A Winter Project?

By Uncle Hans

Not much going on today. I need a project. A look outside finds some crappy weather, snowing and blowing. What a great day for a garage project.........

....and what better project than a boat project? The old boat has a "ski tripod" which keeps the tow rope out of the water and makes skiing and water sporting much more fun. It is the shiny chrome tripod-looking thingy.....

.....A "driver error" (that would be me) caused too much slack in the rope while tubing, which resulted in the anchor for one leg of the tripod to totally pull out of the fiberglass. Damn! I hate when that happens!!.....

.....This is what the normal, not crashed anchor looks like..........

.....As you can imagine, there is tremendous stress on these anchors at times. That is why one failed. So repairing one after the fiberglass is trashed will take some ingenuity . First the decorative rail and the old cruising light pole holder are removed.....

........ then the hole in the fiberglass is enlarge to allow me to get my hand inside. setting next to the enlarged hole is the anchor plate, which we now have to figure out how to reattach to fiberglass that is no longer there.....

....I am going to use 3/4 inch plywood, which has a lot of strength. If you look carefully, you will see the first of six anchor bolts to attach the plywood. It is drilled through the fiberglass around the old gaping hole.....

.....the anchor bolts are 9/16. and when they fasten something......it STAYS fastened!.....

...... now, after some bad language, because I have to work in a hole and tighten these bolts inside and upside down and blind, there are 6 anchoring bolts.

Today IS a good day for a garage project. Jake and his guy Andy showed up to work on his work truck in the heated garage......

....next the plywood is cut and drilled to fit the 6 anchor bolts (the hammer is to make it "fit better")....

.......then the round anchor plate is attached to the plywood, the tripod strut is attached to the anchor plate, and the nuts are threaded on over big washers above and below and tightened.

Now it is as strong or stronger than new (just not very attractive. Renee will be painting it later.)

The average "ice off" date for the lake is April 15th. The boat goes in the water soon after that, as a rule, but I have a feeling it will be late this year. There is still 20+ inches of ice and supposed to be -3 tonight......

......It is not hard at this point to choose between ice skating or tubing.......

By Uncle Hans

EDITORS NOTE:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY UNCLE HANS !!!