The Birth of FrankenMotor

    "Don't have a clue what I am in for...."
                                 -Stitched Up Heart


   Here's the scene:
   It's mid-October, I am feeding my browsing addiction, checking the Kijiji and Craigslist traplines, killing time that would be better spent tapping out another brilliant blog post.


   Before falling any further down this rabbit hole,  let's get some semantics dealt with-  the difference between "shopping" and "browsing"

    Shopping is an act with a purpose- to acquire something, singular or plural, that you need or want.

    Shopping is focused-  it's hunting and gathering for a consumerist society.  Find it, buy it, go.  One STARTS shopping with an end goal in mind... like, oh, a pair of shoes.  I don't understand anyone who answer's a salesclerk's "Can I help you?"  with, "No, I'm just browsing."

   No, you damn well aren't.

  You want a pair of shoes, size 9, triple E, brown, casual with good arch support.  You have a goal.

   Browsing is simply seeing what is for sale.  You don't need or want anything in particular, you're just....

   ...Browsing.


  I spy an ad online- dude is looking to trade his Tanaka 3hp outboard for an electric trolling motor, and some cash, either way.

  Which, I had.
  
  Well, the trolling motor, if not necessarily the cash, either way.

  Now, I didn't need a Tanaka 3 hp outboard.

   But I didn't need an electric trolling motor either.

   I bounced it off SWMBO, who gave me the nod, providing the new motor was running...

   (Apparently, the saga of the Trio of Dead Mopeds is not going to be lost to history anytime soon around Stately Jones Manor.)

 ... "Dude says it does."...

......  and I didn't "spend any more on it than that old trolling motor cost."

   In other words, I couldn't spend more than $25 on this motor.

   In other, other words, as the premier of Ontario puts it, this project had to be revenue neutral.


   So, after a flurry of email negotiations, and after I added an old battery box to the package to sweeten the deal, we made the trade straight across, no cash either way.

   ...and then I brought home my new acquisition and surveyed what I had.
 
   You've never heard of Tanaka?  You're not alone.

From Tanaka's corporate site:

     'In 1918, the Tanaka business was started in Japan by Takashi Tanaka who created “Tanaka Iron Works” near Tokyo, Japan. In 1941 the manufacturing plant near Narashino (approximately 25 miles SE of Tokyo) was built and in 1948, Tanaka began research and development of compact internal combustion engines. In 1950, the company name was changed to Tanaka Kogyo Co., Ltd. The word “Kogyo” (pronounced “Koh-gyoh”) means industries in Japanese. ....

   (lots of boring irrelevant stuff here...)

... in 1974, introduced a 2.5 hp outboard motor that would eventually be private label for Sears. ...
In 1978, Tanaka Kogyo (USA) Co., Ltd. was established in Kent, WA to pursue and support North American sales. In 1984, Tanaka acquired a small mail order company, Aquabug International, expanded its product offering and renamed it Sporting Edge.
In 1985, Tanaka relocated its entire operation to a new 70,000 sq. ft. facility in Bothell, WA. In 1987, the Tanaka Kogyo (USA) Co., Ltd/Sporting Edge assets were purchased from Tanaka Japan by an investment group led by Bill Thomson. The company, while now separate from Tanaka Japan, retained the identity of Tanaka Kogyo (USA) Co., Ltd and the exclusive marketing rights for Tanaka North, Central and South America.
In 1989, Tanaka’s USA assets and marketing rights were purchased by the Ariens Co. of Brillion, Wisconsin. Soon after, a new subsidiary company of Ariens, Tanaka Ltd., was established to continue marketing and support of Tanaka products. In 1990, a new line of Ariens brand 2-cycle handheld products (made by Tanaka) was introduced for Ariens Distributors and Dealers. In 1992, Ariens discontinued its relationship with Tanaka and ISM was established by a five long-time Tanaka employees....'


   So, lot's of history, of which Tanaka's illustrious line of outboard motors gets... half a sentence.

    Basically, the design brief was to build a simple, low-buck, low output 2 stroke outboard motor.

    It's essentially a weed trimmer with a prop.

                                                                                  -from the web

   

 

  If you decided to build an outboard motor with as few parts as possible, you would end up with a Tanaka 300.

   Our old 2 hp Yamaha P45 was more complicated.

   The powerhead is aircooled, with a dry exhaust that exits below the waterline.   There's a small built in fuel tank, and no provision for an auxiliary tank.  There's a choke, a fuel shutoff petcock,  a twist grip throttle on a very short tiller,a kill switch and that is the entire list of controls... and features.  There's no reverse, and no clutch- it's pull, point and shoot.

 It's light, simple and loud.... ish.  More on that in a bit.

    So, I got my new find home, gave it a once over and realized that there were some vital parts missing- like the fuel shut off petcock and fuel lines, the wiring for the kill switch, and the twist grip throttle.
 
   Other than that, it wasn't in bad shape.  The tank was clean, the plastic was uncracked, the engine kicked over fine and the starter cord recoil recoiled.

  Errrrm... okay, it should run, with the missing bits no longer missing. Parts are available, and fairly cheap and the manual is a point and click away online.  Whew.  As I  sat in the skunkworks  and pondered this orphan, I got thinking.

"What if," thought I, "I optimized this motor for dinghy use?"

   First things first- the tiller is too short.

   The outboards on SWMBO's Bluenose and our Walker Bay dinghy were treated to Minn Kota tiller extensions a the beginning of this season...

 and SWMBO and I both agreed that the longer reach made a world of difference in comfort and control.

 The only challenge was that a tiller extension exceeded my SWMBO-approved $25 budget.

 I pondered the pile of cast-offs that hadn't quite been cast off from the corners of the workshop yet, and discovered an old broken lawnmower handle.

  Hmmm...

  This might be better than store-bought.

  A little measuring and eyeballing and cutting and ...

...add a bicycle brake lever, a foam grip, a throttle cable from a citi moped, some zipties, a new petcock, a VW fuel filter, fuel hoses, and $23 later....

    

  Whuh-BAM!  Frankenmotor is born.

   Why the curved tiller?

    Sitting astride the center seat of a dinghy, a straight tiller with a twist-grip throttle is fine, in a straight line.  Start to turn, though, and as you push or pull the tiller your wrist wants to either roll off the throttle, or roll on the throttle.  It feels awkward. With nothing significant invested other than my time, I decided to try a curved tiller and a throttle lever rather than a twist grip.

  But, before schlepping Frankenmotor down the dock, I hung it from a sawhorse, added some fuel to the tank, put enough water in a bucket to cover the prop, opened the choke and gave the cord a pull.  First pull she lit up!

   RIIIIINNGGGGGGG DING DA DING DA DING DA DINGDINGDINGDINGDING!!!!

   True to it's weed trimmer, er, roots, it is weed trimmer loud.

   Kinda obnoxious loud.  Kinda, might-piss-off-fellow-Marina-boaters loud.

    But maybe that's just in the garage, with the exhaust above the waterline

   Well, it's the end of the season, there are few boats around, there's no better time to see how loud it really is, in the real world.

   SWMBO volunteered to be the test pilot.  we swapped out our 2.3 hp Suzuki outboard and clamped on Frankenmotor.

   SWMBO got Frankie to light up on the first pull and off she went.  With the exhaust outlet underwater, the motor was noticeably quieter.  Not as quiet as our Suzuki water-cooled outboard, but comparable to a Honda 2.3 hp aircooled outboard.

 

 

  At full throttle, according to my handheld GPS, in back-to-back sheltered flat water tests, Frankenmotor drives our porky 10' Walker Bay dinghy at a similar pace to the Suzuki-about 6 knots full out.

   That junkyard tiller and throttle?

    Success! the L shaped tiller makes for a more comfortable grip, with less wrist fatigue, and SWMBO demonstrated that a doubled up hair elastic makes a good throttle lock.

   As I mentioned, I don't need  another outboard, but now that I've got one...

  ... I should probably build a boat to fit it.




  Thanks for stopping by, and please, "Talk the Dock!"


 

A Last Look At Last Year- The Dinghy Diaries: A New Beginning

   "Turn the clock to zero, buddy..."
                                     -Sting



    Since the snow continues to fall, and the Marina currently looks like this:

        I figured I would continue with the regular sporadic feature series, A Last Look At Last Year.

        You might remember that, early last season,  we acquired a new used dinghy.

        You may also remember that it leaked.  I figured this could be a testing opportunity.  I decided to try out various over-the-counter not-meant-for-dinghy-repair-but-the-internet-says-it-works adhesives and compounds.
 
          It wasn't a time-sensitive project, so whenever I had a spare couple of hours, about once every couple of weeks or so, I'd try a different adhesive, or sealant, or wonder goop.

         I discovered from where it leaked, and patched the leak.
     
         Then repatched the leak,

         Then patched the patches.

         Then removed the patches,  repatched the patched patches and patched the repatched patched patches...
 
        And as the season began to draw to a close, it leaked.  Less, but it still leaked.

     
     

       As mentioned in the original post, we didn't need another project, or another dinghy.  I could have pulled off the patch and worked on it over the winter, but with Stately Jones Manor going on the market, I definitely did not need another project or another item in the garage, or the shed, or the workshop.

      But I thought somebody else might.

       The Birtch family had slipped their Bayliner bowrider a few slips down the Dock for as long as we have been here.    Dad, mom, a son and a daughter, just a nice bunch.  We watched the kids grow up.  We chatted to each other from across the slips, traded the occasional beer over the years.  They lived in town, so while we essentially live on the Dock through the season, they came down to the Dock to use their boat and clean their boat, and then head home.  We'd see them a couple of times a week.

       Finn loves them.  They seem to think he is okay.

       That matters.

       He's gonna miss them.

        See, at the end of the season, Dave dropped the news that he was being transferred to North Bay.  The kids were gonna finish out the school year, and then the family was packing up and heading north.  This was their last season on the Dock.

        I got thinking.


       Over the last few weeks Hunter had been eyeballing the emphysemic Zodiac. I asked him and his dad whether it would be okay if Hunter took this project off my hands.

        Hunter: "Are you serious?!?"
              Me:  "Yep"
        Hunter: "How much do you want for it?"
               Me: "Nothing.  Take it.  Just send me a picture of you using it."
        Hunter:  "Are you serious?!?!"
               Me:  "Yep"

       It's kinda fun to watch the adolescent too-cool early teen pose lose out to the giddy kid-at-Christmas goofy grin.

       A couple of days later we got it deflated and packed into it's bag and loaded on a dock cart and off the Zodiac went on a new adventure.

       A week or so later, I climb aboard Whiskeyjack after work, and there is an envelope in the cockpit.

       It's not ticking, so I open it.

       Inside is a thank you card, and inside that is a Beer Store gift card.

       Looks like I owe Rod, the man who passed the Zodiac on to me, some beer.

       A week or so later, I got an email.  This was attached:

    An old Zodiac is off on a new adventure.

    Fair winds, Birtch family.


Remember to "Talk the Dock!"
       

     

       

New "Low-Buck" Project Boat

"There's a world to explore, tales to tell , back on shore..."
                                                               -Split Enz




I wasn't looking for another project.

We didn't need another dinghy.

We are, however, sailors, and that means that rationality and logic go out the window when opportunity beckons.

Rod, occasional crew, company and keeper of the Dock Six Upriver Annex:

 
    Mentioned in passing that he had an old Zodiac that he wanted to get gone.

    8' ish.  Inflatable.  Old.

    "It leaks."

    Not unheard of.

    Inflatable dinghies are great boats- they are light, stable, and carry a big payload.

    They are, however, as the name implies, full of air, and are only usable when inflated, and will only remain  effective as long as aforementioned state of inflation lasts.

    At some point in the boat's life it will develop an annoying habit of refusing to stay all full of air, preferring instead to slowly exhale it's contents, often from difficult to detect defects.

    Which was, apparently the state in which Rod's red ride now reposed.

    Making it the perfect candidate for another quixotic Dockside quest.

     Meet the latest "Low-Buck" project, dubbed Honk:

  Mostly complete, needing only a threaded air valve (the valve from our unused-in-two-seasons Airhead tube fit just fine)  and a good cleaning.

   It breaks down, rolls up and stuffs into it's own bag in a package small enough to stow in Whiskeyjack's  quarterberth, and, with a total weight under 50 lbs., it is relatively easy to lug down the Dock and on the deck.


     Right, then- let's see if this boat will float.


     I opened the bag, unrolled the boat, slid in the floor slats, blew up the cocktail weenie seat and two flotation chambers, and in less than ten minutes had a floating boat.  After a quick scrub...

    She looks good and smells good...
   ...with no easily detected sssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss sounds or bubble visuals to locate the latent leak.

    Well, okay, no one said this was going to be easy.

     As luck would have it a crew of crash test dummies was on hand to assist in testing.  Hilary's daughter Sarah and her friends were enjoying the sun on the Dock, and happily agreed to seatest Honk.

    I probably should have mentioned the "it leaks" part.

   With Hilary towing Honk behind his C&C and I following behind as a photoboat  we headed to the beach.

     The test crew clambered aboard Honk and set out.  I would occasionally yell for progress reports.

     In retrospect, radio communication might have been more effective...

     Me:  "How's it going?"

     The crew of Honk:   "Yes, I am rowing!"

     Me:  "No!!!  Is it leaking a lot?!!?"

      TCoH:  "Yeah, we know it's freakin' hot!!"

   Me (to myself):  " This is an exercise in frustration."

    TCoH (to each other):  "Can anybody figure out what the short fat guy is saying?"

   Me:  "Any hissing, or bubbles?  Anything to see or hear?"
 
   TCoH:   "Sure, we'll row back for a beer!!!"

      TCoH:  "Hey, is this thing supposed to be getting softer?"

      Okay, the bad news is, the leak remained undetected.

      The good news is, we discovered that it tows fairly well, rows fairly badly, and can be deflated and stowed on the foredeck of Whiskeyjack while on the water.

      Next episode of  This Old Dinghy:  Finding and sealing the leaks.

      Stay tuned.



     "Talk the Dock!"

The Low-Buck Outboard Shoot-out Comparo!

    "All my tubes and wires, and careful notes..."
                                     -Thomas Dolby






    Pop quiz, hotshot:
    You have a dinghy.
    You need an outboard.
    You've got $200 to spend.
    Gas or electric?  What do you do?

   Here on the Dock, we attempt to answer that question.

    Our new motto:  Dock Six Chronicles:-We do the trivial, virtually meaningless research, so you don't have to.

    No, no, there's no need to thank me.

     We do it all for you, demanding bast faithful reader.

    Really.

    Taking  cues from car magazines (Great testing, trapped in 1950s lexicon), Consumer Reports (Dry as melba toast, and about as interesting, but largely impartial) and, to a far lesser extent, Practical Sailor (Great testing, dry as melba toast.), I cleverly concocted the criteria for this crazy comparo.

     What is important in a dinghy OB?

     Speed- If it ain't faster than rowing, you might as well row.
     Range- If you can't get there and back, it is worse than not getting there.
     Weight- The more your OB weighs, the less beer you can haul back to the boat.  Or water.  Or food.
     Ease of operation- Dock Six is all about everything but work, so if an OB is a PITA to run, it ain't fun.
     Features: Cool stuff is just, well, cool.  Or stuff that makes things better is just, er better.  Whatever.
     Ready-to-Run Cost: Low-Buck.  South of $200.  All in.

     Now that we know what needs to be tested, the appropriate testing apparatus must be assembled on the Dock.


 
   From left to right:  stopwatch, bathroom scale, decade -old handheld GPS.

      What, you were expecting Racal suits, digital scales and radar guns?


      Quack, our 6.5' inflatable,  was washed, waxed, and pressed into service as a test bed.
  

  Note the emergency propulsion devices (oars) prudently retained for the duration of this shoot-out.  Low-Buck occasionally means Low-Luck, but never Low-IQ. I may be dumb, but I ain't stupid.

   I volunteered as test pilot, with SWMBO handling timing and recording duties.

 Saturday night's conditions were lousy sailing weather but great testing weather- no wind and flat seas.  It's on.

   So, with no further ado, let's meet our contestants:

   The Incumbent:  

                  Ably demonstrated by our spokesmodel spawn, Abbey and Sam.      

        26 lb. thrust Minn Kota electric trolling motor. Purchase price: $50  Useless, without a...

                                Energizer Deep Cycle Battery. Purchase Price: $95  Short-lived, without a...

                                Battery Box:  $54.95  Which gives us a total of...

                                 $199.95

     And...

     The Challenger:

              Yamaha P45 2 Hp 2 stroke gas powered outboard.  Purchase price:  $200.  Including a tank of fuel of dubious quality.

Test 1:  Weight

      Quack has a rated payload of 495 lbs.  The more weight that propulsion eats up, the lower the usable load.

      

       Determining ready-to-go weight of the Yamaha outboard was easy.  I filled the onboard tank, plopped it on the scale and read the number: 

     Ready-to-use weight:   22.5 lbs.

       The Minn Kota was not so easy.  I had to weigh the motor.  And the battery.   And the battery box..  Easiest way ot do that was to use my Low-Buck Trolling Motor/Battery Rack/Dolly (pat. pend.)  aka a folding luggage trolley.  After determining the weight of the trolley, I loaded the whole shebang onto the scale.

      And recorded the number, then subtracted the weight of the trolley.  Fancy footwork optional.

          Ready-to-use weight:  61.5 lbs.


         ADVANTAGE:  Yamaha.


      Test 2:  Ease of Operation


         It doesn't get much more user-friendly than the Minn Kota.... at least initially.  Clamber aboard, twist the tiller- mounted throttle, and off you go.    However, it's large, slow rotating prop occasionally had trouble with the heavy weeds encountered in our marina, killing the motor at random.  Luckily, the motor is easy to tilt to reach the prop to clear the offending flora.

       The Yamaha is an old-school engine, with a "wrap-and-rip" separate starting cord, a choke, and an adjustable throtttle mounted on the motor.   It would be daunting for a novice, but thankfully the starting instructions are printed on the flip-top that conceals the flywheel.

    
     The only instruction missing is to ensure that the vent is open on the gas cap.  This makes the difference between starting the motor in one pull of the cord...  or 20 pulls.

     ADVANTAGE: Minn Kota




         Test 3:   Top Speed


           Time to dust off my hand-held GPS .  Only one problem- the "hand-held" part.  With one hand on the tiller and one hand on the camera, I am outta hands.   A repurposed lanyard and a judicious application of electrical tape solves the problem.

             

   First up, the Minn Kota.  I quickly twist the tiller through the four forward speeds and plateau.  After a five count with no change in numbers on the screen, I snap a shot of  the top speed...

  ...but wait!  

Another tenth of a knot!  Woo-hoo!

Top Speed (Observed):  2.8 knots.




  Now it's time to crank up the Yamaha and see what it's got.

What it's got, is more.

With a little fiddling with the choke, even more...

   But it gets buzzy, which makes the camera fuzzy.

   Top Speed (Blurrily Observed):  3.8 knots




     ADVANTAGE: Yamaha




     Test 4:  Closed Course Time Trial




     From our secret testing lab on the cloaked Dock Six, it was a race against the clock through the fairways between Docks 1 and 2, 2 and 3, and 3 and 4, with a dash toward the gas dock, looping back to Dock Six.

    Best time, from a standing start with a cold motor, wins.

     SWMBO was on the stopwatch, and she was cutting me NO slack.  Remember that vent on the gas cap?  I didn't.  If I had, it would have shaved at least 2 minutes off the Yamaha's time.

     Lap Time


     Minn Kota:  27 minutes, 42 seconds.

     Yamaha:  23 minutes, 32 seconds.

     ADVANTAGE:  Yamaha




     Test 5:  Range


     At the conclusion of the marina lap, I measured how much fuel remained.

    Minn Kota:    As I was returning to the Dock on the last leg of the lap, I noticed that the Minn Kota had slowed significantly.  After peaking early in the lap with a top speed of 2.8 knots, by the time I was approaching the launch ramp, maximum sustained speed was 2.3 and dropping.  By the return leg from the gas dock, Quack was wallowing along at 1.3 knots.  The battery was seriously drained, down to less than half capacity, according to the volt meter on the battery box.

   Yamaha:  No loss of power, and 2/3 of a tank left.

    ADVANTAGE:  Yamaha




     Test 6:  Features


     The Minn Kota is the clear winner for one simple reason- Reverse.  In fact not just one, but TWO reverse speeds.  The Yamaha had none.  Sure, the Yamaha could pivot 360 degrees with a flippy-floppy tiller, but with no neutral, it could be a little disconcerting in tight quarters.  The Minn Kota's telescoping tiller,  multi-position tilt, and the adjustable shaft height,  make for a very flexible and user-friendly power unit.

     ADVANTAGE:  Minn Kota




    
     Right then, time to have a beer and tabulate the results:

   Out of 6 categories, the Minn Kota won 2- Features and Ease of Operation.  The Yamaha won the other 4, making it clear.

     The Winner is......   The Yamaha P45!






    I hope you check in for more upcoming thrilling product testing,  like the Vise-Grips VS. Leatherman Challenge  and the   Figure 8 - Granny  Stopper Knot Showdown.





    Thanks for taking the time to check us out.  Please feel free to "Talk The Dock!"