Monday 5 Oct, boat winterizing day 5:
After a busy weekend doing as much as possible to prep the rig before unstepping the mast this week, today was much more relaxed. All Monday’s should be like this right?
First thing in the morning, I was on my bike to the riggers to give them the news “we are ready to go”. They will let me know which day they will come to do the unstepping. I also discussed with Steve (of East Coast Rigging) that I would like the mast raked slightly more forward when we put it back up. We discuss the merits there of. In 2017 we adjusted it forward as much as the fore/backstay bottle screws would allow, but to my eye it still looks too raked backwards and we still have more weather-helm than I would want – meaning the rig is not balanced as it should be.
I didn’t sleep so well last night and this morning I have that “I’m about to get a cold” feeling …. and of course, hoping it’s ONLY a cold and not some other ailment beginning with “C”! So, feeling a bit groggy I spend all morning cozily inside the boat doing some admin. Calling the various suppliers and emailing follow ups that are needed. And before I know it, its 1pm … time to be outside and get some real work done!
I get a notification that our Gori propeller has arrived back from AB Marine in New England, where it went for a rather expensive service. The prop seemed just fine, but with 2,000 engine hours I thought it would be wise to have it professionally serviced, checked and all the dimensions calipered. This is another action that may not have been necessary, but more of a peace-of-mind action before we set out into the “yacht services desert” across the Pacific. Next good service center will be New Zealand, and we plan to take 2 years to get there. The re-rigging and new sails also fit into this mindset.
The Prop is damned heavy, so I use Ray’s pickup to pick it up from the marina office, and then outboard hoist to get the box up on deck. It’s a pleasure to open it and see an almost new propeller gleaming at me! Lovely. Oana and I exchanged a few jokes together about getting it inside the cabin, before it gets wet!
With the prop on the forefront of my mind, I go down and remove the rope cutter and anodes from the prop shaft ready to rig-up the special tool to remove the cutlass bearing. This current cutlass has lasted only 2 years and 500 engine hours. Doesn’t seem too good considering we were mostly in sediment-free water. Horizontally the bearing is just fine, but vertically there is too much play. I guess the weight of the shaft/prop is totally resting on the lower edge of this bearing, hence the uneven wear. I wonder if there is anything that can be done to relieve this weight off the rubber of the cutlass bearing?
Next, I move on to the forestay and Furlex. Last year I wanted to have the hydraulic Furlex section serviced. So I removed all 3 motors and sent them off to specialists in Florida. But much to my annoyance, they informed me that there is nothing to service on the motor itself, and that is was the complete lower furler that they needed. But to give them that, I’d have had to remove the forestay! Obviously, a bad case of miscommunication. The ramification was that during the summer, while the motors were in Florida, rain got into the furlex housing and 2 of them got rusty, meaning I had a big job on my hands to reinstall the motors, all for absolutely no gain! Now, as I sit looking at the Furlex sections, which are now easy to remove, I’m thinking I should be sending them off again and doing it properly this time. But as I look at them it strikes me that the internal mechanism cannot be rocket science, right? So I think I’ll try servicing them myself. Worse case, I send the service agent a bag of bits and ask them to reassemble!
In the evening I receive an email from the riggers that they will be coming to unstep the mast tomorrow at 10am …. Uh? What? So soon? …. Don’t panic Captain Mannering! I arrange for Ray to come at 8am so that we can release the boom from the mast at the goose neck and get the cutter stay removed before the crane and riggers arrive. Then I spend an hour on deck with head torch further loosening the shrouds and making sure I haven’t missed anything. I want this to be the best prepared mast the riggers have ever removed! Then early to bed. It will be a big day tomorrow.