New member here, MirroCraft and a 73 Evinrude 2-HP (PICS)

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Thundra

Active member
Joined
May 30, 2012
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Location
MA
Hello and I'm glad I found this site today. I'm a member of lots of forums but need to be a part of this one as I just took delivery of an old MirroCraft, I think it is a 12' MirroCraft. I'd love to know what model it is someday.

I also got a 1973 Evinrude Mate-2 to go with it.

Here are some pics of the hull;


P1010276-1.jpg








Then the motor;


P1010284-1.jpg







Here is my story;

This past February, at the New England Boat Show, my wife asks, "How much is that inflatable?" I tell her they start at $8-900 and around the same for a new outboard to go with it. I have a 26' Center Console boat and when we go to the beach to let my 2 year old boy and 6 month old daughter play, it is a production finally getting settled on the beach. It goes like this;

Need to position the boat to set the bow anchor, then I usually get out to set the stern anchor. Then all the stuff has to come out of the boat and we wade up onto the beach, all because the boat has a 15" draft. The good wife knows that it would be so nice and easy to just have a smaller boat that we can drive right up onto the beach and not worry a whit about the tide going up and down.

My neighbor has had that MirroCraft upside down on a boat lift for as long as I can remember. He got out of boating sometime in the late 90's/early 2000's. One day this past early spring, as he was driving by I asked him, "Hey George, if you ever want to sell your rowboat, please let me know as I'd love to buy it from you." He says, "You know, I bought that for the grandkids to use. I have a little motor for it too. I'll think about it and get back to you."


The next day, as he and his wife are on the way to church, he stops and says, "You can have that rowboat. I got it for the grandkids but no one ever used it. I'll even give you the little motor for it." I'm sort of in shock but I know George and he is a very well to go guy. He also had a Boston Whaler jetboat and a jetski for his grandkids but no one ever used any of them. I say, "No, please, give me a price and I'll pay you whatever you want for it." He refuses and this past Saturday, he lowered his boat lift and I paddled the boat to my house and a little while later he dropped the 2-HP Evinrude by for me. So far, that's my story.

I was and still am, thrilled, and even more thrilled to be a part of this forum.
 
I can't get my pics up on the site as my photobucket has the MP's/pixels too large, shoot.
 
:WELCOME:

Thanks for joining! You can change the settings in photobucket real easy and then it will work, I did photobucket too just so I would not have to edit the pictures.
 
Thanks Jim. BTW, my sister just moved from Shrewsbury, she had lived there for about 10 years and I'd visit her all the time there.


So to continue my story. I'm excited on Saturday to try and get the outboard running. I empty out the nasty liquid that was in the tank and I swished some paint thinner in the tank a couple of times to get all the stuff I could out before putting in some relatively fresh 2-stroke mix. No luck.

I had tried every which way of getting the thing started and nothing worked.

I took the plug out and checked for spark twice, no spark. I took the cowl (if you can call it a cowl, it really is just a flywheel protector)-off, not knowing that the big phillips bolt I took out was what was holding the rope-start recoil and spring together, what a mistake that was as it took me 3 or 4 tries with that miserable spring, to get it back together again.

After all that, I bagged the motor, stuck it in my trunk and was sort of resigned to get a new/used motor for the boat. But not one to give up, I took the motor out Sunday night and took it into my garage. A whole bunch of gas leaked out, thankfully, into the industrial garbage bag I used to bag the engine so nothing leaked into my trunk. I made sure that I opened the vent screw on the gas cap, turned the fuel tap all the way open and started pulling, NOT expecting the motor to start. I had the throttle wide open and the choke off when the engine all of a sudden lit up and I quickly shut it down as it was 8:30pm and both my kids were sleeping upstairs. This gave me great HOPE.

The next morning, I clamped the engine to my wheelbarrow, shoved the L/U into a bucket and on the first pull, the little motor from 1973 (I found that my engine was the 2nd or 3rd year that Evinrude started making this 2-HP engine)-came to life, yay!


Yesterday, I went on the shop Evinrude.com site and ordered a new impeller, a new spark plug, 3 washers for the L/U fill/drain screw and a spare shear-pin for the prop. Last night I dropped the lower unit. It is a joy working on this little engine as I'm used to big V6 lower units so with the 2 bolts out, it came apart easily as did the bolts holding the impeller housing down. Much to my pleasant surprise, nothing was rusted at all inside. I think a few things had happened;

The motor was only used in freshwater or the previous owner always ran the engine in freshwater before putting it away.

The previous owner/mechanic put never-seize on all the bolts/screws-like I'm going to do upon reassembly.

Anyhow, I'm looking forward to mounting the motor on the boat and seeing how it runs. I know that the 2-HP motor is not going to set the water on fire with a 12' aluminum rowboat, it might do better on the 16/18' flatback canoe I have but I don't mind going too slow as with the kids in the boat, I don't want to go too fast even though I think the hull is rated for 10-HP.
 
Yes, a perfect little boat that we can all get in, put all we need for a few hours on the beach and go.

I even have marine beanbags to put in for some super comfy seating.

I already love this site and will be reading up on all the possibilities for my new craft. I bet I'll be using this boat a lot this upcoming summer.
 
Looks like a 12' Resort Boat, not sure of the year. According to the link below it is actually rated for a 15hp.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/10513017/1974%20Mirrocraft%20Catalog.pdf

Welcome to club Mirrocraft.
 
moberg12, thanks, thanks, thanks for that link to the original 1974 MirroCraft brochure, that is the TOPS!

Can anyone send me a link to the MirroCraft forum?/site?
 
Welcome aboard Thundra.....you have a cool story so far. Can't wait to read more......

And don't join that MirroCraft club they are talking about. They're just a bunch guys that turn their noses up at the rest of us. :mrgreen:
 

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Thanks fender66. If I was a veteran member of this board, I'd love to read someones new thread like mine as they are such good entertainment and everyone has a story to tell. I'm lucky in that I can type like a pro/secretary so I can be long winded. I'm so glad I found this board as places like this are so awesome for guys like me who like to read, learn and share.

The next part of the story will be putting the motor on the boat and trying it out for the first time hoping the motor stays running so I won't have to paddle back to the dock.

Then there will be the trips with the family to the beach and the pics to go along with it. Next I'll wonder about a bimini top for shade for the trips to and from the beach, ha!
 
fender66 said:
Welcome aboard Thundra.....you have a cool story so far. Can't wait to read more......

And don't join that MirroCraft club they are talking about. They're just a bunch guys that turn their noses up at the rest of us. :mrgreen:
Wait till Capt Ahab hears about this.......... [-X
 

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