical to answer in this thread. A simple solution is to know the limits of your vessel and stay in port when heavy seas are forecast.

 

[DaleH]

... what it all all boils down to is that this [Parker] is a great product that generates a lot of loyalty and admiration. If I had bought another brand, I doubt very seriously I would be participating in a "community conversation" like this.

Hear, hear' !

Hope those at Parker Marine reads your testimonial !

 

[andertonm]

Love this forum... Lots of knowledgeable folks out there. Never occurred to me that I haven't loaded the boat up with the two or three hundred pounds of junk we carried around in the 2120. Asked Mr. Parker about the bracket on the 2120 and he said they had tried it and the boat tended to "porpoise." I'm staying calm and I'm going to learn to love this boat. We all resist change...

The tabs could stand to be bigger. Had a GW with a very flat hull at the transom and the trim tabs were VERY effective. Given the angle of the tabs on the 2120/2320 its easy to see why they might not be as effective. I keep finding positives about the boat - 2120 had lots of nooks and crannies that made it hard to hose trash off of the deck, but floor of the 2320 is just a big flat floor that drains into the scuppers. Hose it down and go home! And the new raceways in the cabin overhead are fantastic and make it easy to run the myriad wires needed for adult marine toys.

But the Yamaha... Spoke to an expert today and he said there is a real problem with new construction boats in that trash from the build process gets into the tank, lines, etc and gums up the fuel flow, maybe at the injector level. Hmmm. 10 micron filter installed - the skepticism kicks in. Mechanic didn't come up with an answer today, says he is going to test drive tomorrow with laptop attached. I'm betting on a bad injector.

Thanks for listening.

 

[andertonm]

Dealer mech had boat all day with no results. Said he was going to test drive it this afternoon with laptop attached. Patience...

Given the unsatisfying performance on our first four hours of engine time, I decided to call Yamaha customer support and let them know we have an issue with a new engine. Person on the phone was very supportive and says they will monitor dealer response to our problem. I'm just afraid that a month from now I will still have a five-cylinder engine and I want some history on file.