This and That

I have basically just been piddling around the last week.   I came up with a bracket to hang the CMC tilt/trim.  The top 3 inches or so of the CMC will be above the bottom of the stern, while the rest will hang below.   The bracket will be bolted to the stern as well as under the deck.  I am using 1.5" square aluminium tube.  

Waiting for quotes from local welders.  I hope to find a good/reasonable welder as I am sure I will need more done.  It's actually one of the skills I want to learn, but at this point it will probably have to wait until after the boat is splashed!

In the meantime I have taken care of a few odds and ends.  I cut out the holes on the inside transom for 2 hatches, so I can access my future batteries.  It will also aid in placing backing plates for the CMC brackets.

I did cut through some wood "bracing" that does not appear to be structural, but I will just reinforce the area later just to be safe.

The hatches are just dry fit for now. I won't screw the hatches in just yet.  Probably will wait until after I paint the deck.  These were purchased for $30 each from Minney's, which is a local chandlery that sells mostly used/surplus/salvaged boat items.




While the holes were cut, I also removed the teak trim on the opposite side.

My plan for now is to extend the top of the stern to cover the outboards.  I believe I mentioned this before and yes I will provide a hatch so I can access the outboards.  So the plan is to relocate the teak trim, but it got pretty damaged from time and probably my removal technique, so we will see!


Finally, I decided to spend some time on putting together my helm chair.  It does not look like it now, but I put it together from different crappy looking pieces I bought at the last boat swap meet.  

The seat itself was in pretty good condition with no tears, but was white and baby blue, so I bought some vinyl spray paint from the auto store and painted it white.  Its really great stuff!  All of the aluminium parts, base, post and seat mount had seen better days with light pitting and tarnished.  I basically brought it back to life with my cordless drill and various wheel attachments and a lot of elbow grease.  The wooden back, I made from some salvaged mahogany.  I will wait to stain/varnish after I build my cabin door.  I probably spent about $20 on the slavaged parts, $6 on the spray paint.  The only thing I bought new was the hinges.  So for about $50 I have a pretty decent helm chair.  Oh yea, I also have some side arm brackets that need to also be cleaned/polished, that I can attach to the chair.  Will probably make the arm rests out of mahogany to match.