S/V Deep Playa – Dawn and Patrick

The outboard has been running like poop. It will not run at anything but slightly above idle when in gear. In fact sometimes when you lower the throttle that little bit you were able to get above idle it even goes faster! Out of gear you run the darn thing wide open. Go figure!

Anyway, we can’t get any parts for our engine in Mexico. There is a Yamaha distributor in PV and everything just nothing is in stock and it would take 2 months to get anything from Japan. I think the person at IMEMSA (The Yamaha Importer) was trying to explain to me that this has to do with Mexico’s import laws, but I’m not sure.

Anyway, I got another can of cleaner, and I’m going to let this stuff sit overnight. I don’t have enough cleaner to really immerse the entire carb and let it soak so this is probably all for not, but who knows. Last time I tried this I was unwilling to take the float off and this time I did that and there’s another pin\jet doo hickey under there, so maybe this is the magic time it will all work.

Wish me luck and if you have any expertise with 4-stroke Yamaha F8 outboards please do drop me some hints.

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 !!

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 updown 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.

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 brandmodel 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.