When I received the rebuild kit, the gear shaft and pawl were a bit different. I Cleaned and painted the old one (right and bottom), but in the end used the new one with the smaller pawl. Seems to work fine. Less movement of the handle for each detent seems like a better thing to me.
Im a tin boat guy, but skimmed through your thread. Awesome work you and your sons are doing! Braver than I thats for sure. Keep it up. gonna be a great fam boat when completed!
Thanks g0nef1sshn, I think it would be easy to go to the "tin" side after all of the fiberglass mess I've dealt with. It is something that we'll have to enjoy for a long time though.
The original vent and blower hoses/ducting were attached to the vent box using screw down zip ties. The hoses were pretty flimsy, so I wanted to upgrade the hoses and attachment method.
I replaced the ugly old thru hulls for the bilge pump and stern ice chest, with some shiny new stainless steel thru hulls. I added an additional thru hull for a backup bilge pump.
Thanks Woe, they worked out well. Actually, I think I did get them at Home Depot... or maybe Lowe's. Anyway, here's what they look like with the hoses attached.