The Official "What Did You Do To Your Mac Today" Thread!
- Thread starter Sock Puppet
- Start date
The 9.9 hp Merc on our sailboat has its water intake under the anti-cavitation plate instead of on the sides of the lower unit like most other outboards. This means it can't use a normal earmuffs style flush out fitting. Also, my rudder hold-off mod means it also can't use the fitting made for it as that wraps around the plate. That left me with an awkward problem. I believe I have an answer with, of all things, a rubber wheel chock. It's just the right size and shape to fit between the prop blades and the hollow underside just covers the intake opening. A wedge of wood holds it in place snugly. I plumbed it up tonight. A bit late for firing up the motor. Have to work tomorrow night. May get a test run on Wed. note: rubber wheel chock is from Northern Tool. It's approx. 5"L X 3"W X 2.5"H They come as a pair attached by a rope. The bolt you see is plugging the rope hole. I ground off the anti-skid ridges with a belt sander.
Attachments
Last edited:
Another good point as I have been doing all my "testing" with empty bins. So.. I put nine food cans in the bin and moved the bin in and out and that does happen but its still fairly easy because of the slope of the hull in that area. Still some sort of slider or runner would improve how easy it is to get the bin in and out. Whatever would go in there must be assembled inside the settee and I also try and keep the weight down as much as possible especially for something like this which does not get used 90% of the time.
Top picture is with the bin partially in and before it drops in. Second picture is after the bin has dropped in. You can see that the bin has to "ride up" the slope of the hull but it doesn't take much force.. Could be improved however and making this very easy to use (which the runner would help with) was the main reason for even starting the project.
Last edited:
Maybe cut a piece of 1/4" plywood, or whatever you have laying around, the width of each drawer opening that would rest on the hull in the rear, and the ledge in the front. it wouldn't even require any "retainers" to hold it in place.
I like that idea. I have a hole in the side of my stbd bench that used to house a 6x9 speaker,and was considering options to cover it.
I slid a 55gal drum behind "Mistress" and lowered the motor while still attached to the transom. After filling, it was ready to run. Guaranteed, I'm not going to rev very high without emptying the barrel, but at idle, the water goes right back into the barrel.
IMO, that's plenty for yearly maintenance checks and servicing.
Was wondering when someone would post this, @My Mistress
A 5 gallon bucket might also serve.
A 5 gallon bucket might also serve.
Yes, of course a barrel is a straightforward way to flush. But I keep my boat in the water at a dock for long stretches of time. And it's salt water. So I was looking for a way to flush the motor with the boat in the water.
I still want to know who is going to win the submarine race.
Flushing... I saw somewhere recently what was probably a new product. Or maybe a DIY at Sailrite.com? It was a bag- might have been sunbrella.- that you pull up over the outboard and fill with water. Kind of like the ones on tree to water it. Might even have been the very same one? You could use it right on the rail!
Didn't do this today, but took the pictures today. I was tired of my roller furler bouncing around. PO had a piece of ~1.5" pvc pipe that he would strap to it. Never worked for me.
I took a 8" pvc pipe, ripped it in half, and notched a cutout for where the mast attaches to the pulpit railing. Last summer did a 1000 mile round trip and several 60 miles to the lake and then back. Easy, cheap, and so far functional.
I took a 8" pvc pipe, ripped it in half, and notched a cutout for where the mast attaches to the pulpit railing. Last summer did a 1000 mile round trip and several 60 miles to the lake and then back. Easy, cheap, and so far functional.
Last edited:
Im going to try these "thermal bags" in the ice chest this summer. I have two of them and they are large enough for a six pack or bag of ice. We will load prepared food in them before the trip. If you sail (especially spirited sailing with a water ballast boat LOL), stuff gets knocked around in the ice chest and tends to make a mess so Im hoping these keep things a little cleaner. They are only about $3 each at the local grocery store and seem like they will be rugged enough for at least a few trips. Also they should be easy to clean at the end of the trip.
There is a warning on the bag that you cant put BOTH hot and cold stuff in the bag at the same time..
store
There is a warning on the bag that you cant put BOTH hot and cold stuff in the bag at the same time..
store
Last edited:
Wouldn't it be interesting to put burritos and beer in the same bag. Think of the convenience!
First picture shows a "ledge" fairly close to what is described above (after my SBO design review here LOL.. go back one page for the main set of pictures) and the drawers do slide in better. There is still a sizable gap so that I can see and have access to the bilge under the bins.
Picture below is the V berth area set up for some trips this summer. I have the two "marina dock party" fold out chairs hanging out of the way giving access to all those plastic bins up in that area. On the left is a 11 foot 2 person Advanced Element inflatable kayak / seats / paddles that we can use as a tender or to explore. I can either tow that kayak or stow it in the Vberth.. I way prefer sailing the boat without towing something back there.. but sometimes I will just for convenience. Chairs and kayaks etc will stay in that area when the boat is on the trailer.
Walt,
How has the new cooler worked out for you this summer? what temp and for how long, etc. thinking of building a "super cooler" of my own this year also.
Performance wise.. its about the same as a five day ice chest even though I have 2 inches of insulation on the sides and top and 3 inches on the bottom. It doesnt keep things cool as long as I thought it would.. but its also not at all bad. Exact temps. Im not sure. Its not as cool as a fridge but Ive kept milk fresh in it for something like nearly 10 days last summer. I had an experiment going on with it where I have two chambers. One chamber was going to hold ice and the other chamber food. The two compartments are vented at the top and bottom to allow natural air circulation that sets up because of a temperature difference. I also have a 1 Watt fan that can aid the natural circulation.
Well.. I never use the fan and the concept of a chamber for ice and a chamber for food sort of works.. but if I were going to do it again I would just have one big chamber. I have two lids which I do like. Im actually filling the ice chest up today to head to Chula Vista CA tomorrow and am freezing two gallon jugs of water that will go in the smaller ice side (forward). Steaks and some other prepared food are going in the bags I posted earlier.. plus a few six packs of beer and other misc stuff.
The ice chest is something like 83 quarts which I like a LOT especially since a fair amount of the area in the chest is taken up by ice. I have had up to four one gallon frozen water jugs in it and of course you can drink the ice cold water in the jugs.
One thing I did that I really like is having a drain at either end of the chest. I dont get any ice melt with the frozen water jugs but I also sometimes put bags of ice in there. Each morning I drain all the water out of the ice chest. You lose about 10% of the cooling capacity of ice by doing this (draining the water each morning - most of the cooling capacity of ice is in going from just under 0C to just over 0C) but it also tends to keep the ice chest cleaner. Anything that spilled (happens if you sail the boat) somewhat gets cleaned out daily. If I did another, I would spend more time making sure the ice chest had a good low spot where a drain would go.
I think a good seal on the lids in important.. Also by going custom you can really optimize some area for the chest. Overall.. I give it a huge thumbs up..worth doing.
Well.. I never use the fan and the concept of a chamber for ice and a chamber for food sort of works.. but if I were going to do it again I would just have one big chamber. I have two lids which I do like. Im actually filling the ice chest up today to head to Chula Vista CA tomorrow and am freezing two gallon jugs of water that will go in the smaller ice side (forward). Steaks and some other prepared food are going in the bags I posted earlier.. plus a few six packs of beer and other misc stuff.
The ice chest is something like 83 quarts which I like a LOT especially since a fair amount of the area in the chest is taken up by ice. I have had up to four one gallon frozen water jugs in it and of course you can drink the ice cold water in the jugs.
One thing I did that I really like is having a drain at either end of the chest. I dont get any ice melt with the frozen water jugs but I also sometimes put bags of ice in there. Each morning I drain all the water out of the ice chest. You lose about 10% of the cooling capacity of ice by doing this (draining the water each morning - most of the cooling capacity of ice is in going from just under 0C to just over 0C) but it also tends to keep the ice chest cleaner. Anything that spilled (happens if you sail the boat) somewhat gets cleaned out daily. If I did another, I would spend more time making sure the ice chest had a good low spot where a drain would go.
I think a good seal on the lids in important.. Also by going custom you can really optimize some area for the chest. Overall.. I give it a huge thumbs up..worth doing.
Attachments
Last edited:
Have you tried dry ice? we tried that once and did find that it seemed colder and lasted much longer. we had a chunk (1/2 gal size) of dry and equal portion of regular ice. I'm still puzzling over whether I want to build an insulated box area to set our existing cooler in, or build from scratch. do you know the R value of the foam you used?
Nice thing about an ice chest.. throw in ice bags, blocks, frozen jugs or dry ice. I have not tried dry ice mostly because the one gallon frozen jugs have worked fine. On a trip last summer that was a few days over a week, the four frozen jugs plus one bag of ice near the end of the trip was all I needed. When I went looking for ice, all that was available was a bag.. but no problem. I think if you research, you can find insulation foam with better R value for a given thickness but I just used what was available at the local hardware store for home construction.
You likely will figure out some clever way to build one.. but I attached a few pictures of what I did for some ideas (if you do make one). Inner side is a thin plywood that had all the seams epoxy glassed. Then the whole inside was epoxy painted, then painted again. Hasn't leaked at all.
Sumner also has a web page of his fridge build - likely some good ideas here also
http://purplesagetradingpost.com/sumner/endeavour-inside-mods/page-1.html
You likely will figure out some clever way to build one.. but I attached a few pictures of what I did for some ideas (if you do make one). Inner side is a thin plywood that had all the seams epoxy glassed. Then the whole inside was epoxy painted, then painted again. Hasn't leaked at all.
Sumner also has a web page of his fridge build - likely some good ideas here also
http://purplesagetradingpost.com/sumner/endeavour-inside-mods/page-1.html
Last edited: