The fact that she floated was a huge relief - throughout the build we always new she would float, but you never really know until you put the boat in the water. The second relief of the day was that she went forward. Again, you always have these little nagging doubts.
But with out much fan fair, we put in her the water, fired her up and took off. We do have a couple of problems that we need to address - The first is weight distribution - the boat lists to the driver's side. The next is the trim - It is just not solid enough. The next issue was water in the hull and lastly the engine needs to be tuned as it is running very rich - We burned over a gallon of fuel in about an hour.
As for weight distribution - I think once we get the real gas tank installed we will be ok - we put the battery, exhuast and driver all on the same side and the temporary tank was placed in the middle.
The second issue for the trim - I would like to put in an electric motor and eliminate the mechanical fasteners. This will be a neat feature and will remove three joints that all have a little play in them.
the water in the hull was due to two things - One of the hose clamps on a through hull fitting actually split in half not really sure why - I may need a bigger through hull fitting.
The engine ran pretty good - just some basic tuning....
The boat performed very well - there was no cavitation or porposing. It was a real hoot to drive.
As soon as I get the rest of the pictures, I will upload them.