mike cunningham
Freedom 30 "Jacqueline"
I am borrowing Lightspeed's erud assembly. I have to integrate it to my transom which is a different angle than Lightspeed's and has a rounded shape.
The erud assembly is built to fit on the flat, angled surface of Lightspeed's stern. How to match the attachment pads to Jacqueline's stern to achieve a correct vertical entry for the blade and not damage or modify Lightspeed's assembly in any way. Also, how to not spend a thousand dollars on custom brackets.
I have built a lower pad to move the bottom gudgeon away from the boat in order to achieve a vertical entry but how in hell do I deal with the complex shape of the required pads for the upper attachment arms?
I tried making pads out of teak then epoxy but could not get a good match for the shape. I thought to myself if I just had some clay that I could smoosh under the attachment pads I could press them down against the hull let it dry and I would have the perfect shape pad. I determined clay would not survive a trip to Hawaii so I began to search for an alternative.
I found this stuff called InstaMorph. I know it sounds goofy. You take these small plastic beads, drop them in 150 degree water and they just gel together. Pull the goo out of the water and massage it into whatever shape you need, in my case a couple of oval globs. I put my ovals of soft instamorph under the erud attachment pads pushed them down onto the boat and voila, thirty minutes later I have sturdy and solid plastic pads of the perfect shape and they don't stick to the hull or the erud pads.
I was absolutely shocked at how robust this stuff is. It is like hard plastic reminiscent of starboard. It is reusable if you go through the heating process again. Obviously not good if you expect your part to see high temperatures. I don't think I will see that on the erud assembly.
It is probably worth buying a small package of this stuff on Amazon just to try it out and see what problems it might solve for you. It is amazing stuff IMO.
The erud assembly is built to fit on the flat, angled surface of Lightspeed's stern. How to match the attachment pads to Jacqueline's stern to achieve a correct vertical entry for the blade and not damage or modify Lightspeed's assembly in any way. Also, how to not spend a thousand dollars on custom brackets.
I have built a lower pad to move the bottom gudgeon away from the boat in order to achieve a vertical entry but how in hell do I deal with the complex shape of the required pads for the upper attachment arms?
I tried making pads out of teak then epoxy but could not get a good match for the shape. I thought to myself if I just had some clay that I could smoosh under the attachment pads I could press them down against the hull let it dry and I would have the perfect shape pad. I determined clay would not survive a trip to Hawaii so I began to search for an alternative.
I found this stuff called InstaMorph. I know it sounds goofy. You take these small plastic beads, drop them in 150 degree water and they just gel together. Pull the goo out of the water and massage it into whatever shape you need, in my case a couple of oval globs. I put my ovals of soft instamorph under the erud attachment pads pushed them down onto the boat and voila, thirty minutes later I have sturdy and solid plastic pads of the perfect shape and they don't stick to the hull or the erud pads.
I was absolutely shocked at how robust this stuff is. It is like hard plastic reminiscent of starboard. It is reusable if you go through the heating process again. Obviously not good if you expect your part to see high temperatures. I don't think I will see that on the erud assembly.
It is probably worth buying a small package of this stuff on Amazon just to try it out and see what problems it might solve for you. It is amazing stuff IMO.
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