Painted under seat wells, electrical for motor

Last Friday, I painted under the seat wells. I had to buy a new pint of RustOleum White Satin 7791. I think it's the same as the White gloss 7792. I like the satin better, but it's hard to tell the difference in the light and I think it will be impossible to tell the difference in the dark under the seats.

I used white of course because it should make it easier to see under there.

Although, thinking about it now, I have purchased a waterproof LED light strip. Maybe I should wire those up under the seats. The port side would be easy, I'd just have to run some 18awg marine wire that I have and rig up a switch. The starboard side has the centerboard trunk and would require drilling a hole through B4, running the wire under the starboard front hatch, then drilling another hole to run the wires back into the seat well.

I'll consider that this weekend. 

I decided to buy a connector for the motor so that I could easily remove the motor from the rear of the boat. West Marine sells a more expensive version of MinnKota's connector. I bought one of those and installed it in the aft transom.

MKR-18 socket.
Notice also that I trimmed the planks.

It looks nice and will be easy to connect and disconnect the motor when needed. I'll have to find a way to lock the motor so that no one steals it. I think a brass padlock will work.

The motor and the connector.

I didn't get any pictures, but I did wire the motor to the plug. I still need to heat shrink it to finalize it, but it will definitely work.

I also ran the wire under the seats and decided how the connector will look. In the picture below, the small steel ring is the through hole for the motor wire and you can se the back of the socket.

Wiring pieces. I still need to epoxy it all together.

Here is another shot with the wire through the hole.

Wire needs to be stripped and connected later

This weekend, I plan to drill a hole for the motor remote control and drill all the holes for the cable clam connector. I think that will go just fore of B5. I will velcro mount the controller under the decking. 

Once those decisions are made, I can finalize the under seat wiring and start epoxy coating the bottom of the seats in preparation for gluing them down. I'm excited for that step.

That frees up some other jobs, such as gluing the motor doubler and drilling the holes for the motor rails.

It also means I can start on the deck.

A final note: Beware drill bits from Harbor Freight. I needed a 1 1/8" drill bit for the socket, so I picked up a set of 4 spade bits. They were all horribly bent. I was able to drill my holes, but a lot of shaking happened. Unacceptable. I'm going to take them back when I get a chance.