Flustered, Frustrated, Flummoxed And The Lesson Re-learned

 For the better part of two weeks I have been stymied by the motors. The motors are fine, it's just configuring them to the boat that is the problem. I won't go into too much detail. By Tuesday, I was overwhelmed by the whole situation. I spent hours sitting under the boat going over the problem again and again in my head. I finally asked the yard guys for their opinion and provide a new eye on the situation. I'm still waiting for them to pop by. I learned again that I'm in it alone.  I tackled three separate boat owners and explained the whole list of problems that I was confronting. They listened; they looked sympathetic. Finally all three guys told me the exact same thing, "You're smart, you'll figure it out". This is guy talk for "Oh crap, I haven't a clue, I'd better get the hell outta here". I learned again, I'm on my own. I tried several ideas. They all failed. When I ask for help, it means that I'm out of ideas. I was in a pit. I flat out didn't have answers. I actually considered just getting two smaller 9.9 HP outboards until I realized that they would cost SEVEN THOUSAND DOLLARS!. I actually considered taking a break and go back to Ohio for a month until I realized that it would do no good. The problem would not go away on its own.

For two days I walked two miles barefoot on the beach each evening. The lovely beach: sun, sea, sand. The sand abraded the bottoms of my feet (like sandpaper) and they hurt , I rubbed them raw. I've been limping about a bit. The walks produced one or two epiphanies and two sore feet. They failed, feet and epiphanies.

I finally settled on doing what I know: wood. This is my skill. this is what I know. I have to work within my abilities. I cannot rely on others. Someone said to me recently "You're very independent". It's how I work best. I keep learning not to ask for opinions. I am better off just trusting myself. I cannot do anything until the motors tilt (solved, I think) and they stay pointed straight ahead (this week's conundrum). I will do nothing else until those two things work in harmony. 

Thanks to Dean for the comment last week. I'm just using a normal cleat.

And a new video out there. Watch it all the way to the end to see the girl in the bikini.

OK, so here's the week's very boring post.

Yeah, right! Walk on the beach. See where that gets ya.

So I think that I have the motor lift system satisfactory........I think..............maybe. I still have to figure out how to release the motor tilt lock. Right now, I just wired it up so it doesn't lock.

I started doing what I could do. Each motor is slightly different. I removed the fuel filters (the orange thingy).  I have external fuel filters mounted on the motor boxes. This cleans things up a bit. There's a spaghetti glob of wires there that I know nothing about. It seems that I know nothing about everything and I'm good at it.

Next comes keeping the motors pointed straight ahead and not flapping back and forth like a fish tail. The motors have this nut on the side. I tightened one up and the motor mostly stayed put. I tightened the other and it did nothing. I pulled out both bolts to compare them and they were the same. I put them back in and one stripped the housing. No matter how much care I took, it cross threaded. That put me into a blue funk. Fail! 

Maybe if I lashed it and pulled the  line really really tight it would hold it. Nope, another failure. Bowelship language ensued. 

Hmmm, maybe if I took a piece of plywood and kinda shaped it like an hourglass then twisted it into place. Nope, You have no idea about how many ideas never made it to the experimentation stage. 

Finally, grabbing at straws, I settled on this great experiment. It's what I know. I took some deck beam cut offs and shaped them so one would fit on each side of the motor. I clamped them in situ, drew a line on the top and eyeballed a drill to drill both blocks at the same time. The holes were mostly kinda straight.......mostly.........kinda.......... Then came the drilling the holes 1/32" oversize and coating the holes and all raw wood surfaces with epoxy. Next I dug out the 1/16" shore 70 rubber and glued it on one surface. I let it dry, then glued rubber to the other mating surface. Today I put a coat of paint on them and will wait until Monday to bolt them into place. This took 4 days. Will it work?? How the hell should I know?

Texican beer for Texican problems.

The Music​♪: Ronnie Butler "Burma Road"

Bahama has music, too.