The Outboard Bracket

As regular readers of this blog will know we have been having an ongoing battle trying to find a suitable mounting for the transom of Naughty-Cal that will adequately support our 6hp outboard engine that we use with Asbo, the dinghy.

We bought the dinghy and outboard over twelve months ago now but have been struggling to find a suitable solution to the mounting problem. A chance encounter on the Sealine Forum has produced a custom made stainless steel bracket, which was manufactured for a fellow members Sealine S23. Now obsolete as he has upgraded his boat, we have bought the bracket for a very reasonable price considering the amount of work that went into making it in the first instance. Now we just have to wait for it to be delivered from Ireland which should be sometime early next week.

We will have to make a few modifications to Naughty-Cal to make the bracket work as one of the brackets mounting points requires a stainless steel grab handle on the boat which we have removed to install the snap davits. We will have to shorten this bar, which luckily we kept, so that it will fit between the davits. This will also mean drilling some additional holes into the transom of Cal, never a job we like doing, so that we can bolt the bar in the right position. With these few minor modifications to Naughty-Cal we will hopefully have the bracket ready for our upcoming trip to Whitby at the end of May.

This should mean that all being well we will be able to take our dinghy and outboard on more outings as the engine will no longer be in the way on the cockpit floor. It will also mean that we can securely lock the engine to the bracket vastly reducing the risk of it being stolen whilst we are out and about. We will also be able to keep it covered up on the bracket which should hopefully keep it looking in great condition for much longer.

Hopefully if this is pulled off we have made our life onboard Naughty-Cal with Asbo much easier. We should also benefit by taking Asbo on more of our outings, hopefully getting more use from her than we did last year. We have many outings planned for Asbo for 2012, mainly on the many drainage ditches and dykes that flow into the River Witham, but also on the salty River Esk in Whitby and the salt marshes of Wells next the Sea. Let’s hope that at long last we have found a viable solution.