May 26 2011, Weebs is finally ready to get wet! While there are still things I would like to work on, too many to list I bought Weebs as a “training boat.” Yes I am “learning” all about repairing “old boats” but I did want to get some sailing in this summer so I made the call to get her water tight and just run with it. I can continue making her pretty while in the water.
Launching was pretty uneventful. The current in the Ashley River helped push us along to the launch dock nicely. I guess I should point out that while the engine was operational we left the new propeller shaft disconnected. Weebs had been out of the water for several months. This can allow the hull to flex creating misalignment between the engine and shaft. So we opted to leave everything unconnected until Weebs settled back into the water. This turned out to be a good decision because the shaft alignment was way off. Well of course the one motor mount we needed to adjust was rusted in place. Remember the leaking water pump? It sits right above this mount and had turned it into a monolithic blob of iron oxide. The bright white is a paper towel plugging the water pump drive gear.
Stbd aft motor mount
Dolphin Cove has both wetslips and dry stack slips. For the drystack slips when you want your boat you call them and they put it in the water and when you’re done they put it back in the warehouse. We launched on the Thursday before Memorial Day weekend. This meant that there was going to be a lot of traffic at the launch pier so the marina wanted us to move over to a slip near the restaurant. Not a big problem if you have propulsion….which due to the motor mount was becoming a challenge for us.
I studied the alignment issue, the back of the motor needed to be lowered. It was OK side to side and axially. Because of the location of the mount if we raised the front of the motor it would lower the back just enough to connect the shaft. We had to disconnect the front mounts to raise the front enough to position the back properly. I wish I had taken some pictures because what followed was ridiculus….I was glad it was dark out so no one could see our engineering handiwork.
Mike used a piece of wood as a lever under the front of the motor while I connected the shaft coupling bolts. I left the bolts loose so there would be some play in the connection. Mike continued to hold the motor up while I fired it up and gingerly motored over to the other pier. As soon as we tied up I had to disconnect the shaft coupling before Mike wore out. Maybe not the best way to get there, but we made it! You can see Mike’s wooden lever on the side of the boat.
Weebs at Dolphin Cove
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