March 28, 2010

Wheel redone

Jim had to take the wheel apart so he could put a new seal in the steering box, to stop a hydraulic leak. (I think that’s what he was doing).

This time he did it with a brown rope. I thought it would look more like wooden spokes.

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This is actually 2 separate wheels. The inner one is the original. He wanted a larger diameter wheel and picked up a used one at Sailor’s Exchange in St Augustine, FL., last year. …..The larger one wouldn’t fit the hub without some modification and tools that we didn’t have aboard….so he figured out a way to lace them together. The hub of the larger wheel fit inside the hub of the smaller wheel.

When he took them apart he intended to do the modification needed….but when I put the single wheel in place….it looked “booorrrring”….(plain)…like a wheel on a sailboat.  I really like the double wheel and the rope.  It’s unique….no one has a wheel like ours.