A Message for Our Visitors!

Hello all.

I have been writing this blog since early 2019. It is my photo diary to document the building of my PocketShip "Journey".

We get a lot of visitors, apparently!

According to the Stats facility on Blogger, this site has received many thousands of visits since I started posting.

And our visitors hail from all four corners of the globe, which is amazing.

I have been curious for a long while about who you all are, and where you come from, and what draws you all to my blog.

If you have the time and inclination, leave a few words about your interest in PocketShip.

It would be good to hear from you!

Motor Stand | Choice, Quality & First Impressions

Having collected the outboard it became obvious that I needed somewhere to store it properly. So I checked out the internet for stands.

As with the outboard mounting bracket I found a plethora of cheap and nasty stands, made of thin tubing and not looking as if they would stay upright or last any length of time.

Others were quite expensive and didn't look to be worth the money.

One, however, stood out.

This is it.

It is made of galvanised steel with a good-sized wooden mounting board and large wheels for easy moving around. I duly ordered one.

This is how it arrived, in a flat pack as expected.

The parts seemed solid but I wasn't happy with the finishing. The axle did not fit the axle lug on one of the side frames, apparently due to excess weld or maybe galvanising. This is the lug.

And the axle itself has been filed or ground at one end, probably to remove excess galvanising dross. This is it.

The vendor has promised to replace them, so we will see what happens.

Outboard Brackets | Chosen Option

As stated in the previous post, I decided to go with the aluminium bracket because I thought it would be more robust and easier to use in practice.

It did, however, require a fair amount of rework to make it fit for purpose.

The first issue was the wooden mounting pad. It wasn't tall enough to accommodate a standard outboard bracket - it was a good 30mm too short.

It was also made of cheap and nasty construction ply, with a quick splash of stain to make it look respectable.

So that had to be replaced.

I removed the pad. Here it is, with its fastenings.

The fastenings turned out to be coach bolts with spiked washers, and obviously not stainless steel. They would be suitable for building a garden shed, but nothing to do with boats.

Additionally, none of the fastenings were metric. They all appeared to be Imperial measures, along with the countersink and bolt holes.

So I set about making a decent mounting pad by laminating four layers of 9mm Meranti marine ply that I had left over from another project.

Here it is being glued up.

That went well so I cut out the pad to size and cleaned it up, like this.

I used the old mounting pad to mark up the location of the fastenings on the new blank.

In this pic I am drilling the countersink for the spring which fits behind the pad and bears against the connecting arm, to help the arm stay in place.

A Forstner bit is ideal for this purpose. Next came a test fit for the spring, like this.

Perfect!

Next I drilled the countersink holes for the bolts, again using a Forstner bit. This is what they looked like.

Finally, I drilled the holes for the M8 bolts, like this.

So far, so good. And I was feeling pretty pleased with my progress... until I tried a test fit onto the bracket.

It didn't fit. The bolt holes did not align. Aghast, I assumed that I had made a silly measuring error.

But when I checked my mistake by aligning the original pad with the bracket, this is what it looked like.

As you can see, the original pad never did fit! The flanges on the bracket must have been twisted out of shape before the coach bolts were hammered through. What a piece of crap!

I think this bracket must have been made - or at least finished - in some weird place that still uses Imperial measures and has no regard for quality manufacture. Any ideas?

So, back to square one for the wooden pad...

Luckily I had plenty of 9mm marine ply still to hand, so I made a new blank. Here it is being glued to make an 18mm pad.

Next I made a template for drilling the bolt holes, to be certain that it didn't go awry a second time.

Here it is, fixed to the bracket.

That can't possibly go wrong again!

Next I marked up the holes on the new pad.

And here are the bolt holes, newly drilled.

I decided to round over the edges and corners, using the router table. Here is the table, set up for action.

And this is the 3/8" round over bit.

I tested 1/8" and 1/4" inch rounded edges, but they were not pronounced enough.

Here is the finished edge.

I'm not sure if I mentioned this yet, but I decided to fit a 'buffer pad' between the outboard bracket and the transom. This is mainly to prevent the metal bracket from gouging lumps out of  the lovely Sapele veneer on the transom itself, so the buffer pad is really sacrificial.

I got hold of some 6mm Sapele board to make it. Here I am marking up the pad using a cardboard template.

Both pads then received four or five coats of clear resin to seal them, sanded with a P80 grit between coats. Here they are.

While the resin was curing I did some fettling on the aluminium cantilever assembly of the bracket. It was quite well made but needed some finishing to make it fit for purpose.

The first task was to replace the through bolt which slots into the cut outs on the adjusting arm. It was suppled with a fully threaded bolt which does not slide smoothly over the bearing surfaces on the cantilever arms. So I replaced it with a partly threaded M10 bolt, with washers and a new Nyloc nut.

Washers were also added to the nuts and bolts which hold the cantilever arms in place.

One of the cut outs in the adjusting arm had not been fully machined and the bolt did not slot into it, so that needed to be filed out to size.

Lasty the bearing surfaces on the cantilever arms were filed and then polished with wet'n'dry to make them smooth and shiny, and everything was greased to make things slip and slide more easily.

This is what it looked like.

A bit greasy in this pic, but it now works well!

When the resin was cured I varnished the two pads. I used a small tin of varnish left over from the first round of painting the boat. Here it is.

I would have preferred to use Epifanes but I have run out, and it is not worth buying a whole litre tin for such a small job.

Here are both pads after four coats of varnish, sanded gently between coats.

They are looking quite nice. I mustn't spend too much effort making them pretty, because the motor pad will quickly become gouged and marked by the engine mount...

When the varnish is finished and cured I will install the motor pad on the bracket and try it out with the motor itself. Exciting!

Outboard Brackets | Choice, Quality & Testing

So now I had an outboard motor and needed therefore a means of attaching it to the transom.

When I was talking with the first dealer in Reading I asked them to supply a bracket to go with the motor. They recommended three; one was ridiculously expensive and suitable for a much bigger motor, and the other two - which looked ideal - were unobtainable. So that was the first reason to look elsewhere.

Internet searches found a lot of cheap and nasty brackets which did not look any good at all.

Two others did look as if they would work, however, and were available from various online retailers at different prices with different claimed specifications. It seems as if the same products are being offered by different resellers who have little knowledge of what they are selling - not very confidence inspiring, so we have to make our choice and hope for the best.

They weren't massively expensive so I purchased one of each, reasoning that I could probably give away the one I didn't choose to use.

This is the first one.

I have mounted it on a sheet of MDF to test it out.

This bracket is made of stainless steel with a nylon mounting pad. Its height is adjustable, so the motor can be raised or lowered to reach the optimal propeller depth, or lifted up out of the water altogether.

In the following pic it is adjusted to its lowest position.

The pad is held at the required height by a threaded through-rod which slots into a cut-out in the connecting arm for the cantilever assembly. The through-rod is tightened by a pair of screw-knobs which clamp the arm and therefore the pad in place. This is the clamping mechanism.

The screw-knobs are prevented from coming loose by a pair of Nyloc nuts on either end of the rod.

The bracket is quite awkward to adjust in practice, but the clamp works well and provides confidence that it will not jump or vibrate loose in use.

Coincidentally this is the same clamp that was fitted to Peter's "Mollie" on lake Windermere, as you can see in this pic.

It seemed to work fine for "Mollie", so this was a good possibility.

The second bracket is made of aluminium, with a plywood pad. This is it, fitted to the test mount.

Like the first bracket, the through-rod is held in the upper cantilever arm, and slots into a cut out in the connecting arm to set the height of the pad.

This is it.

Unlike the first bracket, the through-bolt on this fitting does not screw down tight to secure the arm. Instead the through-bolt is held in place in the cut out by powerful springs at the inboard end of each pair of cantilever arms, visible in the first pic.

I quite liked the mechanical robustness of this bracket, and despite the powerful springs it was quite easy to adjust.

Next I measured the rise and fall of each bracket (i.e. the extent of their adjustability) by marking each setting against a board clamped behind the base of each bracket.

Here is the aluminium bracket set to its lowest level, being marked up on the board.

This was very telling.

Both brackets have five positions, but the aluminium bracket has a longer reach. This means it can be set lower or higher than the other bracket, depending on where the bracket is positioned on the transom.

Here are the boards, side by side for comparison.

Not much to choose between the two brackets, to be honest, but thus far the mechanical superiority and the longer reach of the aluminium bracket were winning for my final choice.

Pasi is another PocketShip builder in Finland and he recently advised me on his set up. This is the same aluminium bracket fitted on his boat "Kuutti".

He says:

"I have a long shaft Suzuki 2.5 on an adjustable bracket. I think it works quite well, the engine is fairly easy to tilt when the bracket is at its highest position, and you don't need to lower the bracket completely for easy access and still have good prop submersion. In more choppy waters it still allows for a lower position in case it is needed."

That sounds like exactly what I am looking for, so am going with the same bracket!

Outboard Motor | New Engine!

It's been quite some time since the last post, but that doesn't mean nothing has been happening.

The current project is fitting an outboard motor to "Journey".

The search for a suitable engine started weeks ago. I found a Mercury dealership not too far from here, in Reading, so after talking with them I decided to go for a Mercury motor.

I soon lost faith in the dealer however, and searched further afield. I found a main outlet on the south coast, in Chichester, which is accredited by Mercury. So I went there.

Some PocketShip sailors use a 2.5 or 3.5hp motor, which only weighs 18kg and is not an expensive investment. So this was my first choice.

The dealer however was not enthusiastic about such modest power. He thought it would be fine for a tender or a small planing vessel, but a relatively heavy displacement hull like PocketShip would need more power.

Mercury offer a 5hp model specifically for sailboats, called the Sailpower. It is still classified as a lightweight motor even though it weighs 27kg, so it is actually quite heavy.

Unlike the 3.5hp it has a gearbox, with forward and reverse gears. It has special gear ratios and a shallow pitch propeller to effectively drive a displacement hull. It is also a long shaft motor, which is necessary for a sailboat with a high transom.

It's more expensive than the smaller motor, but it was the increased weight that bothered me most. This realistically requires two people to lift it, so maybe not that lightweight...

I decided to go for it anyway. A dealer who sells motor yachts for a living ought to know what they are talking about, and I am confident PocketShip can carry an extra few kilograms. So I purchased a Mercury Sailpower.

It now resides in my study, because at the moment there is nowhere else to store it.

Here it is.

The engine cowling proudly proclaims its credentials, like this.

It has to lie on one specific side if stored lying down, otherwise oil will flood the motor. That would not be good.

It is taking up a lot of room, so I need to get a motor stand to keep it safely stored upright.

And we need a bracket to attach it to the transom.

More expense...

Outboard Motor | Change of Plan

Following our trip to Windermere and highly fortuitous meeting with Peter, the skipper of PocketShip "Mollie", I have decided to fit an outboard motor.

I have been thinking about this for a very long while - since the start of the build - and I can now see that a motor is pretty well essential.

Launching and mooring will not be practical without powered manoeuvring, and I can see that under less-than-ideal weather conditions a motor will be a very good safety consideration.

Initial research has shown that lightweight four stroke motors are available in 2.5hp and 3.5hp, so I am going for the more powerful model.

There is only one 'serious' outboard dealer near me, and it's about an hour away. It is a Mercury dealership, selling Mercury and Tohatsu motors. I think one of these will be fine.

This is the Mercury 3.5hp motor.

I will make a trip to purchase a motor and ask for advice on fitting i.e. do they recommend a make of lifting bracket etc?

As a result I have cancelled the planned move onto the trailer, and will now leave it until the Spring.

The only reason for moving "Journey" now was to completely finish fitting out, by installing the mast and rigging so I could get a survey done.

But that is not urgent and can wait until next year, and I can spend the next couple of months fitting a motor and perhaps making a couple of modifications which I gleaned from "Mollie".

We live and learn...

Launch Sites | Lake Windermere & "Mollie"

We settled on the 24th September for the big move back onto the trailer, and organised a crew of 'volunteers' to do the lift and shift.

So now would be a good time to discover suitable launch sites, while I had nothing outstanding to complete on the boat and a couple of weeks to spare.

One venue that I had long thought suitable was the Lake District, in northwest England. It is a lovely area, and would be good for a vacation as well as a place to launch and sail "Journey".

Fyne Boat Kits, who supplied the kit and most of the materials and equipment for this build, happen to be situated in the middle of the lakes, so I asked Phil (the owner) for advice.

He said that there is a good public launch site at Windermere, and another at Coniston Water. He said that Ullswater would be suitable too, but not to bother with Derwentwater - too small and shallow.

So off we went for a few days in the Lakes.

We found a lovely public launch site on Coniston Water, near the Bluebird café. But the access road was long, narrow and winding and taking a big trailer down there did not appeal.

We could not find anywhere on Coniston Water, so forgot about that.

Windermere, however, was excellent.

There is a really good gated public launch facility at Ferry Nab, with a good ramp and jetties, and pontoons to keep the boat on overnight.

This is it.

Please note - these pics are all from phones, so not up to the usual standard!

It has an impressive secure gated access, like this.

And here is the slipway itself. Note the two excellent jetties either side.

The warden was friendly and helpful, and the fees were not excessive, so we decided this would be a good place for a PocketShip adventure.

We then walked back along the lake through Bowness, which is the waterfront for the town of Windermere.

There are a number of pontoons along the front, and I was looking at the moored boats when I was astonished to spot a PocketShip tied up alongside.

We immediately went to investigate and were met by its owner, Peter.

He could not have been more friendly and helpful, and we spent a delightful hour or more talking with Peter and even having a trip around Belle Isle - under power rather than sail.

This is "Mollie", tied up at Bowness.

This is Peter, in the company of Alison (Mrs Boatbuilder).

Peter bought his PocketShip in 2025, fully built but unpainted and with no mast.

He painted and finished the boat and launched it this year, in 2026.

This included building his own trailer, so he did incredibly well. Much quicker than me!

Interestingly, he had a solid mast made by Frank Collar of Oxford - a well known UK spar maker. He said it weighs the same as the hollow, square mast specified in the plans and build manual. And it looks great. 

I learned many things from Peter, but here are some highlights.

Outboard Motor

Peter said an outboard is essential. He has a 3.3hp Mercury two-stroke, which propelled the three of us well enough on our trip.

From what I saw of the berths and pontoons at Bowness, you really could not get in or out without a motor.

So that is one definite learning point - we need an outboard!

This is "Mollie"s outboard from astern.

It is a short shaft motor on a lifting bracket.

Here is the view from inside the cockpit.

You can see that Peter has a shortened tiller specifically for use with the motor. It was very handy in practice.

Steering was by rudder, with the motor going dead ahead.

Ballast

"Mollie" has 80kg of internal lead ballast, under the floorboards. Peter says this is plenty and demonstrated how stable the boat is by standing on the gunwale. It hardly dipped.

I thought we also had 80kg, but on checking I see that "Journey" has 100kg under the floorboards, so more than enough.

Companionway Step

Peter has fitted a small elliptical step / seat inside the rear cabin wall, at the bottom of the companionway. It is supported by a bracket attached to the front of the centreboard case.

It is certainly a lot more comfortable to stand and sit on than the straight edge which we currently have.

Forward Deck Strengthening

Peter found that his forward deck flexed downward when supporting a person's weight, so he fitted three battens fore and aft between bulkheads 1 and 2 to stiffen it.

Launch Site

Peter had launched his boat at the Windermere Marina Village where he and his family had a rented holiday apartment, with its own mooring and slipway.

So... lots of things to think about.

I am definitely going to fit an outboard motor. I have been thinking about this for a long while, but I can now see it is a necessity.

And I think we will stay at the marina and make use of their slipway and mooring, some time next year.

And lastly here is Peter (and his wife) sailing "Mollie".

Note how the outboard is lifted out of the water on its bracket, and cocked up out of the way.

What a fabulous day! Thanks again Peter, if you get to read this.