Sea Sled madness. It’s in my brain.

I was hoping to be up thataway (in Spokane) next week, but plans changed for various reasons (including re covid protocols) so I won't be there now - but maybe in a few years time hopefully.

Re that ally fuel tank under the sole, please make sure that there is no way that it can sit in a puddle at all.
I would still prefer to have good access to the tank, but that is just pedantic me - I know that Boston Whaler and many others all have their tanks under soles.

 

Id love to join you - it would be a blast..especially with plenty of salmon about, one of my favs!
I'll bring the chilled white...

But the distance does tend to make it tricky!..also my recent experience of flying to the UK and back..was not a day at the beach at all... even made headline news in HK..

 

Headline news in HK! I'm clearly not paying attention. Aw well, next year.
Martin, definitely disappointed you can't get out either. Isn't it bad enough that millions of people have died? Must we also be personally inconvenienced? Well, that's enough perspective for one day. Sleep time now.

 

Entire surface sanded, then wire brushed. Then self-etching primer. Next, a couple coats of epoxy

 

The previous cables are missing. Trying to figure out the NMEA cable from the tach to the engine computer. This is my best guess.

 

My Yamaha has no direct nema connection. I had to buy a $350 gizmo that hooks to a $60 bus that hooks to the dataline.

what evinrude?

 

It's a 2014 250ho

Looks like what I thought was the connection was the plug for diagnostics. Dang.

 

Is this manual right? Lotsa good stuff here.

Service Manual 5007215_Evinrude E-TEC 200-250 HP Installation And Predelivery [Boat Rigging] | Crowley Marine https://www.crowleymarine.com/d/tech_article/service-manual-5007215evinrude-e-tec-200-250-hp-installation-and-predelivery-boat-rigging-5007215

 

There's some good stuff there for sure. I called @Cajunpockettunnel who has a friend with an Evinrude dealership in Louisiana. Went on to other things.
Three coats of epoxy on the tank. Paint on the port side, and windows in the forward cockpit.

 

The epoxy on the tank is a fairly unusual approach; at least I haven't seen it before. But the space I have back there is restricted. I pushed the OB as far down as I good, based on @baeckmo 's recommendation on getting the prop and cooling intake into hard water below the highly aerated water coming out of the middle of the tunnel. The tank itself is 13" deep and almost reaches the transom. If I raise the tank enough for a typical installation with good ventilation around it, there won't be any splashwell left. I won't be able to raise the engine out of the water. As it is, I think it will be close enough that I'll have to turn the engine to raise it so that the rigging isn't stressed or even crushed. So the compromise is a foamed in tank, in a sealed space. As careful as I intend to be, the corrosion risk still exists, so the extra defense is the self etching primer, and then the epoxy. And pour-in foam doesn't stick well to aluminum, but it sticks beautifully to epoxy, so it should be okay.

 

Personally, I would only put the now epoxied tank on neoprene spacers or innertube strips and bed the neoprene in 5200. Then bed the tank however you like, but not 5200

 

Noted

 

Crowded between the transom and the tank. Might fill the whole space with foam.

 

No reason to foam there. You need access to the engine bolts. Fancy digging the foam out someday. No thank you.

Do you have limbers?

 

I'll block out the region around those bolts. No, no limbers. Extra work to guarantee my boat sinks? Seems like a bad idea. As it is, the hull under the sole is divided into 14 compartments by water tight bulkheads with no means for water to go from one to the next. Most are completely air tight except for the goretex breather valves I installed to release excessive air pressure from temperature changes.