S/V Deep Playa - Pearson 424

This is a project I’ve been slowly working on, but needed to be completed before out big trip to the San Juans. Out boat came with a fiberglass and starboard outboard bracket that was fine for smaller motors but not our four stroke Yamaha F8.

I was able to buy teak that was roughly the right width that I wanted it was a little wider, but I didn’t care enough to deal with cutting it down.

The next part after that was to use a 1” half-circle router bit to cut away the “T” that fits over the railing and the stantion. This also required a router that had a 1/2” shank. I was going to borrow a friends router but his was only 1/4”. If you are thinking of buying a router, don’t save $20 on the 1/4” shank… you’ll be sorry, or in this case I’ll be sorry.

I routed out a 1/2” T on each side. I removed about an 1/8” at each pass and it made a HUGE mess, so plan ahead for that. It’s not shown in this photo but I also removed the material in the shoulders of the “T” to make more room in that area.

After that work done in the shop, I brought the router and the wood down to the boat to do the final fit. I probably ended up removing another 1/8” in all directions, by that I mean I made the T wider and deeper. This was mainly needed because this area in my stern rail has a bit of a curve in it.

In the shop I used guides for all my router passes. On the boat I did it free hand and it made the boards loose their perfect alignment. I could take it off, bolt it together and run it through a planer if I had one, maybe I’ll ask one of the woodworkers down at the shop, maybe I’ll work on one of the 9,0000 other projects. ;-)

Once the dry fit was complete I used a forstner bit to make the recessed holes for my stainless steel hardware. I used 5/6”- 1-3/4” bolt and just eyeballed it. In order to ensure things would line up , I drill the bolt holes with the wood clamed to the stern rail. I used a hand drill drill-press adapter to ensure I was drilling straight. I also used this to control the depth of my forstner bit.

In order to lift the outboard from the dinghy to the new bracket we use the new mizzen sheet I installed. This worked like magic and now I don’t need to buy a separate set of lifting tackle, which saves about $150 !!

We bought an Aquapro Sportsmaster 860 used off of craigslist last summer and we wanted to add an outboard. I thought buying an outboard would be a pretty straight forward thing to do, we had some specific criteria:

1. 4-Stroke – I don’t want to have to carry 2-stroke oil, deal with mixing it in with gas and 4-strokes burn cleaner and run quieter. Ideally we’d have gone with an electric outboard but they run $3k and I just couldn’t justify the money on such a new technology.
2. 8HP – Our dinghy is rated to 8hp and I wanted the biggest engine she could handle. This will essentially be our car, no actually more like a pickup when we’re out cruising so I wanted to be sure it could move when we wanted it to and that it could carry a load when we’re ferrying supplies and parts.

I looked at the SSCA’s Equipment survey and 2-stokes were more common than 4-strokes, but 4-strokes are really starting to take off over the past few years especially given the environmental and noise considerations. Looking at the brands all the biggies were there in sufficient quantities and were well rated. I also read the Practical Sailor reviews of Outboards and while I don’t think there were any clear winners and losers they Yamaha rated well and had nice touches so I decided to go with a Yamaha F8 Short Shaft (I think it has since been replaced by the 9.9).

I spoke with two dealers at the Seattle Boat Show and one was kind of slimy saying “For you, we’ll throw in a gas tank.” where Jacobsen's’ Marine said, “There’s a Yamaha special right now where they throw in $200 of free accessories and you can pick what you want”. Jacobsen’s was $10 more, but I just felt they were more forthright in their sale and they’re office is located here in Seattle.

We’ve use the outboard a few times now and from a weight perspective I think we could have gone with a 6hp. However, I have been able to get the dinghy up on a plane with both Dawn and I in it, so maybe 8hp was the way to go. Initially when you run the motor you push a pretty big wall of water for a while. When towing with the motor on, I think it slows Down Deep Playa by a knot or maybe even two knots. I don’t plan on towing the dinghy like that but hey occasionally we all get lazy. Weight aside and me being a complete and utter neophyte to outboards aside; she runs greats and starts with one or two pulls so you can’t complain about that. The “guys on the dock” say I will probably want to add a fin to the motor (like a wing) which will allow it to get out of the hole and up on a plane faster. I’m still looking into that.

I’m also building and installing a teak outboard mount and then we can mount the motor on the stern rail for short trips. The current outboard mount is made out of fiberglass and starboard and I don’t trust it so I have to leave the mizzen halyard on when I was mounting the outboard. The new mount will be VERY sturdy and then we can use the mizzen halyard or a block on the mizzen boom to raise and lower the outboard.

I was looking around the site and noticed I owed an update on the Dinghy. All of our experience with the dinghy at that point had been inside the break water of the marina, where I couldn’t open the throttle wide open. Well it turns out, that when you do open the throttle wide open that in 15-20 seconds (depending on the sea state) that the dinghy will plane up and then it really goes! Dawn and I have been able to get up on a plane, which is perfect! The other thing I did was adjust the motor angle a bit. As the motor swings down there is an adjustable bar on the back that sets how far the motor tilts up\down in relation to the transom of the dinghy. I set it one not high so the motor sits one click higher. This has the effect of putting the motor weight a litlte more forward and prop a little more downward so we don’t push quite as a big wall of water when we’re at less than full throttle. I still think it will be worthwhile to add a foil to the motor which will create more lift and allow us to plane more quickly.

Anyway, its nice to know things are working as expected after we practices and educated ourselves a bit more.

Dawn and I got the Yamaha F8 mounted to the Aquapro 860 today and I’m thinking it might be too big\heavy for the 860. When the dinghy is empty, it really site bow-up out of the water. When I’m in the dinghy it doesn’t seem top bad. I only ran it around the slips at the marina so I didn’t open it up, but it did seem to pull down the stern when I was going faster, I would probably have to be really going to get up on a plain.

I may have to call in the experts on this one and see what they think… now where do I find an expert?

We bought a used 2002 Aquapro Sportmaster 860 this week. The baby is almost new condition to my eye. The previous owner is a Boeing Engineer (maybe retired) who only used it one season then stored it in his garage. I know sounds like the classic auto salesman line; a little old lady used it once a week to get groceries but now she can no longer afford the gas.

We paid 1/2 what he paid in 2003 and about 1/3 the price they are going for new! Aquapro isn't my preferred brand\model for taking to the S. Pacific, but for around Puget Sound this will be a great little dinghy. I bought a cover for it (see photo) and I'm looking for an outboard. If you have any recommendations on a <=8hp short shaft 4stroke outboard drop me a note

I'm going to be getting some Citra-Solve and taking a crack at removing the registration info from the dinghy since a) that registration isn't mine and b) tenders don't need to be registered. I'm still working it out with the state how to handle the registration though. I think I need to pay to have the title transferred and that's it, but we'll see.

The dinghy is more than just a way to get around when you're at anchor its your car when you're cruising, its your work platform when you need to do things on the boat at the water level (like remove the name form the stern) and its your fortress of solitude when you and your partner find the confines of the boat a little cramped. ;-) When we leave to go cruising we'll probably have a kayak and a dinghy or a RIB and a folding inflatable dinghy. We'll have to see how that pans out.