The next new thing — Cupcake Afloat

This weekend we all went to visit my parents to celebrate Mom’s 80th birthday. All the grandchildren (and a host of other luminaries) were there. A great time was had by all. But this blog is not about birthday brunches, no matter how delicious the food. (Special shout-out to Zachary for cooking up the most delicious egg sandwich I have ever eaten.)

The Mako, which Moss christened *Gnat*, is settled into her winter quarters.

No, this blog is about boats. So why mention the birthday party? Because my wonderful Aunt Flora reminded me that she and her Nyack Knitters are the biggest fans of this website and have missed the scintillating content of years past.

Fret not Knitters, there’s another boat in town! Cupcake left our fleet last year when we sold her to a woman who sailed off to Virginia where she is living aboard. So we filled that hole in our hearts with a 17’ Mako center console motorboat. The boat was in good enough shape to use last summer, but definitely needed some sprucing up over the winter. And spruce her up I did.

Starboard side. You can see the icky goo that held the swim ladder on the starboard rear quarter. You can also see the trusty shop vac that went to the great sawdust pile in the sky this winter after more than a decade of use and abuse.

So this part of the blog will focus on the excitement involved in taking a rough around the edges motorboat and making it into something we are proud to be seen in.

The outboard is a Mercury 115 two-stroke. Two-stroke engines require the addition of oil (you can see the green tank). With the dinghy outboards we mixed oil with the gas, with this big guy we add oil to a separate tank. Some day I would love to convert the boat to electric but that’s years in the future.

Fortunately for everyone, the Mako and trailer fit into the barn perfectly. When Ellen found out I backed the boat/trailer in on my own she told me she was more proud of me than she has ever been. She is tough to impress, and to be perfectly frank, it was a pretty tricky bit of driving.

The first thing I did when the boat was in the barn was to strip off all her old, busted, sun-damaged equipment. The philosophy behind this refresh of the boat is that she will have everything she needs and nothing she doesn’t. We decided there was no need for a VHF radio and antenna since we have perfectly good handheld radios, no need for fishing rod holders since we don’t fish. We moved some cleats to better locations, fussed with the anchor setup (of course), and generally tidied the boat right up.

The guy we bought the boat from in Boothbay Harbor told me the boat had been rewired by “the best electrician in Boothbay.” I worry about the electrical safety of BBH residents because the boat was an electrical nightmare. Switches didn’t work, bilge pump was incorrectly wired and wouldn’t turn on, navigation lights wouldn’t turn off, so they drained the battery. Generally a mess.

This is all the junk I removed from the boat…flag pole holder, trolling motor mount, broken speakers, compass, rod holders, broken radio, etc.

That’s enough typing for now. I’ll upload some pictures to whet your appetite.