Making bracket for Ultralight

Mockup of how the ball joint will be mounted on the ply

Malcolm’s ten year old kayak has no flat area on the stern that’s needed to mount the Torqeedo Ultralight. Right aft it has a storage area or well and that means there’s no deck. We need to fabricate something to attach the ball joint. The kayak motor comes with a flanged ball joint onto which attaches an arm for the motor.  The idea is that you bolt the flanged ball joint onto the deck right near the stern of the kayak – the ball joint remains fixed to the kayak and the Ultralight is easily attached to this ball joint when needed.

Gladwrap covering the gun'ls so epoxy won't stick

On board Current Sunshine I carry epoxy resin, glass matt, powder for making epoxy bog, and so on for any repairs needed.  So using this material we’ll make some sort of flat spot to attach the ball joint.  I shaped a piece of plywood to span between the gun’ls and strengthened it with a layer of glass-epoxy. To fit snugly to the gun’ls I thickened the epoxy with filler powder and placed a blob on the gun’l and then pressed the ply down onto it.  The blob of epoxy bog squished over the gun’l – which I covered with gladwrap for easy removal.  Over the top of both the ply and the bog I used a sheet of taffeta – which is also called peel-ply – and this helps to shape an even surface on the epoxy.

Waiting for the epoxy to set - notice taffeta peel-ply

The tropical epoxy I’m using works nicely in Brisbane summers but a cool rainy winter’s day in Sydney is not warm enough for quick setting of the glue.  So we’ll have to wait until tomorrow to finish it off…

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