Unicorn, a small electric fantail launch

Bollards, Chocks, and an Eye All the hull-mounted hardware is installed! This picture shows the beautiful bow eye. The bow eye is bolted thru the Angelique wood bow stem and Shagbark Hickory inner stem so it is very strong. All the deck hardware is "bedded" in polyurethane caulk. Bedding seals the interface between the hull or deck and the piece of hardware, preventing water from getting into the wood. Bedding compound comes in at least two varieties, the very expensive and very popular 3M 5200 caulk and the very cheap and nearly as good PL S30 Polyurethane Roof and Flashing Sealant for about 1/3 the cost. I used the cheap stuff. The left picture shows the 3D printed bow chock and bow stem extension (see earlier post), and the unusual Clam Cleat Bollard. The right picture shows all bow hardware. Aft of the bow chock is a very unusual "Clam Cleat Bollard". This strange thing has a tapered clam cleat inside it which is shown holding the black line. The harder the line...

 Helm Station I have  -finally-  (almost) completed the Helm Station. From the very beginning of deciding to build Unicorn, I intended to monitor every aspect of the propeller drive motor so I can get a complete picture of how the motor is performing. The gages on the Helm Station are: Voltage across the motor terminals Current thru the motor RPM Motor housing temperature Accurate low speed speedometer Battery voltage Note that the voltage and current are at the motor, not the battery. This will tell directly show how much power the motor is using. Combining that with boat speed, motor rpm, and motor temperature (and a lot of maths) I can figure out electrical losses and hence overall motor efficiency. I wanted to do this for two reasons. The first just to satisfy my curiosity, the second to have a starting point to compare the efficiency of different sizes of propellers and to see if and how much a Kort nozzle (also called a ducted propeller) as used on some large tug bo...

 Seats and Plastic Parts The seats are built! All of these seats (benches, really) are removable to reduce weight when moving the boat around on land.     There will be a small floor in the cavity in front of the tank so the bow seat will have almost normal height leg room. I expect this seat to be the most comfortable of all. It is also high enough so our little dogs can put their back feet on the seat and front feet on the breast hook so they can see out. I'm leaning now towards covering the main floor with a grey low pile outdoor carpet rather than wood. Carpet is WAY cheaper, lighter weight, more comfy on bare feet, and less slippy. Turns out there is a whole industry for bass boat carpeting so there is a lot to choose from. Who knew. There will be 2 additional wicker folding seats that are free standing that can go anywhere on the front floor. Like this maybe? Made by me, or purchased? I have been making plastic parts for the helm station and other stuff. Here is the...

 Ballast Tank, Ballast Pump, Bilge Pump, and Rear Seat Lot's of progress!   The ballast tank is closed in. The floor is 3/8" AC plywood. The dark hole above the charcuterie table post is access to the tank. The hatch that goes over that hole is gluing up in the upper left. The front edge of the rear hatch is unsupported so I added a small oak board (eventually two boards) under it. That's what all those clamps are for. The rear floors are also installed. I cut the slot for the ballast tank fill/drain port in the wrong place in the rear hatch and had to fill in the goof. The end result is probably a better fit than if I had cut it correctly in the first place, and the grain in the plywood patch miraculously matches almost perfectly! Here's what it looks like with the rear hatch removed. The bilge pump and float switch are screwed to a piece of plywood that is set in an epoxy puddle. The grey hose at the top is the bilge drain hose. The blue valve and pipe below it are c...