More Mods

Yet more of your favorite upgrades....

Jerome McIntire writes: We added a dodger to our Core Sound 20 and it offers a wonderful spot to get out of the sun, or the spray on those windy upwind legs. A local canvas shop made it and did a beautiful job.

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Charles Brennan sends this note: Had a 1977 Windrose 18 that I purchased new and it was a great little boat, but badly needed at-hand storage on the main cabin bulkheads. I got a teak magazine rack from West Marine that looked like this, when I got it.

I carefully drilled out the middle slat plug, removed the screws and moved it down closer to the bottom slat. Next, I added a horizontal slat behind the top slat to make a shallow shelf, screwed it all together and oiled the whole rack.

This is how it came out. Just reach in from the cockpit, for anything that is quickly needed.

I liked my Windrose shelf storage so much, I prototyped another one out of cardboard and scrap Okoume, from the SCAMP build.

It was made a little wider (instead of making two shelves) and the lower shelf is a little taller, useful for stuff that used to be just a mite too tall for the Windrose shelves.

Trial fitting behind bulkhead #3 on the SCAMP.

A partial view of the shelf installed in the SCAMP’s cabin. Not even finished yet, and ALREADY, I managed to drip epoxy resin on it! Oh, well. Far better to have things stored neatly on the shelf, than rolling around lost in the bottom of the cabin

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Reader Tom Hruby writes: Here is a picture of what I consider one of my most useful mods. It is almost impossible to steer my 22’ C-dory at low speeds with just my outboards. They don’t provide enough power to steer when docking. This is a common complaint with many owners or small flat bottomed boats, especially when we have a cabin that catches the wind!

So, I added “rudders” to each outboard to provide additional steering at slow speeds or when I turn the motors off when approaching a dock. These are sheets of 1/8” HDPE that I bent around a 1.5 in pipe using a heat gun. I then riveted the sheets around the outboards. The top of the “rudder” is above the waterline so there is little disturbance to the hydrodynamic flow. I have not noticed any changes in performance from these rudders, but a great difference is docking!

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Here’s a note from Ramon Venegas: For us, this full boat cover is a time and boat saver—no leaks, not dirt, all stuff in there is out of sight. We keep it ventilated and with humidity control packets.

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Here’s a great mod from Peter Gantt:

I have a 14’ skin on frame kayak that I use frequently, and wanted to do some crabbing out of it in the summer season.

Two major issues needed to be addressed.
1. Stabilizing the boat from lateral pressure while setting and retrieving the pot
2. Creating a system to slide the crab pot forward and out of the way for paddling, and sliding the pot aft toward the cockpit to set and “pick” the pot.

The system needed to be light weight, as the whole boat weighs only approximately 35 lbs. It needed to be structural and strong, but be easily installed and disassembled allowing to use the boat as a straight forward kayak.

I solved the stabilization challenge by purchasing and installing a pair of roto molded commercial out riggers. I reinforced the attachment area on the rear deck with some judicious blocking, and am able to pop the arms off and on with a touch of a button. They cost about $100 for the pair.

Forward I created a superstructure that allows my slightly modified crab pot to slide fore and aft. Forward while under way, and aft to “work” the pot. I used some hard, slippery 3/4x3/4” plastic to make 2 runners, and created a locking pin system to secure the pot under way. Since the fore deck is soft covered I was only able to secure the slide structure in two places, but using outboard “ wings” to the shear, it is remarkably sturdy. The screw attachments to the deck are 2 stainless 5/16” threaded bolts into threaded inserts in the center fore and aft deck beam. This arrangement allows attachment and detachment in a couple minutes.

I’ve spent the summer using the the system, and it really couldn’t be easier, or more fun. Also, it was a gas designing this “Rube Goldberg “ contraption seeing it actually work.

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More mods soon! —Eds •SCA•