Author: chris

A severe weather warning is current for the SE coast district.

Forecast for Sunday Evening
A few showers, increasing to rain periods. Moderate to fresh SE winds.

Precis: Showers increasing

—

Nice weather for painting huh. This is how its been for the last five days – just for the days I’d hoped to prepare and paint the bottom. Back on Tuesday I had three days to do the bottom and get a trial install of the motor done – Current Sunshine was due back in the water on Saturday 6am. Hardly possible – so I enlisted help for sanding and painting from Col – a guy who had a boat here at Monties but had some time available. That would allow me to fit the tracks for the motor, and install the motor to test how it fits and to trim the pipes.

Here’s a picture of Col on Thursday night under rain and lights. The white stripes are the water dripping down from the rain. Just after this the rain increased to a torrential downpour and we abandoned it for the night.

Here’s a shot of the boatyard during the day – during a lull in the rain – looking out from under the tarps over her bows.

The upside of the severe weather is that the boat due to be hauled out on Saturday couldn’t get here and so I got a reprieve – Current Sunshine could stay out until Monday morning. This is the extra time we needed and with help from Deb the antifouling paint is done. Otherwise she would have gone back in unfinished! So she’s now due back in tomorrow about 8am.

Meanwhile Mark has been fabricating the stainless steel work for the motor. Here’s a shot in his workshop showing the motor with some S-S tubes added.

And here’s mark explaining how he protected the electric cables during the welding process..

And trial fitting in the well to check how the new carrier fits and it positioning..

The tracks for hauling the motor up are too short. They were ok for the outboard motor because the position of the carriage had to suit the outboard motor bracket – it had to simulate the transom that you would normally clamp an outboard onto. And the leg of the motor predicates the range of lift that is needed to raise and lower the prop.

But this motor is different. The entire motor and propeller are one unit – compared to an outboard where the motor itself is up high and dry, and the propeller is in the water. The electric motor will be underwater.

Anyway, the tracks were sized to suit the lifting of the outboard. And they didn’t go all the way to the bottom of the hull. But it seems if I lengthen the tracks, then it allows the carriage to travel further – about 700mm instead of only 500mm. And this difference is enough lift the electric motor entirely out of the water. So… time for a cup of tea.

The tracks used for carriage are sail tracks the cars are the usual sail track cars used to attach sheet-blocks to. After a cuppa it was obvious that I should do this extra work and make it work even better. Here’s a photo looking down the well, and if you look closely you can see the pads for the sail tracks extending down, but not quite reaching the bottom of the hull. I’ve drilled some oversize holes where the track bolts will go – these holes will be filled with epoxy and then drilled out again to the proper smaller size. The expoxy will protect the balsa core which could otherwise be exposed to water.

Here is a shot from underneath. The holes have now been filled with epoxy and the pad extended for the longer sail tracks.

It took three cups of tea to get to this point. The real story about three cups of tea is one of my favourite recent books and you can read more here

Slipping a boat at Monty’s has some unexpected benefits such as free use of the forklift which is perfect for removing 80kg of outboard motor. Here’s picture with Steve at the controls and it swinging over the stern of Current Sunshine. In the background is the languid waters of the Caboolture River.

We stored it in Steve’s shipping container and we chewed the cud about how much I might get for it, and I settled on $1000 being a good price that I should get easily enough. After collecting some motor parts from Current Sunshine – barely 15 minutes – Steve tells me he’s sold it for $800 – if want to take the offer. So I did a deal with his neighbour Guy and I no longer have a fall-back position if there’s problems installing the electric motor. yikes!

oh – the electric motor has arrived – its at scarborough and Steve and Mikki will bring it tomorrow. By the way, Steve Mikke are working in refitting their boat Seagull, to sell, and will then refit their other boat, Boris (I kid you not) and then hope to sail in about a year.