Robin's Reports

Rebuilt Foot is DONE!!

Monday, we received the call that our engine's foot was finished being rebuilt inside and out. In this process. We shortened the entire piece by 5 inches to increase efficiency in the water and decrease drag. We should be able to hit plane faster and increase speed by a few mph. I wish I had an easy link to provide you to explain with pictures what "getting on plane" means. Wikipedia has a lot of great info on propulsion, propellers and the math behind it. (Photo: Jack built a stand to protect the foot. This will later attach to the bottom of the engine

Also, on Sunday evening, we were walking our boxer and ran into a neighbor who had these pressure treated pieces of wood he was getting rid of. What a big blessing. Not only are these hard to find, but they're expensive. These will end up under the boat at some point of painting.

Here is a picture of the box of parts that were replace. While some of the rings look in good shape, there is no time like the present to have it all replaced. Saltwater is a very harsh environment and it eats EVERYTHING!!!

This pieces is a water impeller. It turns inside the water pump that sits in the foot.

Here is a water filter unit that pulls the water out of the air compressor pump. This is very important as to not contaminate the paint. I also included a picture of the air compressor we borrowed from Jack's coworker.

Sorry that there is no order or special category for these things. I just went around the garage and thought I'd record what was new. Jack has W, Th, F off for his weekend and so he was up at 4:30 working in the garage. He cleared off his workbench and then varnished (clear) these teak outrigger holders. There is a metal insert on the inside.

(pictured - insert where fishing poles are stored)

For today, he is busy sanding the transom (backside). He has filled holes that are no longer necessary. That huge engine bracket dug some grooves which needed repairing. In a couple of hours, Jack's friend and former coworker will come here. He owns a nice side business, GRAPHICS!! Todd is coming to take measurements of the side of the boat and present us with some design options. Jack gave Todd a great job reference with a local company and so in return, Todd is providing a lot of time and talents to make those nice finishing touches to the boat. We are still playing around with changing the name of our boat. Currently, she is named FIRST CHOICE and we like that. Still, we want to make sure we've exhausted any other good ideas before Todd makes the graphics. I'm hoping that at some point, I will be able to do the fishy artwork. Right now, that point can't come soon enough. It is tough turning a wrench in 90 deg heat, having mosquitos eat you alive and lovebugs fly into your face. And that isn't even counting all the bad hair days I'm having!!

I'd better go and remove more teak & shelves.

Catch a fish for me!

Robin