These two pictures are showing the state of the mount when I purchased the boat. I knew that I was going to have to fix or replace the mount. After doing some research I quickly decided that fixing the old mount was the right/ cheapest option.
I was shocked to find that mounts could go for over 200 bucks. And any mount that was less, looked like junk.
I purchased all new SS hardware to replace the old aluminum bolts and spacers. I know, I know - steel and AL don't play well together, but I promise to keep an eye on hardware and Triflow will keep the two metals happily living together without getting TOO close.
It took about 50 dollars in hardware. Always a shock that a pile of bolts can add up to so much.
The trickiest part was making spacers to replace the old busted up AL ones. I ended up making them out of nylon spacers that I had to cut down, sand, and bore to fit properly.
The finished product is not so pretty BUT...
It goes up!
And it goes down!!
I can't really complain. I am going to complain about that old rotten sticky plastic top-cap.
I had some apple wood from a tree that I pruned last year, so I thought that I'd make a little wood handle cap.
Left is to stain the cap and of course build the plate for the motor to be mounted onto.
It was a long day and freezing outside, so instead of venturing out I thought that I would continue the indoor projects...this meant making some food and doing some glassing research to start the process of thinking about upgrading the rudder.
First pizza!
Next boil down some of last summers frozen strawberries and pull the warm yogurt out of their slow-cooker / incubator. Of course this project was actually started 8 hours before... right before dealing with the motor mount dilemma.
Now that I had a meal and a healthy dessert in me it was time for a little experimenting.
I have seen other Com-Pac owners foil their rudders. It really sounds like this is undoubtedly an improvement to the sailing qualities of the CP 16.
I love the excitement of sailing close to the wind, so I have got to pursue any path that can allow this boat to point higher. Following some methods that I have seen online and how people have created foiled CP rudders I thought that I would do some materials testing and build a little surfboard.
The insulation board that I used was almost impossible to shape with any blade that I owned. I found, after some choice words were expelled, that making rough cuts with a blade and sanding to a finer shape was the way to go shaping this material.
My sturdy little board came out ok. It had very little flex when put under great pressure. With a few more layers of glass I would expect this combination to be bombproof.
This project is leading me to want to continue testing the marriage of these two materials.
