We're no longer shafted

It's taken ten hours of fiddly awkward work but step by step I've managed to ease the shaft out of the coupling

The method is simple enough. Stick a socket or bolt between the gearbox coupling plate and the end of the shaft and do up temporary bolts to push the shaft out

Restricted access however meant that I had to do it in stages starting with long bolts then swapping them for medium bolts and the again for short bolts before starting the whole process again with a longer socket between the shaft and gearbox

It's not a job I'd want to do again in a hurry!

In breaks between bouts of winding, I got the orders in for the new parts and bolts. To save faffing about, I've ordered a new split coupling which is costing less than £60. It will save no end of time trying to drill the bolts out of the old coupling

Tomorrow I'll need to tidy up the cockpit before doing anything else. Then, if the weather improves, I'll go back to removing antifoul for a day or two. That's no fun either but at least it's a variation in savage amusement!

Here I go again...

... On my own

At least for a few days

The mission for today was to remove the prop shaft and stern tube

The tube is already undone and has been left in place only to protect the shaft

I could manage, with difficult, to do what must be done without removing the shaft but pulling it will make life a lot easier

And in any case, having dismantled most of the stern gear already, we've decided it makes sense to bring forward the replacement of the stuffing box gland with a packless seal

That had been on the long term "future plans" list but given the time and expense involved in removing the rudder, prop, cutlass bearing housing and stem tube, it'd be daft not to do it now

So all that remained to be disassembled was the shaft coupling ...

(The gearbox is to the right. The coupling is bolted to the backend of the gearbox and clamps onto the shaft)

The coupling has to come off to allow the existing stuffing "box" to be removed and replaced with a PSS seal. That's the stuffing boz to the left complete with the tube from the remote greaser

The two forward bolts on the clamp came undone easily. However, the aft two bolts are rusted solid. I tried everything in the armoury up to and including heat and a breaker bar but budge they would not.

Tempting though it was to decide to forget about fitting a PSS for now, it's just storing up trouble for the future. Who knows what might happen. We could, for example. damage the shaft in a remote location and need to get a replacement shipped out to somewhere with limited access to engineering facilities

Nope, those bolts have got to come out

The only option was to cut the nuts off. And the only way to do that was with my Dremel type multitool. There simply isn't room to get a hacksaw at them and trying to wield an angle grinder in such a confined space with parts of my body in close proximity to the job was not to be contemplated

I was running short of cutting discs for the multitool so a trip over to Chelmsford to get some more was necessary. On the way I had a blow out on the offside rear tyre at the roundabout below the A12 which cost me an hour changing the wheel and trying to find a tyre depot interested in doing some work instead of standing around chatting.

Ho hum

Back at base at last, the nut came away after about ten or fifteen minutes work but the bolt would still neither turn nor budge when I tried to drift it out. Oh well, nothing else for it but to cut the head of the bolt off as well. Half an hour of cutting and grinding back and the head was off and cleaned up

Still the remains of the bolt stubbornly refused to shift.

At which point I managed to catch the case for the multitool with the mains cable and it all fell into the bilge below the shaft!

After a good swear, and it being late in the day, I called it quits for the night

Tomorrow, I'll try to cut the bolts in the middle between the jaws of the clamp. If successful, that should release the clamp and allow the shaft to be withdrawn. (If not, the only remaining option is to try and drill the bolts out in-situ which will be damned difficult)

I'll then unbolt the coupling from the gearbox and get it on the workbench to drill out the bolts

It's all, as I suspected and feared it might, taking rather longer than I'd ideally have liked and costing more money too. But we'll get there in the end

With friends like these ...

No photos today, I simply forgot to take any!

The mission was to remove the cutlass bearing housing from the stern tube. The problem was a lack of any tools big enough to get a grip on the housing. My ancient Stilson pipe wrench, in my toolbox since I was an apprentice, would get a grip on the tube but we needed a bigger pair to get round the housing

Foraging in the nearest DIY stores turned up nothing but on arrival back at Fambridge I was happy to find that Tony had blagged one off James ("Jan Steen")

The damn thing was still being stubborn but ten minutes with the blowlamp and off it came

With that success, Glen headed off for home

I then set about undoing the clamp bolts that secure the inboard end of the prop shaft to the shaft coupling. Although I could do what absolutely needs to be done without removing the shaft, with it out I can tidy things up properly. I'm also considering, now that we've all but dismantled the stern gear anyway, replacing the packing gland with a packless seal now rather than later

Two of the four nuts came undone easily. The other two are rusty and proving stubborn. Copious WD40 overnight might shift them, after that it's the blow torch again. If all else fails, I'll cut them off (they've got to be replaced anyway)

That was the end of the fun for the day 'cos Tony had decided to move Pleinair round into the marina. So we did a bit of boating in very windy conditions. Tony then headed off for the working week

Tomorrow I need to ring round and sort out who gets the job of pressing out the old cutlass bearing and pressing in a new one. I also need to order the bits I need from the prop manufactuer and I need to look at whether to do the seal or not

And of course there's the acres of bottom that still need scraping and sanding!

But after a frustrating start, the week has ended with encouraging progresss

And it's all thanks to those friends. Without their help I'd have got nowhere fast. Thanks everyone (you know who you all are)

Success!

It was a bit of a bleary start to the day but eventually we got ourselves moving and set about the first job of the day.



Removing the rudder proved easier than expected but I was glad of the help. It would have been damn difficult on my own

Next up was another attempt at getting the prop off. A friend had access to a hydraulic puller and it did the job. It made us all jump when it finally shifted with a hell of a bang!



The next job we tackled that also needed more than one pair of hands was removing the damaged wind vane steering gear

Removing the mounting bolts proved easier than I'd feared and off it came. It was heavier than I expected, must be 25 kilos at least



The stern certainly looks a lot cleaner without it. There's a fair bit of work to make good which I'll tackle over the next couple of weeks

The final job for the day was getting the bolts out ready to remove the cutlass bearing housing

The top bolt came out easily but the bottom bolt proved a problem. It's supposed to be in a tapped hole in the internal backing plate but it turned out on Pagan there's a nut which is totally inaccessible

In the end, the only option was to get the angle grinder out and cut the head off the bolt

That done, it was time to wrap up for the day

Tomorrow we'll hopefully get the stern tube out and see what's what with the shaft. Hopefully it's not damaged. Then I'll need to organise getting the cutlass bearing replaced

"To Do" list updated

The rolling "to do" list (see link in pages section to the right or click To Do List) has been updated

It's very long!

As we work through it completed tasks get crossed out

I can't find a way to automatically sync the page with Google Tasks so it'll have to be manually updated

Yesterday, by the way, was a shopping and preparation day laying in supplies, materials etc.

Today, when the sleeping uglies finally awake, will be rudder removal and hopefully prop off

A better day

I was up and at it good and early continuing the tedious and arm aching job of stripping the hull back to a good surface

A mate turned up unexpectedly with a set of hydraulic gear pullers but they wouldn't quite fit. However, we reckon that with shorter legs and the rudder removed they may work so he's bringing them back in Saturday for another try

I took a break from antifoul removal to dig a hole under the rudder. I reckoned by eye we'd need about a foot more to get it off, we'll see in due course how good my eye is!

Then it was back to another bout of stripping. I'm developing the most time and energy efficient technique as I go along

This is a close up of the problem I'm dealing with...



That's a typical area before I start on it. Just the pressure wash off when she was lifted out has left a patch that is right down to the thin layer of sound epoxy, probably a single coat of Gelshield or similar, surrounded by the thick layer of blue (I suspect) badly applied epoxy overlaid with several layers of old antifoul

The technique as it stands is to attack an area with the 100 bar pressure washer on needle jet setting. It's not quick but it removes most of the old antifoul and quite a bit of the unsound epoxy at no cost and with minimal effort

Stage two is to attack any remaining antifoul with a tungsten carbide scraper. That takes some effort but it rapidly cleans back to the failed epoxy and softer patches of that come off too

That leaves the harder areas of epoxy largely untouched. However, I've found that Nitromors paint stripper will soften it quite effectively (suggesting that perhaps it isn't epoxy after all or that it was badly mixed or applied in the wrong conditions).

It takes two applications of stripper, the second about ten minutes after the first. Then give it twenty minutes or so and a good thickness can be peeled off with a 4" steel scraper

Stubborn and really thick areas may take two or three goes to clean back. After that, a thorough pressure wash, leave it to dry off and it's ready for sanding

A thorough going over with 40 grit on the big sander leaves a decently flat surface ready for finishing

The waiting between bouts of stripping and sanding was not idle time

It proved surprisingly easy to remove the rudder quadrant. At which point I discovered that the rudder now moved easily with no stiffness at all. This suggests that the very stiff and heavy helm is not down to worn rudder bushes as we'd assumed (I'll inspect the bushes and may replace them anyway as they're not overly expensive)

So it must be either the rudder cables or the autohelm motor drive that's causing the problem. More investigation, and probably more money, required

Back to the plot..

The next step after removing the quadrant was to undo and remove the single bolt that secures the collar to the top of the rudder post. This proved straightforward too once I knocked a wedge in to take the weight of the rudder off the collar

All I had to do then was knock the wedge out and the rudder dropped the half an inch or so onto the blocks I'd placed ready



When more hands are available we'll remove the rudder completely and inspect the bushes and seal

Another ten hour plus day and by the end of it I really needed a shower. So off I traipsed to the facilities. A lot cleaner and much refreshed, I treated myself to a curry and a couple of pints in the pub

Whilst quaffing I checked my emails and a helpful email from the tech guy at the prop manufacturers advised that they sell or rent out a suitable puller for the Featherstream prop. If the plan for Saturday doesn't work that's the next option

Tomorrow I may take a break from stripping. Glen is down for the weekend and I think we'll tackle some of the engineering works while he's here.

A frustrating day

My first mission this morning was to rig up a cargo hoist. Carrying things up and down a ladder is somewhat awkward and with my dodgy knee a potentially risky business

So I lashed the mizzen boom to port, dug a suitable crate out of the container, and made a couple of loops of nylon line to which I shackled the port mizzen sheet block

So now I can hoist and lower cargo to and from the deck in complete comfort and safety!

The first cargo was somewhat less than salubrious - the Portapotti tank needed emptying. The Elsan disposal point is round at the marina but I had to run round there to pick up the gear puller I'd ordered from Screwfix yesterday anyway

Whilst I was out, I nipped up to Wickes at Maldon for more paint stripper and a better scraper

On my return, I set about trying to remove the prop again. To my utter annoyance, the puller I'd ordered was no bigger than the one I'd got. A snotty email has been sent to Screwfix customer services about that.

Still, as it only cost £12 I've got more important things to do than worry about misleading product descriptions. After some head scratching and experimentation I fettled up a means of actually getting a pull on the base of the prop boss using parts from both pullers and a g-clamp

At last, I thought. And the g-clamp bent like a banana whilst the prop stayed stubbornly put

There's only one more thing I can think of to try. Maybe if I disconnect the prop shaft at the coupling, unbolt the stern tube and cutlass bearing housing then perhaps I can get enough down angle on the shaft to withdraw it complete. I suspect I'm on a hiding to nothing and the prop won't clear the rudder skeg but it's my last hope

The prop doesn't actually need to come off. It's the cutlass bearing housing I need to get off. So it doesn't really matter if the prop stays on the shaft if I can withdraw the shaft

Oh and on the subject of the prop pitch, the manufacturers got back to me to say that our speed test figures are roughly what they'd expect. I'm far from convinced. They say they'll supply a new pitch cassette set 1" coarser for £105+VAT. Their literature says, and I quote "Replacement pitch cassette for easy pitch adjustment - supplied free of charge.". Questions will be asked (again)

Defeated by the prop, for now at least, I cracked on with removing the layers of anti-foul from the port bow. Yesterday, I'd used Wickes own brand paint stripper and whilst it had some effect it wasn't brilliant. So I'd spent three times to money on Nitromors which at least smells like it's evil stuff. It proved more effective too but I hit a problem

There's several layers of old antifoul - there's two layers of worn out self eroding over a layer of hard racing and then there's a thick layer of truly horrible stuff. Beneath that is another layer of old antifoul and then you're finally down to a thin layer of epoxy over the original gelcoat

It's that thick layer of horrible stuff that's giving the trouble. In places, it's come off in slabs leaving craters that wouldn't disgrace the moon. In other places it's as hard as steel. The Nitromors will soften it up to a certain extent but then it's a pig to scrape off forming big lumps of very sticky gunk that clog the scraper blade within seconds. Unsoftened, it won't scrape worth a damn. It won't sand either, it just clogs the sanding disc

I can get it off, eventually, but it's going to take a lot of stripper, which isn't cheap, and the gods alone know how much time and effort. I've spent what amounts to a whole day on the port bow and I've stripped most, but by no means all, of it back for about four feet from the stem. Only another 29 feet to go and then there's the other side. I reckon I'm looking at two weeks work, at least and that's just to strip it. Then it will have to be cleaned up, any imperfections and the inevitable scraper damage made good before being antifouled

I've not totally up my mind made but I'm leaning heavily towards calling it quits for the time being. Certainly, if I carry on there is no chance at all we'll be back in the water before the end of the month and that would put paid to any chance of getting away for a sail this year. And in any case, there's a long list of more pressing jobs to attend to.

We'll see what tomorrow will bring