Change cutlass bearing

Tuesday 23 October: Herrington Harbor North, yard day #7 – hull compounding not good enough to apply Ceramic Pro, and cutlass bearing replaced, Gori propeller back on.
Today we start camping on Cloudy Bay. Decided to sleep onboard for the remainder of yard time.
If you were wondering how our improvised “birds be gone” device worked, it didn’t! Birds learned early morning how to flatten the poking tie-raps, so they are still quite happy pooping from the top of the mast. Plus, they also discovered they can fit more on the top spreader, and they land there too. Decks, canvas, wind screen…all purple again today. We need a gun!

Buddy (Ceramic Pro) arrives in the morning to show Mike (and us) how to apply the product. In preparation, the boat needs to be perfectly washed and compounded, then all residue from water wiped off with stripper (which doesn’t allow the oxidation to come back out). First part of the product Nano goes first, in 2 layers. Wait 1 hour for each layer to dry. Then the ceramic product.
During the demo it is obvious that the preparation stage is far from suitable. Which we could tell even before Buddy pointed that out. The blue stripe has a long way to go yet before it’s nicely brought back to vivid color and shine. So new approach is needed before we actually proceed with the Ceramic Pro application. Mike backs out from the job and we have to call in a professional team. Red Sky Detailing is high at the top of the recommendation list, so we ask Buddy to persuade Karen (Red Sky) to squeeze Cloudy Bay in her already very busy schedule. She comes tomorrow morning, and we are quite excited because we know she will do a great job.

Roger (Free State Yachts) stops by to chat about the rudder. He has contacted Hallberg Rassy yard in Sweden to help us get some engineering information with regards to how the steering is built into the rudder, and figure out why ours is no longer aligned.
We pick up the cockpit tent from Canvas Connection. They did a nice job with the repair, and we must pay attention not to catch it in the rope on the main winch again!
The cutter halyard splicing is done too, and the riggers from East Coast Marine Rigging are booked for rig inspection on Friday.

Then we drive off to collect our deliveries from Westbrook and Free State Yachts – reprogrammed EPIRB, Nespresso coffee, bow thruster anodes, 36mm sockets. Great that we have the sockets, now we can pull off the rest of the propeller to change the cutlass bearing in the P-bracket.

At noon, it’s epoxy time. Ray is specialist in resins and fiberglass works, and he offers to help Glen with the epoxy job on the bulb of the keel. Both of them are lying on their backs on the ground applying epoxy filler coat under the keel bulb. It’s done in no time, then a heat lamp goes under the keel to help cure the epoxy. Thanks Ray for your help and your precious advises.

Then it’s propeller shaft time. The sockets are perfect match, and Glen removes the cone part of the propeller in order to get to the cutlass bearing. That goes well, till he realizes 3 screws needed taking off before removing the nut holding the cone. The nut therefore gets somewhat stripped as he removes it. Bugger! But noting that a file can’t fix.
We changed the cutlass in Lanzarote last October, but we did 500 hours on the engine since then. That cutlass now has play in it and needs changing. In Lanzarote we had a stainless steel tool custom made exactly for the purpose of pushing the bearing out of its housing. It clamps over the propeller shaft and slides to push out the cutlass. It’s the first time we do this operation ourselves. Ray stops for a visit while we were about to start this job, and he jumps in to help. He certainly is a very experienced and practical boaty! So refreshing to have a helper who know what he’s doing.
The rest of the afternoon and early evening is spent cleaning and polishing propeller cone parts, rope cutter and then putting the Gori propeller back together and locktiting all the screws, which is finally complete well after dark.

Then it’s tidying up. Desperately needed. Tools and materials were everywhere in the cockpit and on the saloon floor, so Glen is on a mission to put them back in order. And we bump into each other quite a few times, as I am going in all the cupboards to finish my food supplies inventory for provisioning. That’s one of those moments when a 54ft boat feels not big enough 🙂 So Glen moves into the engine room, his sanctuary, to tidy up in there.
Finally, near midnight, we curl up back in our cozy bed. Other than our heads sloping towards the stern, due to the way they propped the boat, there is no lapping or movement to stop us sleeping.