Happy with our Lehr 5hp Propane Outboard Motor

I'm not sure if we mentioned this item somewhere along the way, but now that we've been able to use it a few times, I thought I'd write a little about it.

The Lehr 5hp Propane Powered Outboard Motor. It's clean and green! It can use both 1 lb. and larger propane tanks. It doesn't require any winterizing (of the motor, we still change the oil and lower unit gear lube). It produces less exhaust, requires no oil like a two stroke, and is lighter weight than it's gasoline powered 4 stroke standard (52 lbs. vs. 75 lbs. and up!).

Even when we first got the motor and discovered that one of the latches was broken, the company responded quickly with an upgraded latch system and instructions on how to install. So we never had to involve a repair shop, or worse, have to ship it back to them! It was an easy fix!

Firefly gets her name! And a few other items are new, too!

"Everything's SHINY Cap'n!"

Edit: I feel the need to say more upfront that, yes, we named our boat after one of our favorite TV shows, Firefly. When we bought the boat, we put possible names to a vote at the dinner table. After much discussion, everyone agreed, especially our teen daughters, that we name her "Firefly". Serenity would have been nice too, but it's just such a cute little boat, it needed a cute little name. Firefly fits for many different reasons. First and foremost, the boat suffered and has now been lovingly restored. (as Mal said “Love. You can learn all the math in the 'verse... but you take a boat in the 'air' (Sic) that you don't love... she'll shake you off just as sure as the turn of the worlds. Love keeps her in the 'air' when she ought to 'fall' down... tells you she's hurting before she keels. Makes her a home.”) We love our little Firefly!

As a graphic artist of over 20 years, I usually frown upon blatant theft of a logo or identity, but here, it seemed more like a tribute. Considering how most fans of the show feel, it fought hard to stay alive but was cancelled too soon by Fox. But it lives on in the hearts of millions of viewers. So with all that in mind, I felt that using the original TV show's typestyle behooved our "Tribute". I hope that it doesn't offend any fans or infringe on a trademark (too badly), but we, unabashedly so, love it and stand behind our decision! :)

Now! On with the boat blog!

Well, this Mother's Day weekend, the plan was to go for a little sail, possibly just over at Lake Maumelle. But we opted to take care of the house and lawn and a few other things. That included working on some boat projects. One that we really wanted to do, as a family, was to finally apply the boat's name graphics.

I started work cleaning up the mast and working on making the mast sleeve coupler slide better. It had been caked up with what looks like dry graphite, the kind locksmiths use to make locks turn better. Really the wrong kind of stuff in there. I'm guessing it was left over from the original owner as the most current previous owner said he used SailKote, which appears to be true from the white powdery stuff I saw on it as well. We'll be buying some new SailKote to use on that and the luff slides. We'd really like to fair and paint the mast as well, but that might be a next season thing. Making sure that it's fit, tightening bolts and checking fittings is enough for now.

Cushions, tables and WIND...Oh, MY!

A gorgeous day on the lake!

Well, after a rainy weekend mostly spent working indoors on a few odds and ends, we finally put Firefly back in the water...and on a moderately windy day! 13-15 mph winds. I never used to take my 1982 Catalina 25 out in more than 10 mph wind, but the 25 was a much more tender vessel than this stout build by Seaward/Hake Yachts!

The little Seaward Fox, at only 19 ft., 1300 lbs., held up much better under higher winds. With a reef in the main, I can imagine she can handle 20 knots easily!

Of those projects, Stacey continued working on the interior cushion slip covers. She finished the two small upper pillows and the cushion for the "Lounge Chair", plus one of the quarter berth cushions! They look great!

I worked on recreating the table that originally came with the boat, but with some modifications. Since we decided not to redo the v-berth at all and use that area only for storage, that meant that the table no longer had to function as a filler board for the berth cushions. So I made it a little thicker, smaller and added two cup holders! It's currently covered in WilsonArt brand laminate. I've yet to finish routing it out but that will be very soon!

The other "thing" I worked on did not fair very well under usage: a propane canister rack for the Lehr Propane Outboard motor we use on this boat. There's not enough room for them to stand upright in the storage lazarette, so I thought a "wine" style rack would work, but I have to modify the design slightly to get them to all stay put :( Oh well, back to the drawing board!

Firefly's getting her war paint on! Vinyl graphics are going on finally!

We're saving the name graphics for this weekend so our girls can be involved. As far as we know, the boat has never been officially named, so we'll be doing the naming ceremony on the water Saturday as well!

The vinyl was produced by my good friends Randi and Sherman at AdCraft of Arkansas, inc.! The best place in central arkansas to have vinyl graphics made, tshirts and other items screen printed and MORE! Check them out, I'm sure they can ship anywhere, too! AdCraft of Arkansas Website