September 24, 2015

I finished the holder for the binoculars, air horn and drink, but the week was really all about the dinghy.  Mounting the new BeachMaster beaching wheels turned out to be a long, tough job.  Yes, figuring out the exact positioning was tricky, and it took a bit of time to get backing plates made and find the right-size access hatch.  The real bugaboo, however, was that when I cut the hole for the access hatch, I found that the entire under-seat space was filled with foam.  Digging it all out was a long, miserable, bruising job.  But I did it and eventually got the wheels neatly and securely mounted.  The wheels are a great product, definitely worth the money.  The engineering is brilliant:  easy one-handed deployment and folding up.  Unfortunately, the dinghy is still VERY heavy, so hauling it up the beach is still tough, even with the wheels.  In soft sand or mud, the wheels sink in so much they are useless, even though the tires are good-sized.  Sigh.......