DaySailer.org Forum

Hello all,

I'm putting my mind to possible winter projects and am hoping for some expert advice from the forum.

Motor Mount
I have a small Mercury 2.5 HP motor on the motor well. I'd like to put it on a mount to move it a little back and down closer to the water to prevent the motor from fouling in the main traveler when it's in it's upright position. Has anyone here added a motor mount to their DS? I'm looking for something that is static keeps the motor as close into the boat as possible. Something like this, but with shorter extension arms... https://www.amazon.ca/Panther-55-0028-4 ... otor+mount

Floor Boards
Last summer I sanded and re-varnished all my floorboards and the strapping underneath. The strapping wore a bit due to friction of the season and I notice the wood taking on water. I'm thinking of sanding and epoxying just those parts of the floor boards. Has anyone done this? Would it effectively seal the wood? Can I do them while the floor boards are assembled, or should I disassemble them?

Running Lights
I'm trying to work out a way to run wiring for running lights for late evening navigation and overnight mooring. My I've been trying to map out a way of running the wires so that I have a tri-light and mooring light on the mast-head, but I'm worried about fishing the wires through the mast while the original foam (still in good shape) is still intact. Any thoughts on this? Am I just making life hard for myself by trying to put everything at the top of the mast to keep everything clean?

Thanks in advance for any and all advice.

Motor mount. You'll find the answer in older posts. You may have to look in some of the other sections, like those for the DS2 or Repair&Improvements. About 2 years ago, I think.

Floor boards. If you want to use epoxy, you need to cover any piece you'd like to seal perfectly on all 6 sides and also seal any screw holes. After sealing, any water that does get in, won't ever come out.... Where there's friction, you would need to reinforce the epoxy with a layer of glass cloth, so it doesn't rub through to bare wood.

Alternative: switch to an oil. Oil won't prevent water from soaking into the wood, but unlike varnish it won't crack. And it will let the wood dry out again, once the water is removed. And it's easy to touch up.

Worst choice from my perspective would be any kind of varnish. They crack with heat and moisture cycles and are relatively difficult to repair. But there's no single answer...

Installing wired navigation lights is overkill in my view. With LEDs, battery operated lights will last you even for extended cruises. They are easy to install on an as-needed basis. There's a clever design that uses magnetic couplings to a base plate that you keep installed, but the light can come off during the day or during trailering. There's a cheaper design for Kayak's that uses a bolt-on suction cup (those don't work on old gelcoat, but you can repurpose those by bolting them onto your own base plate. Here's my design made wood and epoxy with a machine screw epoxied in place onto which I screw the light (screw not shown on the drawing). I leave the base plate connected to the lights and attach both to the boat by sliding the "fork" under the forestay clevis pin at the stemhead fitting and securing everything with a short length of shock cord around the back of the forestay.

I've used this design for years now - I made one upgrade: I replaced the narrow part of the "fork" with a bit filed from aluminum; unless you use hardwood, the wood may not be strong enough at that thickness - the damage was due to operator error, not from normal forces during operation.)



Hard to see from the drawing, but the bottom piece is hollowed out a bit at the overlap to fit the front end of the stem fitting. The reason for the two-piece design isn't my fascination for Star Trek, but the lower plate is supposed to rest on the rub-rail at the bow.

By being located in front of the forestay, the lights are out of the way of the jib and jib sheets.

My 2cents, For the motor mount having one that lifts the engine is pretty nice and allows the motor to be high enough to clear the water and the rear deck. This ones from Defender but there are others too. I find the motor well works pretty good too if you have one.

http://www.defender.com/product3.jsp?pa ... &id=200337

I have used both epoxy coating with varnish on top of that, varnish alone and epiphanies (better varnish). On my Rhodes I epoxy coated all surfaces then used a varnish on top. I can't recall brand but it was a packaged kit. It holds up pretty well but I do have to put some varnish on the high wear areas every few years. I just use rustoleum's stuff for that. On the DS I used a number of coats of epiphanes. I like the looks better and it holds up quite well. Better than the Rhodes boards but I think its because it's better varnish nothing to do with the epoxy. I also use varnish only on Rhodes rudder with no issues.

I use the LED deck mount navigation lights (rubber suction cups) and they do fine I think. I agree with Greenlakes, no need to hard wire in my opinion.

Here is a detachable motor mount you might want to look at. http://www.duckworksbbs.com/hardware/mo ... /index.htm

John

Thanks for all the feedback.

I'll definitely have another think about the navigation lights and look more into the duckworks motor mount, that seems like a perfect solution.