Steering mocked up, things are coming together

Made some cleats from rock maple (thanks to the Essex dump)

 Early attempts to mock up steering. Not happy with the way it fit together

 I know I talked about stick steering but really wanted the wheel to work

 Some shots of the finish with bright sunlight streaming in the window.

 I am so glad I did not grind it all off when it first appeared too dark.

 Another mockup of the wheel and steering

 The piece of wood acts in the place of a quadrant on the steering arm

 the wheel, the rope and the steering arm

 By moving the oar so only the handle is behind the wheel, I now have more room to set the wheel back a bit and I am beginning to like the look.

 The wheel is hidden on the left of he pic but you can see the two lines heading back to the double pulley on the left of the pic and the single pulley on the right.

 Another shot of the double pulley

 Ane one of the single

 Now I am faced with how in the world to mate this mess (below) with the boat—where to put it? Dismantle it and take the guts and put them next to the wheel?  Mount the whole assembly under the seat?  Not enough room for that I fear

 Poor old battle scarred decks finished with two coates of Minwax Helmsman over color varnish and stain.

Where the batteries will live and other stuff

Oarlock on riser and center seat where batteries will live. I reinforced the floor with an extra layer of plywood under the battery boxes.

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Not happy with my work

Here are some recent pics of the boat. Not happy with the outcome of staining the decks and attempting to pay the seams

When the tape was pulled away, some of the seam compound (caulking) came with it.  Did I pull too soon, too late, who knows?  Several seams came out perfectly, but not good enough.

Also, the stain is too dark. Needed to stop one coat sooner, but there were blotches and unevenness.  Now it is all too dark.  Bummer.  Not liking this at all. Considering dragging out the RO and going back to bare wood and starting again.
Below, the newly painted hull.  Shadows make it look worse than it is.  Actually pretty happy with how the hull came out.  Considered painting the sheer strake a different color but decided on all white.

Skeg, Shaped and Installed

 Skeg roughed out, piece of wood laying on top to show clearance of final hardwood shoe.

 Just about one inch clearance

 Decided to epoxy 1/4 inch SS bolts in place to hold shoe. Also added 1/2 inch marine fir spacer under  skeg to raise it and, because it is beveled it gives the skeg a wider footprint.

 Spent a lot of time aligning the skeg and got is as best I can. Seems to be about perfect.

As you can see, I beveled the trailing edge. I plan to make the spacer the motor sits on about 1/2 inch taller to give the blade a bit more clearance. The shoe will be bolted on top of the skeg and hang out unsupported over the motor and blade.  Hopefully I can find just the right piece of hardwood for the job.

 

Motor Well Completed

 View aft, sorry for the mess, these two show the completed deck, a mix of old and new with a hatch to allow access to the steering. The original decking is spruce that is full of knots so filling in the missing planks was easy, simply dug through my scraps of 2 bys and ripped and planed as needed. Reminder, if you click on these pics, they enlarge.

 This, on, below, is of the completed motor well consisting of a short length of 1 1/2 inch PVC pipe, two threaded adapters, two thought hulls, and a pair of shims cut from PVC trim.

 The through hulls threaded nicely into the PVC adapters ( a piece of luck) and the bottom one is set in 3M 5200, between  all of the layers inside and out. I am wondering if I should have added grease fittings at top and bottom, but don't think I will need them.

 The upper part of the well is held in place by a 2 by 3 block that has a half round cutout to receive the PVC and held there by a clamp that I found in a box of misc. hardware in the dump.  The bolts are 1/4 inch stainless salvaged from my old sailboat.  All bedded in thickened epoxy. Did I need the uprights? I don't know but somehow they tied the whole thing together and I had just enough epoxy left so I did it.

 Here is a view of the back deck showing the hatch Should give good access and maybe allow for a bit of storage as long as I am careful not to overdo it.

 I really like the look of that deck, it just makes the lines of the boat more apparent as opposed to the gapping hole I began with.

A Little Progress

Missing pieces of rear deck milled out and installed (temporarily) with drywall screws while waiting for the bronze order to come in.  Hatch for access to steering has been cut into deck.  Need to decide on hardware for that.

 Ebay comes through with a $25 steering arm that fits nicely on the motor shaft.  Probably should have cleaned out all of the mess before taking pics, sorry.

 Rear deck assembled.  Since it is all spruce decking and since the original is full of knots, milling out the new decking was simple.  Scrap 2 bys ripped and planed supplied the material.

 Middle thwart.  The components are all salvage from other boats.  The seat top was originally the front seat back from an old  Penn Yan, The other components from misc. boats that had turned to mulch but still had some salvage value.

 Have had thees oarlocks hanging around and they might work for my 8 foot aux. power source.

 Rear hatch open, need to decide on hardware, also needing a flag holder for the flag pole and all around light. Hoping I will be able to steam the coaming to fit these tight curves.  Have installed blocking under the decking to provide a fastening surface for the coaming.