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Finished glassing the hull and painting it................I hate sanding. If I wanted a showroom finish, I would have bought a new boat...I thought the whole idea was to get out on the water and have fun. Anyway, I got her flipped over on her new trailer and got the deck on. Have to do the cabin clamps and bulwarks and I'll be ready to start on the wheelhouse. After that buy and install the motor (24 volt Minn Kota) and batteries. Still have July 4th for a target date......Independence day.....independence from sanding!!!

Looks great Brian! Congratulations on yet another milestone--keep up the great work!

_________________
Gayle Brantuk
Vice President
Glen-L Marine
Visit our Blog & Create Your Own!

Brian,
Looking good. I need to get busy. I have some catching up to do.

_________________
A secret to a good marriage is to have a quick mind and a slow mouth!!!

Wheelhouse held together with clamps and good old duct tape......have to scribe the roof arc on the 3 front panels and I'll take it apart and when my new order of epoxy is delivered (tomorrow???) I'll coat the outside and then weld (fillet) everything together, put the roof on and start painting and varnishing. Then I'll be ready to buy and install the motor, batteries and steering. Oh, and all the other things that go with a boat.....anchor, chain, lines, cleats, lights...on and on and on.....

Brian

Got the beadboard cladding and the roof on....it's really hot outside....93. I take a break every half hour (union rules?) and go inside and drink some liquids. I think I'll order the motor and paint and varnish the outside while I wait for delivery. Then it's the helm station, batteries and paint the inside....and the sole too!

Looks very good! Keep the photos comeing!

Doing a little work on the inside......motor arrived today so I'll be working on it from now on. Do I see a little light at the end of the tunnel???

Here's another tip......I'm installing a 24 volt Minn Kota Riptide (80 lbs thrust) in my Pug.....I don't know if the instructions for converting a ETM were written before this model came out but where it says to remove the wires between the control unit and the motor shaft and id with nametags.......DONT open up the control unit to do this....instead just cut the wires (2 wires...red and black)....there's enough slack between the two units....you'll have to cut them later on anyway to splice a longer run between the control unit and the motor. Trust me on this one....I made the mistake of opening up the control unit in order to remove and label the wires....what a nightmare taking it apart and disconnecting the 2 wires and then even worse putting it back together. These things were never designed for the purchaser to dismantle.

I've been dreading the time when I have to do the ETM mod and install.......one thing I've learned from a long career in the computer business......if it's possible for anything to go wrong.......IT WILL!!!

OK, got the motor and tiller in....what a job! The minn Kota 24 volt ETM has a composit shaft......1 and 1/8 inch outside diameter and 1/2 inch inside (really thick and heavy). It has two 10 gauge wires inside which almost take up all the room. I slipped a 1/2 inch aluminum conduit inside so cutting it with a hacksaw was no problem....however, when it came to drilling a hole I had to be real careful and do it a little bit (no pun intended) at a time. I drilled a 1/4 inch hole in the tiller and the shaft......well, the 1/4 inch bolt I had purchased for the job did not fit.....not enough room between the two wires....after visiting a few hardware stores (they don't make cap screws, bolts, whatever smaller than 1/4 inch) I had to get a 3 inch 3/16 bolt....threaded all the way...so I had to wrap a little electricans tape around it so I wouldn't worry about the threads rubbing against the wires and maybe shorting them out......ya gotta think ahead.....it just barely fit between the wires.
Anyway, I ordered the steering kit (11 feet) and wheel (13 1/2 inch destroyer wheel).....when it gets here, I'll drill a hole in the tiller in the proper place and then I'll only need to splice in the extension wire and I'll be ready to plunk her in the drink and see if she leaks. I think I'll get 6 gauge wire according to a table in my "electric boats" book by Doug Little. I still can't figure why I need heavier than 10 gauge which the ETM uses in the shaft and to connect to the batteries...maybe the voltage drop over the long wire run??? Any comment would be appreciated.

Thanks, Brian

Well, I got my steering installed.....I ordered 11 feet...shouda got 12 feet.....followed instructions for determining cable length on teleflex site.....I guess they assume you have a normal boat with transom.....anyway, I forgot to always err on the side of too long rather than too short....you can always hide the extra length someware. Because of the short cable the geometry was off.....the cable piston was too far from the tiller attachment point....had to fabricate a steering link...ya know those funny looking things that are different for all outboard motors and cost too much. Anyway, because of the geometry, the steering is a little sloppy. The wheel is 3 turns lock to lock and should be 1.5 turns to port and to starboard. My steering is 1 1/8 turns to starboard and 1 7/8 turns to port and when I'm hard all the way to starboard there's about 1/8 turn before the tiller starts to move. Oh well, I guess every boat has it's own personalty. I installed the floor supports and will install the sole soon......I'm going to cut out a small helmsman's well slightly to the left of the wheel so I can have standing headroom when I want it and sit when I want that. The ETM control unit just barely fits to the right of the wheel and my ammeter will be mounted at the bottom of the dashboard. Moving right along.

Brian

Painted the wheelhouse and first coat on the interior of hull....think I'll leave bilge one coat and the rest a second coat...I'm not painting the Mona Lisa here! I'm ready to buy my 3/8 " plywood for the sole and seat. I'm not placing the batteries under the seat.....2 group 29 deep cycle batteries = about 125 lbs....plus whoever is sitting on the seat, I'm concerned she'll squat a bit too much by the stern....besides, they won't fit the way I installed the steering stuff under the seat. I'm going to place them under a box seat on the port side of the wheelhouse...that way they'll balance out the pilot on the starboard side and give me another seat for passengers. I'll finish painting the hull last thing. Also, I have to go to the DMV and do the paperwork to get a hull id number and a registration number and pay their extortion fee.

Brian

PS hey Chip, are you still working on your Pug??? Inquiring minds want to know!

will done!

Brian,

I'm still here, but my Pug has been set a side for the time being. I have the bad habit of jumping to other projects. I still need to finish and float the TNT, the one man cedar strip boat needs a couple more days work, and I just started on a two person utilty boat that will be given to a friend of mine that started a local fishing ministry for needy kids. On top of that the Admiral informed me I have to finish her Grandmother's piano.

_________________
A secret to a good marriage is to have a quick mind and a slow mouth!!!

Brian,

Your Pug is coming along beautifully! Thanks so much for keeping us updated...

_________________
Gayle Brantuk
Vice President
Glen-L Marine
Visit our Blog & Create Your Own!

Thanks Gayle, It's been a long trip but the end is in sight.

Brian