Some here may recall my intent to get a Porta-Bote, and make it
possible to use sculling oars instead of the typical dinghy sticks...

It arrived on time, in good shape. Today I opened the box.

Well, the opening and assembly was entirely without moment. Other than

looking for an "R" in the cupholder for the rear seat as specified in
the
instructions (evidently meant for bigger botes), everything went in/on
with
no excitment. Probably didn't take me 10 minutes, even with the oops
on the
seat identity.

As I'd not had one in my sights, I was unaware of the oarlock receiver
being
a square tube with a nylon insert, angled in to miss the coaming. I'm
going
to have to ponder that for a bit, about the sculling conversion, as I'd

envisioned a casting of a tube on a plate. The blind access to the
inside
of the square tube (not at all impossible, just different than I'd
anticipated) will have me scratching my head a bit about how I want to
proceed for sculling conversion. I expect the force I'd put on the
receiver
would wear out the nylon in short order, so perhaps not using that
assembly
at all would be advised. Though the bolt itself wouldn't turn in a
sculling
oarlock, the 1.5" or so top-to-bottom length would take a lot of
torque, and
squish the nylon out in short order, I believe. Of course, as before,
I'd
expected to have to use a larger, longer plate to distribute the torque
over
a longer range (such as maybe 4-6" fore-aft - the height is of no
moment).

What I need is a 1/2" ID tube immobile to a plate. It could be SS or
aluminum (all of it). Short of a custom weld-up, anyone got any ideas
on
how to do that?

An aha moment! I need an aluminum or SS angle. Rereading the above, I

recalled how the Little River shells I used to deliver mounted theirs.
Their pivots are SS carriage bolts, with a wobble plate (flat on top
with 4
screws controlling the angle it sits) securing the round head in a
dished
rigger, allowing infinite rotational (seen from the top of the oarlock)

adjustment to about 8 degrees all around. For my purposes, that's
unnecessary. The oarlock has adjustment washers allowing one to set
the
height; those will allow me to clear the coaming. I'll just bolt that
sucker
on to the 1/2" hole I made in the angle. I'll make it easy (put a
wrench in
the bote bag?) to remove so I can collapse the bote, as it would stick
up
into the bottom crease if left on. Off I go to the scrapyard! Stay
tuned to
this channel for developments and pictures.

Meanwhile, without having received any notice of shipping, the shipper
called me on the appointed day for arrival, and it arrived with no
damage
other than a slight surface rip on the plastic bag. As it is, since I
have
the pearl, likely scratches won't show, anyway.

10 out of 10 for Porta-Bote customer service from this quarter!

L8R

Skip
Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig KI4MPC
http://tinyurl.com/384p2 The vessel as Tehamana, as we bought her

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you
didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail
away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails.
Explore.
Dream. Discover." - Mark Twain