After some thought, called the BRP Tech Support line and discussed the need for winterizing the motor, since we only use it once a month or so. They said it couldn‘t hurt, also recommended a fuel stabilizer. Went to Sunset Marine, they concurred, so we purchased the BRP 2+4 fuel conditioner, added it to the fuel tank.

Even with the factory fender pads on the trailer, there is still a lot of gunk that is getting thrown up on the hull. Most of it appears to be brake dust/rust that is mixed with water from the gutter when driving to the ramp. Went back to West Marine and got wider (9" wide) galvanized fenders to replace the existing Pacific trailer fenders, which are only 7.5" wide. Perhaps this will work better than the fender pads. Will use a little elbow grease to make them fit in the space between the step pads.

Noticed on the BRP website that the Evinrude SST stainless steel propellers are available in a 13" pitch. Returned the 13.5 x 17" aluminum prop to Sunset Marine and ordered a BRP SST stainless prop, 13.75 x 13" instead.

Went out to the Coronados again. Averaged 4.2 mpg. Motor continues to start on the first try, even though we forgot to prime the fuel bulb.

FF41 was off again, but we think it could be either the fact that much of the day was at idle speeds, or there was air trapped in the line because we forgot to prime the fuel bulb.

Disengaged the AP12 when idling, was OK all day. Needs to be compensated, however. Will not accurately hold a course set by the GPS.

Encountered some sticking of the left trailer brake. Removed and regreased the left bearing, broke apart the brake, and hit the interior components with Corrosion-X, etc. Lots of corrosion, including the star adjuster wheel. Also, there is a small clip holding on the magnet which was worn thru - it appears to only be needed to hold the magnet on the arm during assembly, so I did not replace the clip.

Took the boat out with the new motor. Great economy, but the motor was not as smooth as we‘d have liked. At idle, there is some sort of harmonic, causes a rattle in the port bow area - perhaps the tank vent hose? But the noise level is much lower than before (just not whisper-quiet).

There was a little smoke occasionally, after running at higher speeds for some time, but turning the motor off, then back on, got rid of it. Probably the computer adding more oil during break-in. Oil consumption looked like half the tank at the end of the day! But it turns out Sunset Marine had put in less than half a gallon of oil, so it was hard to tell how much oil had really been used.

Started with the 13.75 x 15" blades on the Piranha. The performance was exactly like the old 90 HP (30 mph @ 5000 rpm WOT). Changed to the 14x13", got to 5500 rpm, 30+ mph with 5 gallons in the bait tank, better hole-shot, so I decided to stay with these blades. Optimum cruise was at 4500 rpm. 4.9 MPG! Took the boat out into the open ocean, averaged 4.1 MPG cruise fully loaded.

The trailer brakes were not working at the start of the day. Also front trailer running light were out. But at the end of day, they were working. . .hmmm. Probably a grounding issue. Sprayed Corrosion Block on the grounding points for the lights and the brakes.

Fishing was good for bonito, but a lot of seals.

The FF41 fuel flow meter is now almost exactly dead-on. At the end of the trip, read 13.9, actual was 14.0. But we noticed something interesting - we left the ignition key on during thr trip home, and by the time we got to the gas station, the meter read 16.1! There must be a fixed offset to compensate for low flow rate error, and by leaving the key on, it continued to tick up the fuel. Wonder if that was what was causing the error all along?

Followed the Simrad tech‘s advice - took the AP12 off "Navigate" whenever I was in neutral, and the AP12 worked fine all day. No unexpected hard right turns. Promising, but we'll need to see over a longer term.

The hull's stern light was not working. Turns out Sunset Marine had disconnected the light while cleaning house in the stern, and forgot to re-attach it. Found the wires buried on the far starboard side inside the transom. Also replaced the starboard rod tube on the bait tank, which was cracked.

The fenders are the right width, but too long by a couple of inches to fit in between the step pads. I decided to return them to West Marine rather than try to force them to fit.

Noticed the MotorGuide trolling motor lower unit is showing some rust stains on the lower unit paint. Need to investigate.