Stewart,
Your BCC is so gorgeous, as is Tom’s, I hesitate to show you my bracket. It has worked well, and is a mark II. (The first one (epoxied plywood) was really ugly.) For the mark II, I had a piece of 1/4" marine grade Al in Australia and was lucky to find U-bolts that exactly fit the boom gallows posts. I doubled the Al for the U-bolts–perhaps not necessary. I used some plastic board to build up the area that the OB clamps to. The 2.5HP Tohatsu fits best if the lower unit is turned about 180 degrees to the top unit and the whole turned parallel to the bracket. The OB doesn’t intrude too much on the cockpit seating. I try to sit there if we have 4 sitting in the cockpit. Everything on a small boat is a compromise, isn’t it??
Dan Shaula
Thanks Dan, I was thinking about a piece of star board which depending on the thickness might be strong enough. Presently the ob has lived strapped to the shroud with some cheap wood and the base sits in a plastic bucket. Anything is better than that. Ben has his on a backet on the boomkin, I made one but got cold feet on fitting it cos I reckoned it was going to put a lot of strain there. I quite like the boom gallows idea.
Flyer has his in the Laz but I am anal about gas in an enclosed space. Thanks for the pix
Itchen’s is on a bracket fitted to the boomkin, very satisfactory,
out-of-the-way, but easy enough to mount and dismount standing on aft deck
or in the dinghy…If interested I may have a photo I can post. However,
wherever it is mounted, one has to watch out for ‘entanging alliances’ with
the mainsheet when on a dead run in light and flopping-around conditions or
in poorly controlled jibes. Strategically-strung shock cord can help keep
the mainsheet at bay.
On Mon, Jan 28, 2013 at 5:18 PM, BCC Forums bccforums@samlmorse.com wrote:
Itchen Wrote:
Itchen’s is on a bracket fitted to the boomkin,
very satisfactory,
out-of-the-way, but easy enough to mount and
dismount standing on aft deck
or in the dinghy…If interested I may have a photo
I can post.
Here is a photo
FWIW, My Honda 2HP fits real cozy on the inside of the boomkin. I knocked it together with stuff I could find here, a piece of starboard type material and a hunk of aluminum angle. This is the only photo I could find that shows it at all but you can see how it sits. Close, but no conflict with the rudder.
Stewart,
I just recently started using star board, so don’t know if it’s stiff enough to retain its shape when u-bolts are trying to wrap it around your boom gallows posts. I’m doubtful.
If you choose to mount the OB on the boomkin, you probably don’t need to worry about strain on the boomkin. It’s very solid, and 40 or so more pounds out there shouldn’t matter, strain-wise. You might consider that weight out at the ends of the boat is best avoided if possible, but… We keep our 70 lb valise life raft in the lazarette and that probably has a bigger effect on hobby horsing than an OB on the boomkin. Pros and cons, as always.
Dan Shaula
Am currently snowed in but will try to get to the boat in the next couple of weeks to get decent pictures of my outboard mount.
We split a piece of stainless tube with an ID about the same as the OD of the gallows knees. Then welded a stainless plate to the tube and faced both sides with teak. Also welded spuds onto the tube to locate the u-bolts that hold the assembly to the gallows knees. Has worked wonderfully for 12 years…we use a honda 2…wouldn’t want to use anything much bigger or heavier there…
test attach
hey guys its open season on the OB position. As I said I fabricated a bkt for the boomkin, a right angle ss with some teak for the screw clamps (of the OB) to bite into. Seems like my boomkin might look as if it was pepperred with holes as I have a caphorn on it, and a windvane. Never used star board before in a strength situation, just for sliding doors, its an interesting material.
Stewart:
The easiest solution to your OB mount problem would be to buy my boat…then, not only do you get a terrific mount, but a spare OB.
I put my Honda 2 on the gallows to be sure it was riding somewhere that it could not get into the water…lee shrouds or the boomkin in a following sea may expose it to possibly getting soaked (not a big deal) but also, being dislodged.
I’ve used the boom gallows frame for outboard brackets as well. Tharrer’s
points are on the money - the shorouds and boomkin are too exposed and
wet. I’ve stored a 2hp Yamaha and a 15hp Mariner/Mercury on my brackets
and never had a problem. With the 15hp engine, I use the boom with 4:1
tackle as a davit to lift it to/from the dink.
Cheers,
Jeremy
On Fri, Feb 1, 2013 at 12:18 PM, BCC Forums bccforums@samlmorse.com wrote:
Tom you have one pretty boat there and the words obsessively maintained stike deep, I am having enough trouble getting my own boat wet without trying to get yours wet into the bargain. I think its going to have to be the upright of the boom gallows, which means I gotta get my ass in gear. Jeremy I think you must be built like a gorilla to handle a 15 hp when it hits the dink. I have enough trouble with 2 horses, and when one day I go over the back of the dink, the points might be awarded for the tuck position rather than the pike. I can see the crew bringing it up for years after over cocktails.
I’m with you on the risks inherent in handling an outboard, Stewart.
On Zygote, we rowed and refused the temptation to buy and store an outboard. That was until we anchored in Torres Strait (between the NE point of Australian and New Guinea) and had difficulty rowing to shore with a 7 knot current. And then anchored in the Endeavour River (just near the spot where Lt James Cook careened the Endeavour), only to deal with heavy rain leading to 9 knots of current (we accepted a tow from the Coast Guard - because Zygote cannot motor against 9 knots - to move from anchor onto their mooring).
So we bought a 2 hp Honda. And keep it in the lazarette. It’s a pain. I regularly turn the engine over, without starting it, because it’s so rarely used.
If anyone has tips on handling an outboard, to dispel my fears that the ob is desperately wanting to do a float test every time I install it on the dinghy transom, please tell me!
Cheers
Bil
Hi Bil:
We have a Honda 2 as well…primarily because it was the lightest 4-stroke we could find at the time. We always make moving it to the dink a 2 person task. Ann would hand it to me at the boarding gate. She would stick out the prop end and I would grab it and pull myself and the dink back to the hull if necessary. Once I had a firm grip on the shaft/engine cover, Ann would let go. Worst case then was I would fall on my butt but, given we have a Zodiac air floor, I was always well cushioned.
Forecast to warm up here in NE Wisconsin next week. I will try to take some decent photos of my boom gallows OB mount.
On Shaula, shifting the OB is a one person job–all mine! We keep our fatty knees tied fore and aft on the starboard side, below the gate. There’s a 4’ safety line permanently attached to the OB, with a bowline at its end. Before lifting the OB off the boom gallows bracket, I drop the bowline over the starboard jib sheet winch. After getting the OB over to the starboard gate, I lower it horizontally into the dink. After getting into the dink, the safety line bowline is transferred to a snap shackle on the dingy lifting bridle. The last step is shifting the OB to the transom while kneeling in the dink. I’m never standing in the dink with the OB.
The steps are reversed to get the OB back on Shaula, with the safety line allowing me to pull the OB up enough to reach its carry handle from the deck.
This system has worked well for 20 yrs, first with a 2HP Suzuki and then with our 2.5HP Tohatsu, both 2 strokers and maybe a few lbs lighter than the Honda. Could Alice, the Admiral, shift the OB by herself? Maybe not—she’s never tried. If she really HAD to do it by herself, probably. Most days we row, but for longer trips, for fishing, or for grocery runs, the OB is a big help.
Dan Shaula
here are some close ups of my OB bracket
here are some photos
here are some photos of my OB mount as promised…the stainless steel plate is 4"X8"…welded to a split piece of SS pipe 8" long with an OD of 1 1/2"…the pad is teak 6W X 5H X 2 thick…it is in two pieces, routed to the thickness of the SS plate (which someone forgot to measure??) and then through bolted. We built the u-bolt clamping pieces out of slightly smaller SS pipe pieces.
As I continue to be unable to make the attach function on our board work, I posted the photos here…(and yes John, all the files are less than 600X800 and have .jpg extensions when I try to attach them…I surrender)
Hey Tom I quite like what ya did there with the ob bkt, and I like the boarding ladder I have one that just hooks on but it is one step too short, I shall have to be creative about how to fix. That little bkt that you used over the bulwark is sweet and must just swing down perfectly. Another job. I am also glad you can’t post pix cos I can’t either. We both need a remedial forum course. The weather is blizzard so boating seems a long way away, one must dream though.
Thanks for taking the time to take the pics and post them.