A project only small-boat folk might appreciate… (in Portland, Maine)

We store our outboard on deck.

It’s not pretty. It’s not aerodynamic. It elicits charming comments from strangers like, “all that weight up so high up, tsk, tsk, tsk.”

But look, if you live on a 33′ boat and you want to have a giant outboard, you have to make some compromises. An unsightly outboard stored on deck is one of ours.

All of which might lead you to believe that I’m about to say we found a better solution for storing the outboard (wrong). Instead, I’d like to present the brand new outboard throne that is my new pride and joy 🙂

First, please admire my zipper panel (per Sailrite’s instructional videos… he says “Coo-shun” really funny but other than that the videos are amazing):

Finished zipper panel, per Sailrite's instructional videos

Next, please hazard a guess at the multi-purpose nature of this giant cushion…

Cushion made of lifejackets - dual purpose

If you guessed “somewhere to store all the required lifejackets while simultaneously protecting the deck from getting banged up by the outboard”, you got it right!

A peek at the lifejackets inside

I’d never tried sewing a piped cushion before. It’s seriously satisfying.

My first real piped cushion job

And the finished product. An outboard throne 😉

Big outboard on a little boat - cushion made of lifejackets

Like I said, I’m pretty sure you have to be a small boat person to appreciate this little project… but it’s pretty great from over here 🙂

Leah

 


Comments

A project only small-boat folk might appreciate… (in Portland, Maine) — 2 Comments

    • That’s a good question!!

      We tie the outboard down (so it doesn’t fall off the boat :P) but haven’t ever locked it…

      I guess we’ve figured that stealing an outboard off the middle of the deck would be a heck of a lot more gutsy than stealing it off a dinghy or off the back of a boat (where all normal-sized boaters get to store their outboards haha 😉 )… but in hindsight, we probably should lock it 😀

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