River run

Being in Minneapolis, we are only a few miles from the Mississippi River, and also close to several others.  It gets tricky in this area because there are a series of locks and dams through here, and there are very few launch areas, but I have definitely been thinking I needed to get out and boat on the river.  With foliage in full color, this seemed like as good a time as any.

I launched from a public area near the Minneapolis Rowers Club boat house.  I headed up towards downtown.  The photo with barge is right at the next lock near downtown.  You can see the very new looking bridge in the middle is a freeway bridge that was replaced after a collapse several years ago - before I had moved.

It was a very nice trip.  A couple barges went by, but because of the locks, not many pleasure craft head up this way.  I definitely like the ease of heading to our nearby lake without car topping, but a little variety is nice too.

Maiden voyage!

I had my first trials yesterday and today.  Generally, they were successful.  I had a few bugs to work out with the steering cords and chain tension, but I was on the water doing nice laps after a few false starts.  A priority will be grinding the prop to add the lift from a proper profile.  Also, I may adjust the pitch as I was spinning out on the pedals before getting to max effort.  A future priority will be sealing off a greater portion of the stern hull.  You will see the stern sits low due to water that enters a fairly large drive leg stern partition through the drive leg opening.  This will be an easy modification once I take the time to work on it.  It's been a long day, so I apologize for a lack of a storyline on the trials.  This will have to be a photo post for now.