New XLV GG - In water pics

Last week we received our new XLV Gravity Games edition, shipped directly to Bahrain. These are the first pics (taken with my cameraphone while swimming so the quality isn't the best....).

Mostly going pretty well so far - just 5 hours break in done so far. However when it arrived there was a bit of a shocker - the boat has a closed cooling system (the gulf is super salty especially in the summer) and the raw water cooling pipes were hooked up the wrong way round! Thankfully the boatyard we keep it at spotted this in comissioning otherwise the engine would have gone pop on me...

Already snared a few bags and cement sacks on the propellor (from all the building work going on here) which is a pain - not sure how I'm going to avoid this as there is a significant amount of debris in the water. Also it is sandy so I guess I'll be having to keep a close eye on he water filters and impeller.

My biggest worry at the moment is that the water temp in August is 34C+ (93F) and rising and the engine temp is running close to 180C according to the dash. Does anyone have experience of running in water this warm and might it cause problems?

Anyway i spent the best part of a week coating everything metal on the boat I could find in corrosion block sprayand grease as the saltwater/dust combo out here is pretty toxic. Any advice on anti-corrosion maintenance would be great too.

Can't wait to get that oil change, load up the sacks and pop some uber-air.

Rod

its a pretty sweet looking boat! Love the XLV GG this year!

As far as corrosion goes, I know nothing... in Ontario, don't have any of the problems you described! I'm sure someone else on this board will have experience though...

Enjoy the fantastic looking boat!

Slacker

Great looking boat!! I have always liked the GG paint job
Tazz

Very cool! I can't believe the water is so hot! I'd love to visit the Persian Gulf, looks awesome!

Cheers guys.

I think there is a pretty uncommon combination of weather conditions here with the saltwater, dust, humidity and high water temperature. Still it should cool in September - I'll just have to take it easy till then. I guess I can't complain that there is only one month of the year where I can go full pelt since the winter is very pleasant.

I really liked the GG graphics this year and since we do get some heavy chop from time to time here I had to go with the XLV rather than the LS. Fortunately with all the land reclaimation here they are building sea barriers everywhere which are awesome for wakeboarding behind. Just getting to them can be a bit of a pain sometimes.

I do not have experience with high water temps but I do notice that at slow speeds my engine temp creeps up. Simply turn the blower on to get some fresh air and the temp drops. But since you are in a warmer climate this may not help. But 180 is in the normal range of operation.

Well, we've clocked up the 10 hours now so this weekend we'll be doing some wakeboarding.

I managed to break my little toe with my toolbox last weekend but like that's going to stop me....

We're definitely seeing some of the vapour lock problems people have mentioned on this site. Since it only costs me a little over $30 to fill the tank from empty (gotta love cheap Middle East oil) ) I've taken the view that switching off the engine in August is not an option. That seems to have cleared up the vapour locks....

Ahhhh we could only wish it costs 30$ to fill up the boat!!!!! More like $200CAD on the lake, $150CAD off the lake! Thats ridiculous! Glad to hear it solved your vapour lock issue though :). Have seen from other posts that some folks have actually gotten a water cooling system to solve this problem, though given the temp of your lake, it may not help you any anyways...

Good luck boarding! The boat has a pretty amazing wake!

Nice Boat!