The Cockpit and Outboard Motor Bracket

The Cockpit

After long delays caused by an accident we finally started working on the cockpit. A couple of month ago we found a supplyer of Toughply in Manila, a better quality plywood than the other brands available in Laguna. Toughply with 6mm thickness has 5 layers while the ordinary plywoods with 6mm thickness have only 3 layers.

The raw cockpit under construction	Cockpit and bow cross beam

The cockpit has the size ofa full plywood board, 8’x5’or 2.44m x 1.22m. Enough for two people to sleep in it if needed. Many builders modify the cockpit to accommodate boxes and plywood seats. We decided to stick to the original design for simplicity and to minimize weight.

The Outboard Motor Bracket

The Wharram plans contain two options, the first included a outboard motor bracket that is mounted at the back of the cockpit and can be raised or lowered. In the second option the outboard motor is mounted on a backet underneath the cockpit. The second option takes away a big part of the cockpit space so we went for the first one.

17-18 May 2014

Finally I was able to borrow Matty’s 8hp Yamaha Longshaft outboard motor, exactly the size needed for Magayon. I needed a motor because the bracket is not drawn in detail in the plan, it just says to “..fit it to the outboard motor used..” It took the whole morning of Saturday to position the outboard motor on a frame made from the Black & Decker workbench and various wood pieces at the back of the aft cross beam and play around with the ideal position in raised mode. I could then measure the required length of the bracket, it should be as short as possible because shorter means sturdier. On the other hand, the motor should not get in the way of the tiller when it is in raised position. After determining the length and making the mounting board from three layers of hard wood, I cut a pattern representing the top of the bracket from 5mm plywood, which would also serve as the basis of a simple building frame. This I connected this temporarilywith duct tape (quote Miles from Lost when fixing an airplane suspension: “I don’t belive in much but I do believe in duct tape.”) to the cockpit and then determined the right angle for lowered position (this is one of two measurements in the plans). Then I made anohter pattern for the right angle of the mounting board. I then assembled the whole bracket on this patterns.

Motor mounting board and side walls on pattern	Side view
Bottom view: Pattern for fixing right angle removed	Mounting supporting side beams

 Top view: Pattern removed, a full days work. Waiting for more fillets and re-inforcements to be done during the next weekend.

 22 June 2014

Finally finished the raw constuction of the outboard motor bracket. The ends which will bear the screws for attaching the bracket to the cockpit got some serious enforcements with epoxy mixed with milled fiberglass on the inside and the outsides were planed so that they provide parallel surfaces.

 Figures: Stainless steel angles mounted at cockpit with outboard bracket attached.

 After unsuccessfully looking for some stainless steel angles in the local hardware shops I asked Eugene, the maker of the trailer, to custom make me some angles. They were done within a day and I could finally work on the mount of the bracket. The first step was to drill holes to size to test mount the bracket (see pictures above). The holes were then expanded to fill them with Epoxy fillets and filled with epoxy mixed with milled fiber glass. 

Figures: Outboard bracked in lowered position (left); Outboard bracket in raised position (right)

I took the backet home to re-inforce it with fiberglass until the next weekend when the mounts will be finished.