Outboard Sagas

My Tools I First, we need a definition of the word. For the purposes of this discussion a tool is any material thing that helps you perform a given task. That’s a pretty loose definition, I know, but if you want a tighter def, go to Merriam-Webster. II You could divide tools into several categories, small to large, for instance. Hand tools or power tools. For the last thirty years or so, tools, generally, have been amazingly cheap. And they keep getting better. Also there are homemade tools and special tools. For instance, anyone working on cars should have an OBD-II code reader, available from under twenty-five dollars to three hundred and fifty dollars, unless you want to get into the ones that have you upload the results to your PC. Those are really expensive. But this is specifically about working on old outboards, though a lot of it will transfer to other things. First, you need a portable flat surface to put tools and parts on, so that you’re not constantly bending

  If I Were a Wise Man   I looked at the boat some more today, and noticed there were a few more things I could remove. For the most part, they were screws, the purpose of which was not always clear. What did become clearer and clearer as I worked along was that the fiberglass that had been added on the inside wasn’t repair, but rather modifications. The more I looked, the worse it got. This boat is full of good ideas, badly executed. It appears that the vast majority of the added fiberglass work bonded poorly, or not at all. Look at the rear light. Not just a good idea, but a legal necessity. This one can lay flat in the daytime. It’s held on with two steel screws of different lengths. The wires are connected in what can only be called a substandard manner, as are all connections on this boat.      The bottom must be repainted. One of the previous owners (or all of them, for all I know) thought it was just fine to drill holes through the hull to attach things. At least mos

  My New Crappy Boat It’s not quite accurate to call it new. It was ancient when I got it and I’ve had it more than half a year. But it was new to me. The only reason I have it at all is because the guy wouldn’t sell me the motor unless I took the boat too. So, it would end up being a project. Just what I need to give my life meaning. All I had to do was decide when to start. It had been sitting out in the weather since I got it, and that isn’t good for already-weathered fiberglass. Today was the day I was going to clean some of the crap out of it and put the cover on it. There were these homemade cleats on it that were serviceable enough, but would surely put holes in the cover. So I removed them. Then there was something else. Now, this is where deep philosophy comes into the story. When is a decision actually made? I had been removing things, blowing leaves out and rinsing dirt out the bilge hole for a while when I realized I wasn’t going to stop ‘till it was down to a bare hu