Help Alan Retire at 85

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The wind has abated a bit and I had expected the tide to be back but I guess it was just wishful thinking. It is still cold but they are predicting a high of 42 tomorrow. I never thought I would look forward to temperatures in the 40's! It also looks like 40's for the weekend but then another drop and a chance of snow predicted for early next week. There are a few sailboats waiting to get hauled and if we get the tide back we can get them out tomorrow.

Today I am focusing on the drive train of this GB42. We got the shafts and bearings out yesterday after thoroughly cleaning the shafts. You can see where the shaft rides in the bearing. It is highly polished at this area.


Below is our hydraulic bearing puller hooked up to the shaft. I really should make a movie of this next time - it is very interesting to watch.


The following is a photo of one of the bearings. If you notice, it is flat on one side and also on the opposite side on the other end. This tells us the engine has been out of line for a while and the shaft was not riding in the middle of the bearing.


I just liked this shot looking through the middle strut into the shaft tube.


The stuffing boxes still have the original hoses which are quite brittle and stiff. Also, we found 9 rings of packing in these - we have never seen more than 5. This means instead of occasionally repacking, the previous owner had just been adding more packing.
 

It just keeps coming. We did get propane delivered yesterday and with it on it's lowest setting my coffee is not freezing - however, I do have to drink it quickly.

The tide is still out to sea and the few boats we have left will have to wait til later in the week until tides return to normal (or at least a bit below normal). We have turned our attention to service work again. We are still sending out our inspection reports to clients. We sometimes notice things that customers miss and it is important to bring it to their attention.

We have had several incidents of air conditioning drip pans overflowing. This is usually an easy fix and can protect your equipment from rusting and keep water from damaging the wood where it eventually ends up.


We are doing a bearing job on one boat and the shafts have been painted. In order for the shafts to be removed from the bearings and to be inserted into the new bearings the shafts need to be cleaned - which means removing all the old paint first. We frown on painting shafts although  many customers seem to have them.


If you have varnish like this, for goodness sake do something with it even if you just strip it. It has no place on a nice boat.


Did you know
If you have a GFI receptacle installed as the first receptacle in a string, all the receptacles are protected. You could also use a GFI breaker to protect them all.

Another day like yesterday and we are still down a few employees. There is not enough water to haul any boats with keels because of the constant wind - which persists even today.  The wind chill brings our balmy 32 degrees down to about 22. In a Cratchit-like pose, I am huddled in front of a little forced-air heater thawing my fingers periodically to type up this blog today.

The only repair project going on today is the continuation of the Bristol Skiff rub rail repair - everyone is winterizing.






Paul just needs to cut the plugs from the inside of the rail and we can varnish it to match the starboard side.

You should be getting our commissioning check lists in the next several days if you have not already gotten them. We are trying to organize our work schedule to get everything done by spring. Please reply as soon as possible to ensure getting your boat in the queue. If you have not received one, you may download a blank here.

And I thought it was cold last week! This weekend and on in today and tomorrow it is not only cold but very windy bringing the wind chill down to an almost unbearable temperature. I expect this, but not this early! Willy did not come in today - presumably because he does not want to haul boats. So the other guys are proceeding without him. I don't envy them! (You'll be surprised  to find I was out helping winterize a boat Friday evening.)


Paul is putting the rubrail on the the little Bristol skiff I mentioned a week or so ago. We found we could have the local lumber yard form the rails for us for cheaper than we could fabricate them ourselves so we have been waiting patiently for them to arrive.


Also on Friday, we loaded that huge Man engine. Since we don't have a forklift (yet) we had to move it to another location where it could be loaded on the truck with the forklift. It looks even larger in the truck!

Well they weren't wrong about the temperatures - it's still cold outside. We are pretty much caught up on all the winterizing and hauling to date. The haul out crew is actually off today and we have a couple of the crew in working on other projects. It is a bit early for me to get photos of the projects they are working on though.

Kevin will be spraying E-paint primer and top coats on the jet drive parts today. We put heaters on the parts last night so they will be more receptive to bonding the paint properly. Kevin was cleaning the gun when I went out to the shop. This stuff is thicker than the top coats we normally spray so it took a different tip.


On the swim platform I was discussing yesterday, our only real option for installing was to move one of the legs. We bonded a new pad where we needed to attach the leg beneath the platform. We will now glass that over and it should go smoothly and be strong.


Anything Can Happen Friday

Need a little docking practice while your boat is stuck in storage? You can try out this docking simulator on line.