Aussie One, too

My wife is from Australia, and her license plate is OZ E 1, and many people cannot come up with aussie one from this, so when we named the boat, we used a simpler form . . .Aussie One ... too.

I hope the attached photos come through.

I love the red paint job. You won't be hard to spot when I move over. I plan on moving over to harbor island as well in a few months. I'm thinking about painting my boat a different color..... probably forest green stripe with green sunbrella covers, but my brother wants to stick with the typical blue

Red

The red hull was the color of the original fiberglass gel coat. It didn't appear that the boat had ever been painted before.
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Attached are pictures of the old motor I removed. Previous owner had let the boat sit with a foot of water in the cabin. The bottom half of the carburetor was rusted away.<O></O>

My brother is really good with atomic 4 engines. If you have questions let me know and I'll forward them.
He said if ours ever fails and we have the funds he would love to put a jet ski engine in it ?!?!

Hull speed

Why would he want to do that? From what I understand, due to the hull design on these boats, the top speed you can get out of one of them is 9 or 10 knots. The drag on the keel won't let it go any faster even if you had an engine off of a boeing 747. (well, that would probably lift the boat totally out of the water, but then it would be an aircraft, not a sailboat)

I thought of going diesel. The costs I was getting were around 6 grand. Then I thought of electric . . . but the costs for that were closer to 9 or 10 grand. So when I found a rebuilt Atomic 4 for 2 grand,I jumped at it.

The new motor is sitting in the engine compartment. We lifted it into the boat last weekend during the Tsunami warning.

My brother is a jet mechanic. I don't believe he believes in things being underpowered. That being said, our Atomic 4 runs great and he is happy with it and said it will last a really long time. I am glad we don't have diesal as I hate the smell.

oh the plans of mice and men

When installing the motor, I could not get the prop shaft to turn. It was stuck to the inside of the stuffing box and when trying to turn the shaft, the rubber hose was just twisting. So, I decided that this was the best time to change the stuffing box. It was so much fun working in tight places with threaded fittings that are so corroded they will not budge... NOT!!! No leverage! Thank goodness for PB penetrating oil. All's well that ends well. The boat is still floating, I have a new rubber tube on the stuffing box, new stuffing in the stuffing box and I can turn the prop shaft. Now back to the original task of installing the motor.

West Marine didn't have the hose I needed, but recommended San Diego Marine Exchange. Such a difference in West Marine and SDME. My impressions of the two places is that if you need pillows and ribbon, and polish and cute sailing clothing, then West Marine is the place. But if you actually need any real boat parts or hardware . . . the actuall working guts of the boat, then SDME is the place. Don't get me wrong, West Marine does have things like hardware and electrical supplies and plumbing parts, but where West Marine may have two or three different sizes of electrical wire, or plumbing piping fittings, San Diego Marine exchange has a hundred different choices. And all in the same square footage of building.

West Marine is for those who spent a small fortune on the purchase of a new boat and want to add place mats for the galley table, where SDME is where some one who bought an older boat would go to get the parts to install or repair the galley table.

Anyway, when I had the rubber hose, four hose clamps and the packing for the stuffing box, I went up to the cashier to pay for it and she told me the total was $18.67. I told her that there must be a mistake or I had the wrong things. She looked at me with a questioning look and I explained, "You do know that these parts are for a boat. And boat parts are always three or four times the price of house parts or car parts. So are you sure that the price isn't really a HUNDRED and eighteen dollars and 76 cents?" She laughed and said, "If it will make you feel better, I'll gladly add a hundred dollars or even two." And then an understanding look spread across her face and she asked, "You just came from West Marine, didn't you?"