Good Old Boat Issue 142: Jan/Feb 2022

The wiring harness before reinstalling it, at left. The old (left) and new (right) motors, at bottom left.

The bottom of the motor housing had a 1⁄16-inch stub that covered up part of the motor shaft and needed to be removed, at bottom left. The new-and-improved motor housing with the stub removed and set screw relocated, below. and—voilá—I had a working solar vent. The newmotor definitely runs at a slower rpm than the original, which means it moves less air. But I’d rather spend the few hours and $25 it tookme to restore this solar vent than spend the money to buy a new one I didn’t really need. Bradley Stevens, a retired marine science professor at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, first learned to capsize a Sunfish in a farm pond at the age of 11, then moved up to capsizing larger boats. Following a midlife crisis, he sank a small fortune into refurbishing a Catalina 22 before selling at a complete loss. He has spent the last 10 years throwing boat bucks into his “almost free” current boat, a 1975 Tanzer 26, which he hasn’t managed to capsize yet. He sails on the Chesapeake Bay.

the motor securely without touching the motor itself. While I had to coil and bend extra wire into the cavity between the motor and the battery, there was still plenty of space owing to the newmotor’s shorter length. Finally, it was time to install that new battery. There was one final matter to attend to: replacing the fan blade on the shaft and reinstalling the vent. My old fan blade had an enlarged shaft hole from years of use and was somewhat loose on the new motor shaft. These vents were sold with two blades—one for exhaust, one for intake—so I switched the old exhaust fan for the alternate, which fit snugly on the newmotor shaft. (Most people use an intake on one fan and an exhaust on the second, to facilitate air flow through the cabin.) I fastened the vent back in place with its three screws

contact, and I heat-shrunk the connection. The original motor was 1³ ₈-inches in diameter, with a ½-inch-long shaft. Corresponding measurements on the newmotor were 1¼-inches and ³ ₈ inches, respec- tively. Because of the shorter shaft on the newmotor, I had to use a hack saw to remove the ¹ ₁₆-inch spacer stub from the bottom of the plastic housing. This left a ¼-inch opening for the shaft instead of one that was ¹ ₁₆-inch, but better accommodated the shorter shaft of the newmotor. Next, it was time to reassemble. To fit the new (smaller-in-diameter) motor snugly inside the cylinder in which it was to be housed, I had to wrap about 10 turns of electrical tape around it. Since the old motor was 1 inch long and the new one only ¾ inches, the original set screw (on a post) was now of no use.

No problem: I drilled a small hole in the side of the cylinder and inserted the set screw horizontally. It bites into the wrapping tape and holds

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January/February 2022