Sally's Tracer had a skeg installed by Greg now ex of FBO, and he did a fine job. A tad hard to raise & lower because of a rather small slider knob and the squeeze between the knob and the slider track, but it was manageable.
The we got a mess of palm nuts -the "coconuts" from Areca palms, little ole half-peanut and smaller size things -that dropped on the boats, and a number made it into the skeg area of the Tracer, which we store downside up on the rack beneath the palms.
I flushed many -most, I'd say (but probably not every last one of them) -out of the skeg box with the hose, and worked like crazy to get the skeg unjammed and working again.
Then it became stuick again, and no amount of hosing, attempted sliding, loosening the slider mecahnism, loosening the pivot bolt, or trying to pull the skeg out wit pliers, or with a cord around as much of the tip as I could lasso, could get it moving.
We've apparently got a skeg with a HUGE wedgie.
Any advice on how to approach the problem, how get thing unstuck, and most importantly, how to get the thing working again? Also, any thgoughts on crafting a bigger/better slider knob to make it easier on Sally to deploy the skeg so she can take the Tracer out &
PADDLE ON!
-Frank in Miami
Too much to write + need to ask
a few questions about it … you are welcome to call me Frank …
WHY SHOULD I CALL YOU FRANK
when your name is Patrick…
Ba-Dum-Dum
Thanks, Patrick -expect a call next day or so. BTW, what time zone are you…?
Do hope your have a good explanation and an easier solution so I can get the Tracer back up & running so Sally can, in her favorite yellow boat,
PADDLE ON!
-Frank in Miami
Wes’ coas’ physical / Island mental.
Use a saw…
…slipped beside the skeg blade to carefully cut through the palm nuts. A pull saw with no set in the teeth (most are like this) will do this without scratching the skeg blade or box.
Getting her drunk
has worked for me in the past.
BA-DUM-DUM! YOURFSELF, T-CHUCK, LOL!
Now, Chuck, dear friend, I fear there’s the need for C2H4OH in abundance in situations like this because I do believe you subscribe to the alternative interpretation of the phrase
“PADDLE ON!”
-Frank in Miami
RAINBOW WARRIOR TO THE RESCUE!
Thanks to all for the advice.
Patrick, like your explanation of “location” -but I would bewtter categorize the physical by integrating some of the psychological and call it the Left Coast. That way, we folks down here can know we’re talking the Ten Thousand Islands and the Caloosa Blueway and Caldesi Island when we say ‘the West Coast’.
Brian -same advice was offered by Grayhawk in demoing his nifty Trekker Swiss Army Knife with the saw blade -slide it in, turn it a little sideways, pull it our due to the increased friction cause by the grippers.
OTOH, that sounds almost like Tsunamichuck’s raison d’etre for booze, ;->…
And Chuck… Jun MUST be a saint…
Grayhawk stopped by on his way back from business farther north in The Big City and gave it a go. He brought a can of this Rainbow spray lube stuff that went a long way to save the day. That, a little elbow grease, a LOT of sweat (it was 90o in the shade, and there was no shade), a few temporairly misplaced parts, and his boatbuidling familiarity turned tghe trick and made our day.
The skeg works better than ever -he took out a little of the plastic tube that serves as a housing to straighten the line a little, sprayed the housing and slider mechanism with Rainbow lubricant, and put Humpty-Dempy back together again. I drilled a small hole in the skeg to attach a line to to be able to pull it out if it gets jammed again.
All’s well that ends well… We’ll see how well it works in about 2 weeks or so after we return from Tennessee. We’ll take the SOTs to enable any newbies who want to mess around in the lakes near our 3 families timeshares up there.
Thanks, Grayhawk!
Sally is VERY happy she’ll be able to MUCH more easily, with skeg now deployed on her Tracer, to
PADDLE ON!
-Frank in Miami
'Tis true Frank
I am pretty good with a non watersports paddle. But it has been a while.