Well, things have not been going as fast on Destiny as I was hoping for because my Mom passed away the end of January and I have had to spend a couple of weeks in Wisconsin first dealing with the funeral and then with the estate. In addition a lot of my time at home has been absorbed with issues associated with it all. But I have made some progress so I thought I would do an update.
First, when I bought Destiny the previous owner had hit a rock with her and tore up the bottom of the keel. So I took her to the local marina so they could lift her off the trailer and set her on stands which would allow me to work on the bottom of her keel. I ground out all the damage and glassed it back in. Then I layed up 4 more layers of 1708 biax along the entire length of the bottom of the keel as additional reinforcement. I faired that out and at the same time faired out some of the original irregularities in the side of the keel.
Getting Destiny off her trailer also allowed me to get the old rudder off so I could start my electric drive installation. I have her back home now and have rounded up the parts I will need for the new rudder and the electric drive. I have the new shaft log, prop shaft, cutlass bearing, stuffing box, and prop. The rest of the electric drive I bought a long time ago with the exception of the barreries. In addition I bought the marine bronze to make up the new rudder shaft and had it fabricated for the new rudder. The picture of the parts (laying on top of the old rudder) is below. The 3/8" rod was drilled, tapped and brazed into the 1" shaft.
I plan to follow Chance's method of building the rudder. I hope I can live up the the level of quality of fabrication he showed us.
JERRY CARPENTER - C147
A man can succeed at almost anything for which he has unlimited enthusiam.
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