Friday, September 8, 2017

Third Week in Boatyard - 2017

--Blogpost written by Bob



Today (Saturday, September 2) begins our third week in the boatyard, after we discovered a leaking transmission seal.  The leak is just drops, maybe five or ten minutes apart.  There is no doubt about the fact that it now leaks slightly.  My boatyard believes it was due to improper engine alignment during our re-powering this past winter (but this was later believed to be incorrect).  However, the question that keeps lingering in my mind is why the leak didn't show up until now.  We traveled about 1800 miles since our re-powering and I regularly checked, and even changed, transmission fluid during that time.  Is it possible that (with some minor engine misalignment) it took 1800 miles for a leak to develop in the transmission seal? 



This is an image of an old waterman's boat that was pushed
into the marsh to die from the elements.  We
found this sunken boat during a recent
excursion on our dinghy.


There is one other possibility--that the leakage is due to a recently created misalignment problem.  The misalignment could have been created when the boat was hauled out of the water and the boat's hull structure flexed differently than in the water OR when the engine alignment adjustment was recently made.  (The engine misalignment check is one of the engine manufacturer's maintenance requirements.)  The small leakage that showed up on an old absorbent pad placed under the engine and transmission could have been from my changing the transmission fluid some time ago. 



This is a photo of the leaking transmission seal taken with my iPhone.
It is very difficult to see the area otherwise.  The area feels
"oily" and the oil is pink like transmission fluid.


The mechanic checked the alignment on Tuesday morning per my request while the boat was in the water to see if the boat's flexure (because of the two different supports, jack stands vs water) and the alignment did not change.  So, we can rule out the haulout from causing any misalignment.  

Also, in discussing the situation with Bunky, the 69-year old mechanics supervisor, the misalignment was within normally acceptable tolerances and he doesn't believe that the small amount of misalignment (+/- 0.005") had anything to do with the transmission's seal leakage.


Our boat was short hauled on Tuesday morning (after Labor Day) and
the transmission was taken out of the boat for delivery
to the transmission shop in Tolchester Marina.



The boat was hauled out of the water (in what they call a "short haul") to remove the transmission for repair.  Because of a stubborn shaft coupling, it took most of the morning to get the transmission out of the boat.  While the boat was "short hauled", the mechanic removed the propeller shaft too.  (For our readers with a C&C Landfall 38 like ours, the shaft can only be removed from the inside of the boat.  The rudder is too close for removal from the outside.). This is the first time the boat's propeller shaft was removed in its lifetime.

We took the transmission (in our car) to Tolchester Marina on the eastern shore of the Chesapeake--they have a transmission shop and they had another V-drive transmission apart in their shop, waiting for parts.  It was an interesting drive (about 1-1/2 hours each way) with both our cats with us.  Of course, one cat, Captain Jack, hates the car and wants to get out at his first opportunity and the other cat, Lizzie, loves the adventure and wants to watch everything from the front passenger seat.

So, we really have no idea at this time what caused the premature failure of the transmission seal, only a rough idea when it occurred (within the last 30 days).

On Friday afternoon we drove to Tolchester Marina and picked up our repaired transmission.  (A file was made for warranty coverage from ZF transmissions, but being that they are located in Fort Lauderdale, it may be a while before we hear anything.)  The guy who worked on the transmission didn't see anything unusual when he replaced the seals and conformed that alignment within +/-  0.005 inches was the minimum acceptable misalignment (but they always strive for +/-  0.003 inches.

Of course, the repaired transmission can't be installed until Monday morning when the boatyard opens--so, we will be here in Galesville another weekend.  Galesville is not a bad place to be stuck.


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Over the holiday weekend and through this week, we worked on our carpet project--yes, it is a new project that we didn't plan on doing.  We're doing it to protect the newly refinished floors.


This is a trial fit up of the aft carpet section.  This image 
was taken before the edging was sewed on and 
before the rubber backing was applied.


The carpet we selected is about 1/8 to 3/16-inch thick and the color is sandstone beige.  We started out this project by making paper templates for each of the three carpets.  We taped the templates to the carpet material and cutout the individual carpets. 



Maggie sewed edging on each of the carpet pieces.  She made the
1-1/2-inch wide strips of edging from toast-colored Sunbrella
that we had in stock by cutting.  They are cut on a bias
for ease of sewing around the corners of the carpet. 



The three major pieces of carpet are shown here
with the rubber coating applied to the back
(or underside) of the carpet.



We used 7 cans of the Rust-Oleum LeakSeal flexible
rubber coating on the underside of the carpet
sections.  The rubber coating costs
as much as the carpeting.




The completed carpets look great and the rubber
backing keeps them in place very nicely.


The new carpets, despite the light color, make the boat a little darker and a little quieter. They also give the boat a more finished look (and they feel nice on our bare feet).


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I will make another blogpost (probably on Monday or Tuesday) just before we leave Galesville.  Hurricane Irma is not the issue with our timing but rain is expected on Tuesday and Wednesday.

I've had my doubts about our ability to sustain our cruising (liveaboard) lifestyle with all the expenses we have incurred this past year.  But when I think back on all the experiences we had in the Bahamas, it has been worthwhile for sure and I'm going to do everything I can to keep this lifestyle going...


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