Rudder & Drive Shafts

First task of the day is to locate the proper position for the rudder shaft tube. Thought about it and thought about it and decided to go with the plumb bob & ole' Dead Eye! I have to be careful and fill in the oversize hole in stages. First will be to put two layers of 18 oz glass over the hole. Problem is there's a 2" fiberglass pipe that extends below the bottom. Ok, Arts & Crafts day!

Cutting holes in glass for bottom patch

 I eventually rounded off the patches above. Below I'm covering the fiberglass tube with packing tape. This will prevent the epoxy from sticking to it until I want it to.

Packing tape release all

 The next challenge I have is how to provide some clamping pressure on the patches until they cure. Working upside down under the boat is not one of my favorite things to do.

Foam rubber pressure

So what I decided to do was use some foam rubber from the Admiral's sewing room to push up on the patches until they cure.

Foam putting pressure on patch

As you can see above the foam pushes up nicely on the fiberglass. The plastic sheet insures it'll separate easily.

Counterforce

To counter the force of pushing up on the patch and fiberglass tube I laid on about 80 lbs of lead. That should hold it in place.

Once that was laid up and curing I puttered around with the drive train. Just mocking it up for now to see how it'll all come together.

Python Drive with drive shaft attached

I've seen this setup in my dreams for years. Now after something like 7 years of kicking this thing around my basement it's finally in the boat. I had to lift the engine to get it lined up.

Python drive shaft installed.

This drive shaft is exactly 1 meter long. Just so happens that's exactly how much we stretched the hull. I wanted the engine to remain in the same position as the original design for stability reasons. Underneath the engine we'll have a 50 USG water bladder for ballast and fresh water use as well. Bringing total F/W onboard to 175 USG including the hot water heater.

Sorry, no video today. Maybe next time.

Standby.....