Howdy Folks, Old Guy, new to forum...

TinBoats.net

Help Support TinBoats.net:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
That boat is almost just a wide square back canoe!

You're right, she doesn't really need anything, but a fishfinder might be nice, maybe more comfortable seats, and you could paint her metallic purple with orange glow in the dark flames on the sides... but that's about it.
 
OK. Busy day.

Picked up a 1964 Evinrude 5.5 Fisherman motor. Heavier than I thought it would, maybe 45lbs. Gas can, hose included. Story is that the father of the man selling it used it as a back-up motor for his Lake Michigan boat, and it was only started a few times each year. Engine is clean, cover scuffed. He started it up three or four times for me, revved it, let it run, and then shut it off. Perfect.

A little hard to focus on the motor, since I was in his garage...er...hanger. He and his wife have a house on a private airstrip, having lived there for 20 years. Four passenger plane. Cessna...er...I want to say 182, but I think that is the one they had before. About 265 hp. Very clean. I stood under the wing as I examined the outboard.

I believe his story about the motor. This guy is "comfortable." :)

Nice man, with a GREAT Gordon Setter dog. I tried to get the dog into the car, but apparently that wasn't part of the deal.

Got home, did duties, then put the 5.5 on the 12ftr and off I went. Had a problem angling the motor forward...or rather, getting it to stay forward. Kept on wanting to be parallel to the transom. I wanted the weight forward as much as possible. Worked out a solution with a tie-down strap. Not sure of the right way to trailer a motor like that.

Lake was empty. Sun was shining, wind was blowing a bit, and sort of cold. Motor worked fine, mostly. Starved out about three times until I spotted the fuel line was pulling out--just enough--to starve it. Going into the chop, I was really aware of the boat slamming waves. Too much weight in back, I fear. I adjusted the trim, but really, this is a 12ft flat bottom boat and I needed another body up front to use the v hull advantage under full power. Out in the wind on the way back, wind was trying to steer the bow. Not fun.

I moved the fuel tank in front of the front seat and put a 50lb bag of garden lime at the bow this evening. We'll see.


and...I say this with some embarrassment, I browsed through Craig's list for 14ft boats. Really 14 is too much boat for me, and I need to give this thing a fair shake, say a year, before I do anything more. Then, there's the money thing.

So far, so good. :)
 
Sounds neat....Not sure that being on the water by yourself with a new motor/boat is what I would do. I like crowds around when I try things out for the first time.

Your boat will bring you much pleasure and a lot of excitement over the next twelve months. Keep us posted. regards, Rich
 
Thanks Rich, I really didn't take chances. It is not a big lake, and I stayed near the shoreline, wearing a PFD and being very cautious of my movements in the little 12. Unlike you, I prefer to do my learning curve (non-hazardous) mistakes and humiliating errors in private. I'm learning, or re-learning, stuff in my senior years that most folks absorb as teenagers and do effortlessly. As a young man, I played with canoes, and some amateur down-river canoe racing, so I am well aware of all of the lethal consequences to being casual on the water.

You know what would be neat? Prohibitively expensive, and time-consuming, and maybe silly...but really neat? Fabricating some watertight extensions on either side the back of the little boat, like that poster had on his big-motor, deep water, go-fast boat. (I'll try and find the link.) They were rectangular extensions on either side of the motor, helping with rear buoyancy, and in effect, lengthening the waterline of the craft.

The interior would be that of a 12ftr, but the boat would really be a...whatever, 14ft. Goofy, huh?

Or, for much less money, labor, and trouble, could just get a bigger boat. :)

But, I'm liking the idea of the extensions. :lol:

Thanks for your wisdom.


(Edit: Couldn't find the link, but went searching. "Extensions," "Pods," "Trim," and a lot of other search words led me all over, but found a nicely illustrated site. By the way, the Australians do amazing things to their watercraft.
Not feasible for me, but glad the concept was somewhat sound. Here's the link: https://www.jphilarnold.com/pods/firstpage.htm
 
I think outriggers would serve you better on that boat:

https://www.sailboatstogo.com/v_page.php?content=stabilizer_length

You could make your own with some 6" PVC pipe capped on both ends and whatever you could come up with around the house for cross members.
 
A little pvc...some swim noodles (big sized)...and you could make these to fit into some rod holders that you need anyhow. Some guys mount them more permanently.

I made them up for a small canoe. I found out that I didn't really need them after paddling for a while. Still sitting in my shop. rich

2012-04-11%2B19.33.09.jpg
 
Of course, you are both right.

I said earlier, "it is what it is." I'm just ignoring my own advice and thinking of ways to mess with it. :)

I have more time than talent or money, so envisioning stuff is fun for me.

Thank you.
 
Never having been one to be deterred by common sense and accrued wisdom, I kept on chewing on ways to get the bow down of the 12ft boat. I put a 50lb sack of garden lime in the front, figuring that, at worst, the bow would be smacked by a wave and catapult the sack back to hit me in the forehead. :)

At best, it would balance the weight in the boat.

But I had a few days before I could get the boat out, having had a lapse of judgement and buying a 14ft Alumacraft F. I've just finished going over that poor derelict for the fifth time. I am really tired of scouring scum and oxidation, rotten carpet, dead bugs, and 15-year old lichen bits off the hull.

In the meantime, I was reading about tabs, and fins, and how they only work for bigger boats going up on plane, BUT keeping the bow down.

Why, I reasoned, wouldn't they have a similar effect on a smaller boat, even if it wasn't going to plane?

So...

took some lexan, got out my trusty Sportsman's Goop (like silicone), a couple of clamps and made a really crude fin for the ... er...defibrillator...uh...homogenizer...turmoil eliminator...****...that fin above the propeller. I figured part of its function would be to redirect the water movement down and backwards and mitigate the push up by the prop. (Well, it made sense at the time.)

I reckoned it would be dislodged by the force of the water, but didn't want to drill and bolt anything to the motor. The Goop can be taken off with no damage to the metal. It stayed put during the test runs. :)

Had the boat out today. Again, it was windy, 10-15 mph, mid-40's, with a front pushing thunderstorms our way. I launched the boat, warmed it up, and accelerated with the wind at my back.

Whether it was the weight in front (probably), or the combination of the weight and lexan thingie, the little boat stayed on form, using its bow to cut water, rather than rising up above it. Going back into the wind, got some slap, but nothing at all like the previous times out. It bounced up a bit, but came right back down into the next wave.

Boat is really too small to play in water like that, and the hull design was never made for choppy or rough conditions, but this stuff happens. I'm much more comfortable with it now.

Here's the defibrillator:
motorlexanfinside.jpg


lexanmotorantigravfin.jpg


motorgravlexanfin.jpg



(I know it is silly, but it was kind of fun to think I did more than add a sack of lime to the boat.)

If we EVER get some mild weather, I'll take the lime out and try just the fin. As it was, I was really cold by the time this outing was over.
 
Well done. I love an experimenter....especially one who gets results from his work.

When comparing Fins (defibrillator!!!) to Tabs....I suggest you review the tape here

https://www.nauticusinc.com/system_overview.htm

Might show that they BOTH work... and they work in different ways. Rich
 
While I still like "defibrillator," I admit I was pretty tired yesterday and just could not remember the correct term.

This from one web post: "The purpose of the plate (call it what you want - doesn't really matter) is to make it more difficult for air to get to the prop from the surface of the water."

In doing a web search, found this in a 2006 posting on a site, where some pretty experienced guys were bickering over the correct term:
"I realize the fact the the plate has nothing to do with cavitation, and its proper term should be ventilation plate.
I posted the yamaha site to show that they call it a cavitation plate. Its not just a "new boater" that confuses the term, apparently its the people that build the **** engine as well."


So, although "defibrillator" still has my affection, the name of the thingie is (perhaps) "cavitation" plate, "anti-cavitation" plate, "ventilation" plate, or something else.

No where did I find that they were to be used by small motors on small boats.


Peace, out. :lol:
 
OK...After and Before:

12ftinpecsideviewreflections.jpg


elphinrightsidewith3hp.jpg


Delhi12ftrightside4-23-12.jpg


Just did "stuff," nothing remarkable, but it is a sweet ole boat. There's 50 lbs of weight forward, fastened to left hand side to keep front down and side to side weight compensated.

(jigngrub? got an impeller...thank you.)
 
Well, two days ago, a guy came and took the little 12 foot boat away from me. :(

He DID give me money for it, but still.

Now, all I have left is the 14ft Alumacraft, a 10.5ft Dagger Tupleo (29lbs) canoe, a kayak a friend asked me to store "just for a month or so" 16 years ago, and...er...hmmm...uh...a much abused and battered Golden Hawk (or Cranberry Creek) 12'9" Y-sterned canoe (which followed me home, honest!) Oh, and the 10hp '59 Johnson, the '54 3hp Evinrude, the '67(?) Clinton/sears (the ONLY year Clinton made a motor for Sears), the '64 5.5. Evinrude, and a couple of those electric motor things with a 70lb battery.

I bought boat with the Clinton and trailer , and sold just the boat. Small profit, but more important, the boat will get more use. AND, the trailer was modified yesterday to carry the Y-stern. Boy, does that canoe LOVE the 3 hp Evinrude!

In April, I was just an old guy who bought a fishing boat. What happened? :?

I blame this site, and you, you bunch of enablers, you.


:)

cranberrycreek129rightsideUP.jpg


cranberrycreekUPfromleftfront.jpg


cranberrycreek129fromYstern.jpg
 

Latest posts

Top