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.......

September 17, 2015

The firehose gunnel guard for the dinghy is just about done.  Only the stern corners need attaching, which will be done after the new beaching wheels are mounted.  The wheels arrived this afternoon from New Zealand, so I've got my work cut out for me for next week.  I also made good progress on a holder for the binoculars, air horn and drinks; just need to varnish and glue next week.  In addition to new projects, I topped off the water in the batteries and did a little research on the intermittent failure of the engine hour meter.  Looks like the easiest and cheapest solution is to add a separate new meter.  No progress on the radar diagnostics yet.  Still haven't found someone with the same model to check the display.  No more surfing this week either, but I did do some lap swimming, waxed the board and picked up a couple of little necessaries for going.  Also scoped out Mondo's, the local spot for the inexperienced and inept like me.