Outboard motor mount

Call it 'Belt & Braces', but this Navigator is going to have some options when it comes to, well, when it comes to going. Coming or going, a choice is nice. We have that in our home in lots of ways, like a wood burning stove that can cook and make hot water, but a gas stove or an electric kettle (powered by solar electricity), or solar hot water, or gas boost hot water. Whatever the weather, we can choose. Navigator 'Annie' won't have all that stuff, but the electric pod won't always be appropriate to back up the sails, so we wanted an outboard- with an unobtrusive mount. It can be taken off, leaving a few small fittings on the transom.

This great little unit is from Duckworks, and was a joy to unpack, because it is really solid and well-made. Kevin has one for 'Slipjig' and he recently reassured me that it is very servicable, doing all he wants from a motor mount.

Now if Chuck could just make it so that it produced hot water....

Navigator flip-side

This very grubby shot, above shows the hatch for the auxiliary motor, and the final gluing of that rear seat panel, having established that I can in fact fish the motor pod out through the hole. I wanted a flush mount in case I want to stretch out sometime, and the fact that there will generally be a bit of water sloshing around in there means that a water-proof cover wasn't necessary. The rear deck has also been fitted, as have it's reinforcing beams.
Hay bales were useful again for the turning. I felt that the method and the size of the hull meant that making a party of the turning was un-called for, so I rigged up a ratchet strap and pulled her up near vertical on my own, and then had Julia's assistance in steadying the hull while I came around to lower it from the other side. As she came up on her side the hull looked bigger, and then when rolled completely over she became quite compact again.
The planking will have a bit of a tidy up, and some has been done since this picture was taken. Going round and round in circles is very peculiar behaviour for a bloke of my age, but that's what happens when you have a rebate plane in your hand and you spot a little bump, which leads to another etc. Fortunately, these are only little bumps that seem only to be visible from particular angles (hence the circling).

Up and over, then round and round...

Power Resistor versus Mamba Max

The round black thing (as we call it in the trade) above is the resistor or I think maybe even reostat (probably just jumped way out of my league here) that normally lives inside the head of a Minn Kota motor unit. Apparently it reduces motor speed by complaining and whinging and making a fuss, with a result that the battery gets really bored and feels a bit flat well before it should.

These, on the other hand are pictures of MAMBA MAX, who just rolls over and cons the motor into doing less work by tickling it or something, and in the process the battery stays interested for longer. Combined with a neat little thing with the disturbing name of a "Servo Tester", it will also allow me to turn the motor on (in good 1960's fashion) and also make it go backwards.

As a bonus, I've put it on my teak CB case top for decorative purposes to make this post look more useful than it probably is.

There are also efficierncies that can be improved by using different impellers, or propellors. Apparently model aircraft ones are very efficient, but they don't cut weeds as well...I'm going to avoid that one for the moment, because it is very easy to get carried away with experiments, forgetting that it's just about going for a sail after all...

The mamba max thing (SKU16184) is from Castle Creations, which I found at RCCrawler.com

electric pod

The thinking behind all this mucking about with an electric pod is that when using our current boat, the outboard motor is one of the bits of the experience that I like least. Typically, we find a ramp at a sheltered place, motor out of that place, sail, and then repeat the motoring process. It's nice to have the capacity to move the boat in the event of rigging failure or loss of wind, but the fuel, the noise and the fuss and drama just don't fit the rest of the experience. Then when I get home, I have to run the motor in a bucket to clean it out. Boring.

I quite like pottering slowly. In fact moving slowly is something I'd like to learn to do more frequently. I'd also like to learn how to relax and not feel guilty about not achieving stuff, and not getting things done. Learning to sit still is one of my ambitions. Maybe one day, I'll even sit still long enough to get some line on my rod and fling the hook into some water. And wiggle it about...or whatever it is that people do when they fish.

So this Minn Kota mutation is not about hoping to move fast, but to make the two ends of a sailing trip more beautiful and peaceful. But I don't want an ugly plastic thing hanging off the end of the boat, so I'll stash it under the seat in a way that enables me to replace it with a flat hull plug when I don't need it- but maybe it will let me explore some quiet water with my one true love in peace and quiet, perhaps with a glass of something appropriate to the moment. I do believe in moments. They are one of the few things that I can believe in. And glasses. I believe in the power of a glass to expand the intensity of a moment. But not too many glasses- that is the secret, knowing which glass is the last for the moment.

More mundanely, it will also be a pleasure to be able to re-charge the batteries with home made solar electricity.

So I took courage in both hands and cut the head off a brand new Minn Kota 55lb thrust motor and have frankensteined it to a wooden fairing that will hang from a hole cut in the perfectly waterproof bottom of the boat that still hasn't met the water. The head is lying in absolute disbelief on my workbench since its decapitation. Who said the French Revolution was over? The aristocrat of electric outboards has been cleaved, beheaded, bisected, poleaxed. I cut it off, and it was a pity that my wife was not there to knit and chuckle heartily at the event.

The other complication is that these motors have speed reduction achieved through resistance, apparently. I needed to prove to it that there was no point resisting, so I've found some gadgetry from radio-controlled cars that will provide a more efficient method of controlling speed and direction, and thereby make the battery more efficient. I didn't discover this though. The real inventor was Denny Wolfe- he did this to his Arctic Tern and wrote about it on the Woodenboat Forum. I did draw my pod design a couple of years ago for the Waller 540 I built, but I never had the courage to carry it through until I saw that he had taken a very similar idea, but he KNEW WHAT HE WAS DOING...(despite that I still found it hard to cut the motor in half)

the sky leans on me

This is a poem by Sylvia Plath, and if I had copyrights to it this is what I would post. But since I don't, disrgard the poem below.

It reminds me of Yorkshire, the wild big sky that, in its turn reminds me of some bits of Victoria Australia, which in turn remind me that I'm alive.

Look up Sylvia Plath and maybe buy a book of her poetry so I don't have to feel bad about infringing her rights.

'Wuthering Heights' by Sylvia Plath-

The horizons ring me like faggots,

Tilted and disparate, and always unstable.

Touched by a match, they might warm me,

And their fine lines singe

The air to orange

Before the distances they pin evaporate,

Weighting the pale sky with a soldier color.

But they only dissolve and dissolve

Like a series of promises, as I step forward.

There is no life higher than the grasstops

Or the hearts of sheep, and the wind

Pours by like destiny, bending

Everything in one direction.

I can feel it trying

To funnel my heat away.

If I pay the roots of the heather

Too close attention, they will invite me

To whiten my bones among them.

The sheep know where they are,

Browsing in their dirty wool-clouds,

Gray as the weather.

The black slots of their pupils take me in.

It is like being mailed into space,

A thin, silly message.

They stand about in grandmotherly disguise,

All wig curls and yellow teeth

And hard, marbly baas.

I come to wheel ruts, and water

Limpid as the solitudes

That flee through my fingers.

Hollow doorsteps go from grass to grass;

Lintel and sill have unhinged themselves.

Of people and the air only

Remembers a few odd syllables.

It rehearses them moaningly:

Black stone, black stone.

The sky leans on me, me, the one upright

Among all horizontals.

The grass is beating its head distractedly.

It is too delicate

For a life in such company;

Darkness terrifies it.

Now, in valleys narrow

And black as purses, the house lights

Gleam like small change.

Decked.

Look at it. I just can't cut a straight line.

Navigator work

The centreboard top has been laminated, with the top layer being made from teak, in a moment of weakness when I couldn't resist the stupid urge to feature some nice timber...probably a result of the priming of some lovely ply, and having to say a sad good-bye to the grain, the colour and the evidence of organic growth. This because our Australian sun is so rich in UV and so quick to degrade real lumber. So the varnished teak is a sort of rebellion against the sun, but I know it is a rebellion that I'll need to fight every season from now on. So much for a working boat sort of finish.

Seat tops are primed and I will probably install the side decks over the next few days.

I'm quite excited about the next book. It will be called 'Something about Navigator', and has written itself so quickly that my build can't keep up with it.

An old friend moving on

This dear old Klotz violin came in the other day for a valuation. I have serviced it for years and have grown quite fond of it, but the fine lady who had owned it since the 1940's recently died and the family need to find it a new home.

The scroll (above) is particularly sweet, as is some of the repair work- including some repairs to the belly carried out in Melbourne in 1878...the instrument was over one hundred years old even then.

There are little features and signatures in a Klotz instrument that ring little bells in my head, because I was taught to make in the same tradition by a maker who was taught by a maker who was one of this violin's maker's descendants! ( I had to read that twice too)

I wonder whose story will be embedded in this little fiddle next?

navigator cockpit seats

The weather allowed me to complete a wet on wet double application of epoxy on the seat bases- actually is should be called wet on tacky. Amazing that. I normally try to avoid tacky.

The rear panel of the seat base has been kept as a removable panel while I dither about the size and style of the well for the removable electric pod.

This seems like a terse and overly economical post. But I've started writing another book, and I always felt that I have a sort of 'word allowance' in my head, and I've exceeded that several times over this week.

navigator progress

I hope you like to watch paint dry. The boat is at that point where a builder can turn up day after day, without a lot of changes to report. Coatings, sandings, primings and all...

The cockpit seat panels are both glued in now, and the doublers are glued in on the starboard side. I need to do some thinking about the installation of a modified Minn Kota electric outboard that will be made into a removable pod to live under the rear seat.

I know what I want to do, and pretty much how I'll do it, but I have to summon the courage to cut the shaft off a perfectly good motor, and cut a hole in the perfectly water-tight bottom panel of the boat.

It's all about the size and placement of openings, methods of fixing and worst of all: re-wiring the motor to make the speed control more efficient than the resistor system on it now.

Then I need to pick my moment to turn the hull and attend to the outer side of the planking.

Navigator: the ugly shots

After ten days off, I've started to undercoat the bits that will be hard to access once the foredecks are glued on. The fillets and corners always seem to need extra attention, so they get treated first, in the knowledge that most of this will be sanded off while working towards getting a nice surface for the final coats.

back pain in old violins

This old dear has dried out. I sometimes think I know how he feels. The centre joint on the back has opened up completely- and that is a tricky repair in itself to do nicely because the curved surfaces are so thin- but it has dried out and warped in the process. Wood changes shape and size with moisture changes, so the pieces no longer fit the perfect book-matched joint that the maker cut with a jointer plane.

What I've done in the picture is pre-clamp the pieces while I undertake preliminary rehydrating of the wood, prior to gluing. If this doesn't make the joint disappear, the back will have to come off and be re-joined.

whale spotting in Moolooaba Queensland

We took a very pleasant day trip with a boat owned by Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo from Mooloolaba Marina, out from the coast to a distance of about 12 nautical miles, approaching Morton Island. We were blessed with a number of close encounters, all Hump Backs, and all over about 25 tonnes; not huge by whale standards. These were very difficult to photograph well, and I won't bore you with the evidence, and the same applies to the Dolphins that swam alongside us. These extraordinary animals were heading south for an annual feast of cold food, having given the new calves a good start in warmer waters.

Navigator forward seat edge preparation

The port side has had the edges shaped, ready for profiling. At this point the starboard side edge has been rounded. The block plane and a sanding block do the places that the router can't reach.

And here the profiled edges and the front area has had a coat of epoxy. I'm moving ahead with the sealing and priming of this forward area before the foredeck is glued on. The 9mm doublers have a large radius routed onto their top face and a smaller one underneath. This feels good and is quite strong visually too. The total edge thickness is 16mm.

In the top pic the front coaming is clamped on. Those pieces are 9mm ply and I need to decide whether to keep and paint them, or cut them again in solid timber for bright finishing. I have some 100+ year old pine- a bit like Kauri- that would do nicely there....just have to make a decision.

Anchor well, and wish New Zealand neighbors well too...

The weather system that stormed in from the North West has filled some reservoirs, flooded towns and farms, and maybe stalled the death of the Murray Darling basin (I hope I am not being too optimistic too soon), so there is drought breaking rain as well as devastation in southern Australia. This weather pattern is now making it's way across to New Zealand, and will further complicate the lives of our neighbors there who are dealing with the shocking effects of an earthquake. Mercifully, no lives have been lost so far, but massive property damage will take years to recover from. This humble blogger wishes NZ readers well in this turmoil, and sincerely hopes that the population will rise to the challenge of looking after each other with their typical warmth and generosity of spirit.