This is my little boat that I use for one of my hobbies which is fishing.

"T2"

My boats name is "T2". Prior to me actually testing it for water tightness "friends" ( ahem ) joked about it being like the Titanic ( RIP ), so I said, on it's first sea trial I'll call it "T2" for "Titanic2", however, if it floats, then "T2" will stand for "Terminator2" which apart from a good film Arnie played a strong guy, so it would hopefully have proved it was a strong boat, so hence "T2".

Well, I'm not sure what I'm gonna do on this page yet, but I guess I'll put some pictures of my boat, a little history & some info on the outboard I use, maybe a file to download, but we'll see.

I got a little 9ft boat late in 2003, but didn't have the money to do anything with it, so it just got stored in a shed and junk got put in it. I finally got a trailer built up, then picked up the boat, got that sorted, took it down to the shore and with the help of a friend we launched it as "T2", just to ensure the holes I sorted didn't leak, they didn't.

I then went out and brought a little outboard which at the time didn't work at all, whilst it wasn't in bits, it sure wasn't running. It had been stripped down and painted in it's original colours, so whilst it looked fine & had a good spark and compression, it didn't run because the timing was never re-set correctly & the fuel tank was so full of rust and muck that the filter was totally and completely blocked, and where it had been sitting in a shed without being cleaned down after it's last outing the bottom bearing had rusted to bits, there was fuel leaking from the crankcase as it's a two stroke, so it was kinda sorry for itself.

After setting the timing, it started, but it never ran for more then a few seconds, so this time I stripped it down to basic parts, crankcase, piston, bearings etc.... I found the reason was mostly down to the lower bearing almost rusted away, so after replacing the bearing, rebuilding the engine and resetting the timing I filled the fuel tank, primed the carb & it started second time, which it does every time now. I still need to replace the top bearing as the seal is gone, but it runs well regardless, and thankfully the piston, rings and bore isn't too badly scored.

If you'd like to see what my engine SHOULD and DOES look like click here. I have to say this picture belongs to the following "SeaBee" web site, the information in the site has been very helpful to me, and of course the guys/girls on the site deserve credit for the link to the picture.

Today, 10/07/05 at 13:50 "T2" went for it's maiden powered voyage, it was more to test the engine then anything, but I learned a few things. Anyway, the boat itself was fine, the engine stalled twice, both because of muck and rust still in the fuel tank and fuel line, thankfully I had put an inline fuel filter in the fuel line because the one in the fuel tank had been eaten away which likely saved the piston, bore & rings, but in general the outboard ( which by the way several "outboard specialist's" had said couldn't be repaired or serviced as spares were unavailable ) worked fine. It pushed "T2" along at about 10mph (lets keep this in English shall me)... if your of the sea, 10mph is about 8 knots...

It's now Feb 2008, I used it a little in 2006, but hardly at all in 2007, I really hope to use it this year, but things have changed, one of which being that I don't have the original trailer configured as a boat trailer anymore since it's bin converted into a "normal" trailer, so, I've a fair bit to catch up on, reconvert & such... & in the mean time I've been re-building my old 1998 Honda H100SD motorbike...

It's September 2008 & I've not used "T2" at all this year, I've started building, well, altering a 4 stroke engine I was given that had suffered serious salt water damage & not been stripped down, cleaned, dried or flushed, so the engine itself was totally ruined... However, with the engine components removed, it's given me a chance to use the lower driveshaft and leg portion of it for experimenting in building an electric powered engine, which tests I've done have shown the motor, which is 24volts, could provide sufficient revolutions, which if geared correctly could end up providing not only high revolutions, but also enough torque to resist the water & push "T2" at a speed equivalent to a petrol engine, but whilst being much greener, lighter & with much fewer parts to go wrong.

For future reference,