MIA's 1973 Silverton gets a couple of improvements for 2017

Well, just because she went in the water 3 years ago doesn't mean that the work is done. It's never done is it?

New for this year bottom paint and a TR-1 autopilot from Garmin and fixing the hardspot cracks in the side decks. I don't have pictures of those but thanks to PAR for giving me the courage to attack my nice white deck with a grinder. The port and starboard topsides, above the boot stripe, will get painted next year. For now it's time to head for Lake Ontario.

For those new to the forum, I started this project in 2007. Boat was gutted all the way down to an empty shell and restored from the bottom up. It took me 7 years. If you're curious you can find numerous posts from those years by searching.

Photos show what she looked like in 2014 when she launched and how she looks today. It can be done. You need time, patience and money.

 

How well does you aux motor set-up work ?

 

This boat has a 5 liter Ford v8 as main propulsion. I run her on the main at about 12 Kilometers per hour and get about 1 kilometer on a liter of fuel. That little kicker, a Yamaha t9.9 high thrust, easily pushes me along at 8 KPH but my fuel consumption drops to 3.4K/liter. Here in the US that equates to 8 miles per gallon on the kicker. Last season I just locked the kicker straight forward and steered with the rudder. That technique worked in calm to light breezes but in any type of cross wind the helm got pretty sloppy. I found through experimentation that turning the outboard and leaving the rudder straight vastly improved my steering. So I saved up some money (I know... not borrowing money is such an antiquated concept these days) and bought the TR1.
I'm launching the boat today and will calibrate the TR1 over the next day or two. For this season I'll use the TR1 as a heading hold autopilot. I'll save up for next season and add a chartplotter, which will finish off the installation and allow the use of waypoints to chart a course.
Another advantage to the Yamaha is it's use as a stern thruster. I pass through a lot of locks in my travels. When I enter a lock I always run the main engine so that I can reverse the boat and stop from the helm. I'm almost always alone on the boat. Once stopped I shut down the main and hop down to the back deck and grab what ever is available to hold the boat to the lock wall. Usually a ladder or pipe. But what about the bow? Before I had the outboard the bow could be a problem as there was no one to hold it to the lock wall. I figured out some ways around this using rope and a boat hook but it was a challenge.
One day last summer it occurred to me to try the outboard as a thruster. Let's say I'm locking on the port side. Once I have the boat on the wall, I start the Yamaha, just let it idle and turn it to starboard. When I shift it into forward the outboard gently pushes the stern to starboard, away from the lock wall. This causes the bow of the boat to swing to port and she snuggles right up. I can easily hold onto a ladder or pipe with a boat hook and relax as the lock cycles.
This is probably more than you need to know but I'm very pleased with the Yamaha. It does more than I expected it to do and it saves me a little money on fuel as well. The downside, as always is cost. I had to reinforce the transom as it was not designed to take any appreciable loading, build the platform and do the outboard installation and the TR1. Altogether I spent in the neighborhood of $7K and I amused myself by doing all the work. I'd hate to think about what it would cost to have someone do this as a paid job. It just wouldn't be cost effective, but what job on a boat really ever is?

Regards,

MIA