Installing the Companionway boards

As seen below, the companionway boards are almost ready to go. Due to the thickness of the boards, the companionway hatch doesn't overlap the board. Crap! As a result, rain water can conveniently enter between the hatch and upper board.

 My 0$ solution to this was to get an old tire tube from these women..... 

then, cut it long enough to cover the width of the hatch and use it like a flap to keep water out. Instead, I decided to continue using my winter Meranti Mahogany investment to build a cap for the board.


The cap...

and finally, how it will be installed.......the cap will be mounted to the face of the hatch.

Remove the bonnet

Some of you might remember the "bonnet" (sail tie) holding Santeria's engine cover, as seen here from a picture from fall 2011.

Upon further inspection, the plastic serrated wedge-like piece of plastic that held the cover in place was striped and completely unreliable. Evinrude/Johnson wanted 35$ so I went with a 2$ alternative. As seen below, I used an ZP lockable hinge. After a few new holes in the motor housing and cover, installation was complete.

Removing mast play at thru-deck collar

Santeria was fashioned with a 9 1/2" by 13" piece of black rounded rubber 7 ply steel radial mat (see image) to help reduce mast flexing (fore-aft and port-starboard) when sailing to wind under heavy seas. The problem here was several fold:

• The gap is anywhere between 1/8 to 1/4" on any given side
• Its rubber and not rigid enough for my liking
• Its impossible  to control water (bow waves or rain water) from enter the cabin when the mast is flexing

The theory: 

• create a better platform to help reduce water
• reduce the flex potential

The replacement (show left). This is some leftover Meranti Mahogany from my previous winter projects. I ran it through a thickness planer and patterned it based on the old rubber piece.

On the cabin-side of the deck, the new plate will be further supported by mahogany blocking...not quite yet fabricated...

Motor Mount

This thing was a pain in the ass all 2011 to release when the Lake was blowing and the crew was heading out for a rip around the cans! If the motor was down, it was almost impossible to release the center bar (center of picture) when flow forces were at their most!

To release the bar, some poor sap had to hang out over the pushpit, push the center bar aft toward the motor and simultaneously life the motor up.

My first thought to resolve this problem is to mount a small harken block against the motor mounting plate. Next, run a small line to the center hole of the mount bar, aft to the new block mounted on the plate, and forward to some location near the rear portion of the boat.

This solution assumes that a human bent over the pushpit cannot possible exude the 50 lbs of force required to release the bar. Instead, a quick and firm pull of a line with tackle should produce the same effect, with fewer trips to the back specialist.