The Rain (And Drain), The Pain, The Insane Brain, The Sad Refrain And The Compilation Of The Motor Conundrums

This week started with two days of gosh awful rain which flooded the streets to impassable depths. I drove through a puddle, which was far greater than any puddle I've ever seen, and shorted out the car's fuel tank sensor situated on top of the fuel tank. It was that deep. Another one on order.

Once the island drained, which happens quite rapidly, I started working on the motors. I got rained out a couple mornings but was back to work in the afternoons. My feet were wet most of the week I feared of getting trench foot.

I must be crazy to attempt this project. There were several problems that have to be solved to get everything to work. So it was the same thing again and again. Nothing is easy on a boat. Everything is complex and difficult. There are no easy answers. I suffered from acute frustration most of the week and left early when I couldn't get the several projects out of my head. I tried to concentrate on one thing at a time but my brain wanted to solve everything at once thus causing a massive implosion and the necessity for beer.

Monday it rained and drained. I coulda drowned in my front yard. Tuesday I started cleaning up the greasy ol' motors. This involved dish soap (It cuts grease!), vinegar, a brand new white scrub brush and elbow grease. Literally, I had grease on my elbow. Several scrubbings later, I still touch a motor part and get greasy. Note: the brush will never be white again.

My first problem. When I attempted to tilt the motors, the bracket that holds the cables touched the side of the motor wells.  The reinforcement block that we were going to attach the motor lifts stuck out just enough to get in the way. Nothing goes easy. I attacked the blocks with a multitool. Not good. I started sanding with a rough sandpaper on the orbital sander. No good. Dig out the hammer and chisel. Luckily, it was plywood and I could split it along the laminations. Then I sanded and epoxied and painted a coat of primer. Another simple thing made complex.

Next problem.........did I finish the first problem? Those brackets from the previous entry didn't quite line up with the shift levers and accelerator arms. I feared that the stainless would be brittle. With a total lack of temerity, I cautiously applied a vise grip pliers and bent the brackets. The gods (I need more than one on this) were with me and I got them pretty close. I still have to clean out that pile of wood chips from the bottom of the motor wells.

Next, and most taxing problem. This one sent me home frustrated on several occasions. I originally was going to feed the lift lines through the cockpit floor and cleat them inside the side seats. Inside the starboard seat right where the lines would come through, there is an electric terminal block and a charge controller. That killed that idea. The lifting eyes on the motor lined up forward of the cockpit where the beam sits. Now I was reluctant to screw the block to the bottom of the beam because the wood is soft Douglas fir and end grain plywood. The wood is not strong that way, I was going to use a double block system to give a 3:1 mechanical advantage. I toyed with the block placement putting the double block on the motors, then moving it up to the top. It didn't matter, two blocks  were simply too long and would touch when I got the motor lifted. I moved the double block to the top and lashed it around the mast beam. That seemed like it would work. I got rid of the single block and switched to a bowline knot and a slip ring, a donut you lash on and the line slides through the donut hole. I started with tying the bowline knot around one lifting eye, feeding it through the double block, going back down to the slip ring and up to the second sheave. At that point, I was lost. Where could I go from there to tie it off? I tried forward to the motor box. I didn't like it. I have to access this easily. I added another slip ring and will attempt to rout the line to the outside edge of the cockpit. Stay tuned you hearty two fans. There's more to do.

Installing the motors was a long haul. Haul away.

The next problem. Another thing that jammed my thoughts. I bought some cables that I was going to use as shut off cables. Those are the big cables. They won't work. Much more thinking and worrying. I went to the bicycle store and bought 105" (266.7 pedometers in metric) bike cables to use instead. Of course, they will have to be re-manufactured and the mounts adjusted to make everything work. I am weary. This was a battle of mind and motor. I am not sure who won. I gotta be smarter than an outboard, don't I?

I still don't know if any of this will work. We will find out in next week's blog.

The Music ​♫: Duke Elington "Cotton Tail"

The duke!