We had a rather frustrating day today. Jason ordered a fancy new feathering propeller (the blades feather into the water as you sail so there’s less drag and the boat goes faster!) so we got to work removing the old one. After a lot of hammering and the rental of a puller from Autozone (and misuse of said puller…) we finally got the old one off. The new one slid on easily and that should have been the end of it! But… as usual… I poked the boat. Not only did I uncover a crack in the gel coat exposing bare fiberglass (likely a manufacturing defect), but I also noticed that the shaft had a lot of play in it… more than seemed acceptable. Jason was less than pleased with both of these discoveries since we were *almost done*.
So now what? We have to replace that bearing and to do so, we have to pull the shaft log out the ass of the boat. It was held on with 2 bolts that should have had nuts on them but didn’t. Which is both convenient and disturbing. 😮
The problem now is that our shaft log has a big chunk of metal welded to the end of it so they could bolt on the line cutter… this makes ours longer than standard and all the easy tricks for getting the thing out without removing the rudder (a HUGE ordeal and something we will not be doing…) are not working. We’re in the process of disconnecting the shaft from the transmission, removing the flange from the end of it, and seeing if we can just pull the entire shaft out. Will know more tomorrow. I may have to provide additional clearance with my Dremel. Awesome.
In other news… I finally got all of the painters tape removed from our varnished wood and it looks fantastic!
Since I seem to need side projects, I took the base for the table that bolts to the steering pedestal and sanded and primered it. Tomorrow it will get a coat of gloss. It can easily be set up underneath a tarp, so it’s easy enough to mess with and then cover if it starts to rain. I’d like to do the nice folding table as well, but it needs extensive repairs as it’s practically falling apart. Seeing as woodworking isn’t my forte (you can see its pieces in the photo above sitting on the seats) I’m not sure I’ll be able to make it that far. But we will see. Wood glue is an amazing substance.
Both Jason and I got headaches today from sitting around in the stifling heat while hanging upside down in the locker working on getting the shaft out. It wasn’t a productive day and we were both pissy. Hopefully tomorrow we can start making progress again.