The fried coil in the Atomic 4

On me last trip the coil got really hot. Its been an ongoing annoyance that the engine would quit just before my destination ,right after a power change. Also the batteries were draining quite rapidly .
Well it seems that the resistor wire had failed and was feeding 14.5v directly into the coil. The last trip it got so hot you could not hold it, ultimately frying the resister wire from the switch all the way back to the coil in a smoke test. It really stinks , literally.
I pulled out the old coil and trashed it. Some posts say you can still use it when it cools down, especially the ones that are oil filled (old style) but i did not want to take any more chances , I threw it in the trash and replaced it with another old style, I could have used one with an internal resistor but those are solid carbon pile coils also subject to a much higher rate of failure than liquid filled.
I placed a ceramic drop down external resistor  on the wall mounting it on a cork spacer. The resistor gets hot when it drops the voltage down from 13.5 to 9, and mounting it to fiberglass bulkhead is not a wise move.
This repair has seemed to solve the problem, I have now run the engine for over 12 hours on and off with one run almost 8 hrs and no problem.
Yes the coil does get hot under normal use but not to the point where you cant touch it
Dropping the coil voltage also changed the way the engine runs I'm going to assume this is because of the spark to the plugs is much cleaner now. I no longer get that occasional misfire under load. This may also be because I changed all the wire harness while I made the adjustment. In any case the throttle throw to get the engine to 2000 rpm is now much larger and smoother, without changing any of the mechanical linkage divestments.
I also set the timing to 17 deg BTC under load at 1800 rpm  this improved the shaft HP output quite a bit.
Reverse is now a pleasure instead of an adventure  Time will tell but im happy with these changes

A solar charging system

We installed a solar charging system in the boat because I was using more amps than I was charging. The constant charging was also burning up the battery cells and trickle charge took way too long. The new system is fully regulated and totally separate and independent of the boat system.

We have also installed a master kill switch and an amp and volt gauge

new problems noticed

Yesterday I stepped the mast the old way because the master hinge pin did not line up properly and my flimsy gallows that i built for the mast did not look safe. This means that the mast step project will continue next fall because im not taking down the mast again for the adjustment.

Also the new pedestal guard that we installed now interferes with the shift linkage arm and throttle arm. The throttle arm has to be backed off and readjusted . This may sound easy but because of the cable location its not. The shift arm will have to be bent back about 20% to properly fit. This means heating and bending a 1`/2 inch ss rod ,not an easy function I may take it to my local machine shop and have them do it

bimini

The new binini looks good but the dodger that came off the westerly will not work

New screens

We made up some new screens for the hatches and entrance doors so we can keep out the bugs this year

Electronic egnition

The old points finality came out of the engine and we put in electronic ignition This should solve all the intermittent starting problems I also have a 70 amp alternator that I would like to install but this requires a new belt the right size, more measuring

The Head

The Head sprung a leak over the winter so i picked up a rebuild kit and attacked the "shitter"

No much fun but now it has all new seals and will take a "crap load"\