The things one discovers! Moving one of the house batteries exposed the remaining bit of bilge that has not been degreased and painted. Of course, there was an inspection plate that needed to be checked. Two of the bolt heads simply fell off. It was also kind of scary that someone had used some sort of white compound ON TOP of a crumbling gasket. Nice. The stern tube (box, actually) is there (I suspect) as a way to get both the trim tab stock and the propeller shaft into the same place. They almost touch. The propeller shaft is visible in the center of the box and the stock for the trim tab is just visible at the bottom center of the photo slightly to port (to the right) of the propeller shaft. What now?

First, I will degrease the area and be done with that chore for the entire boat. Next. I am going to try to cut through the stock just above the trim tab and then pull the one inch beast up and out. We shall see if this is possible. I previously removed the quadrant, pulleys, wires, etc. Why did I remove such an innovation (just like was used on the memorable S&S sailboat "Intrepid")? Three reasons. Yankee is now free of 50 lbs of space-hogging gear that controlled an ineffective device that had seven feet of turbulence-producing slots. Glassing the tab in will also permit me to fair the aft part of the keel properly.

One huge problem I had with the installation of a new engine was getting sufficient drop to the water lift muffler. I am now coveting part of this new space in order to drop the muffler a couple of inches.