Trials and Tribulations, or the doubtful pleasures of taking on an old boat. 

I thought I’d better set to work on my rudder, which needed a little alteration at the top to suit the self steering I'm making, and needed a ton of old antifouling scraping off. There were hairline cracks showing, and the deeper I delved, the worse they got, until finally the whole thing came apart in my hands - it seemed that only the gudgeons and paint were holding it together. It’s made of vertical strips of mahogany, 75mm x 44mm, and there’s little sign of old glue in the joints; probably they used Cascamite. One joint had already been redone with epoxy, and that’s OK, but for the other three joints I’ll router grooves and add tongues as we did with SibLim's skegs. 

So now the rudder is in bits, indoors, to dry out fully before re-glueing. Then it’ll get a layer of glass and then Coppercoat.

Darren Bos wrote:

 You would have an awkward shaped hatchboard to store, and I think the sliding part wouldn't be waterproof if water got in the pram, but in a world of compromises they're not bad ones.  

The idea there was that the washboard would be captive, and drop down to the cockpit sole, as on Tystie.

The slide is actually the same as on many  boats with a garaged hatch slide. It drains out to the side, or back. The only catch is that if rainwater drives under the pramhood during the night, and lies on top of the slide, you get a nasty shock in the morning when you open the hatch... There's a solution to this, though, if it's possible to camber the slide, or make it not quite horizontal.

Annie Hill wrote:

Darren Bos wrote:I can see where the Hasler style pramhood would suit some folks better.  However, if you have a sliding hatch, then the pramhood prevents you from having a garage to keep the hatch nice and waterproof (unless you mount the pramhood somewhere else).  I do wish I could have the flexibility of the rotating pramhood which lets you keep the spray off you whichever direction the wind is coming from.  However, we have a pilothouse and I'm 6'3", in our case the Pardey design is a better fit.  I'm surprised you can get a custom plexi bubble for $70NZ, I could barely get a thick piece of plexi the right size here for that cost.  How thick of plexi do they make the bubbles with?

According to Mr Tyler, he has designed the perfect sliding hatch cum pramhood, which he wanted me to install in SibLim.  I'm sure he'd send you a drawing of his clever concept - it may even be included in the SibLim plans in his profile.

The domes are made by Cambrian Plastics and are, indeed, astonishingly inexpensive.

The standard (cheap) dome is only 3mm thick, I'd want one at least twice that thickness. Also because it's blow moulded, it will be thinner on the top. How much thinner I don't know as that depends on a number of factors. A clever operator can keep the thinning to a minimum but it will still occur. How do I know? I write programs that control the machines that do plastic mouldings of this sort.

Annie Hill wrote:Hmm.  I think I'll stick with the neater and more versatile pram hood, myself.  But then, I won't have a sliding hatch :-)  To cover the hole, when I want to keep in the heat, I can get a custom-made acrylic bubble for about NZ$70.  That will also allow my taller guests to stand up and divest themselves of their warm coats.

I can see where the Hasler style pramhood would suit some folks better.  However, if you have a sliding hatch, then the pramhood prevents you from having a garage to keep the hatch nice and waterproof (unless you mount the pramhood somewhere else).  I do wish I could have the flexibility of the rotating pramhood which lets you keep the spray off you whichever direction the wind is coming from.  However, we have a pilothouse and I'm 6'3", in our case the Pardey design is a better fit.  I'm surprised you can get a custom plexi bubble for $70NZ, I could barely get a thick piece of plexi the right size here for that cost.  How thick of plexi do they make the bubbles with?

David Tyler wrote:

Arne Kverneland wrote:

David,

There is one peculiar thing with some of these new 4-stroke outboards in the 4 – 6hp range: They seem to need a longer and faster pull to start than other four-strokes I have had (Honda 7.5, Yamaha 9.9, Honda 2.3). At first, when I bought my Tohatsu, I thought there was something wrong with it. Then the dealer showed me that it needed a real “lawn-mover pull”. After adopting that, the engine starts at first or second pull. The pull force is very light.

This appears to be quite deliberate. The Tohatsu UK website has, in the overview of these motors: "Recoil starter with larger reel making manual starting fast and easy". I've only started the motor once, so have little experience to go on, but it seems as though they made an "improvement" that wasn't necessary.

I also had one of these motors fitted to a Hurley 20.  It seemed the perfect match and I actually preferred this starter pull to what I had used previously.  It does seem to require a longer pull (I would need to warn any crewmates to move well clear of me in the cockpit), but always started on the first or rarely the second try.  With long arms and a well-worn rotator cuff I found it easier to start than the previous outboards we had owned.  Horses for courses.  I did enjoy seeing your modification Arne. As usual, creative and effective.