Time Flies

The new chain drive has been working out quite well. There have been no incidents of the chain falling off or jamming, no problems with gearboxes failing, the drive shaft has been staying well connected to the propeller and the gearbox output shaft, etc. The propeller shaft spinning in the water makes a sounds much like a train traveling down an unwelded track, but otherwise it (and the rest of the vessel) have worked well at all of the Sound Rowers races since September, 2012.

The sewer rod shaft, made from regular spring steel, is showing a bit of rust where the shaft contacts the plastic strut bushing and the paint on the shaft has rubbed off, but otherwise is doing well. I recently obtained a stainless spring steel shaft from another boat builder. It appears to be identical in diameter to the sewer rod. So, after the race this weekend I'll mount it on the boat and give it a try.

Over winter I sanded and patched the hull by the propeller where it had been scraped or gouged by the prop. It now looks nice again, and the wood is protected again.

On longer races I found my posterior getting sore. I found that placing a closed cell foam pad on top of the inflatable seat pad helped considerably to reduce the problem. A better long term solution will be to replace the fixed wooden seat back with an adjustable sling seat back, or something similar.