Mysteries solved!

Harry Potter came out of his home under the stairs and worked some magic on board PERSPECTIVE today!

Armed with a heap of experience, a volt-meter and a couple of zip-lock bags, David diagnosed our starting problem, and narrowed it down to one short piece of wire that was faulty.  Bi-passed, and abracadabra — she starts like a charm.

Next, we measured the water flow from the impeller to a bucket (at idle, and at 2000 RPM) and compared to the flow rate from the heat exchanger to a bucket — same results.  Aha, look upstream for problems, and presto magico — the O-ring for the strainer basket was lying behind the engine.  Cleaned, greased, installed and it was night and day — 4X the water flowing through the engine!

(Embarrasing, but simple!)

I went for a motor, half-way to the bridge at High RPM.  Tons of water flowing out, no steam and over six knots of boat speed.  We are ready for the lake now!