Trip 87 - Sunday - July 12th

Got up at 4:45, drove Marcia to the airport, back home, did an entry for Nelly's Funeral, got hooked on a movie I have seen twice before but was too lazy to get out of bed, now it is 10:30, I went and cleaned the garage a bit, got my saw set up (again), made the jig for the engine mount and loaded stuff up - ready to go.

Stopped at Ace Hardware in Red Wing for some 7/16" threaded rod. Then, hi-tailed it to Lake City, unloaded, down the dock I go, proceeded to unload things to Empty Pockets and the two rods went "Bloop".

Lake Pepin claimed them.

A trip to the Office to fetch The Magnet ensued and another hour to plop it all over the bottom to rescue the durn things.

By the time I was ready to leave, the holes for the mounts were pilot-drilled, the bracket Tom will make was measured for, the VHF bracket was sized up, and all the dust from the back end of the inside was washed down the drain.

Oh, and a dry bilge was accomplished before I left.

 

After The Cleaning ... Now lotsa room to work with wood.

 

Handy little manual I used for the center-to-center dimensions for the engine mounts.

 

I started to assemble the jig by placing a board on the table next to the fence so if the screws were too long, they would bore into that instead of the table top.

 

Set a Carpenter' Square against the fence.

 

I aligned the crosspiece to the square, dabbed some glue here and there and aligned the side piece to the fence. Carefully placed three screws to hold thing together.

Note, I glued them as well to eliminate any movement whatsoever.

 

With the square, I marked three dimensions. Mount center, and the two ears.

 

Pin punched, ready for the pilot hole. (A small hole to guide larger drill bits.)

 

See these two rods? See the water?

 

See this rope?

 

This is the magnet that fished them from the bottom.

 

The shaft for the prop, long ignored. Today, it will wished it still was ignored.

 

This hub goes on the prop shaft and I have placed one rod on it already.

 

Using the drill to twist some iron wire together, I folded it into three and wrapped it around the two rods. This will serve as a brace for the far end.

 

Far end ...

 

Near ... Al ready to go.

 

In place ...

 

Closeup ...

 

I made a line on the top of the front of the cradle for the centerline of the rubber mounts.

 

I also made to dashes indicating the inside dimension of the distance between the two rods.

 

The Factory actually did a pretty good job. Side to side appeared very good and I made the front to back dimension 1/8" closer to the front. It was actually a mistake on my part, but, I prefer to think of it as a modification, well thought out and executed, that will make the boat actually go faster.

 

In place ... I taped the sides down, and drilled a small pilot hole at the center of the mount itself.

 

Then, located the holes for the ears.

 

I extended the threads just a bit.

 

Holes drilled, ready for screws. I located these by inserting the threads a short distance into the hole in the glas.

 

I will be back tomorrow with more goodies ...

 

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Later ...