A Very Honest Marine Engineer

After we had cleaned up BV's underside Nicky spotted what
looked like small bubbles in our anti-fouling.  It tured out that they occurred where there were small traces of the previous red anti-fouling paint.  When we had the Coppercoat applied a few years ago, we had the hull slurry blasted to remove all of the old anti-fouling paint so that the Coppercoat would adhere to the hull correctly.  It would seem that the quality control of the slurry blasting was not as diligent around the waterline as it was elsewhere on the hull.  Therefore, Wednesday started early for me as I needed to open up all of the little blisters, clean off the traces of the red anti-fouling and then fill the holes with an epoxy resin suitable for use under the waterline, prior to starting the myriad of other jobs on the list.

By the time I had finished BV looked as though she had a bad case of the measles!  This was an extra job we had not expected.  Maybe the small blisters could have been left but we felt is was better to get it all sorted out whilst we could for peace of mind.

The rest of the work on Wednesday went very well.  What follows is a bit of a list but I was pleased to be able to managed to tackle so many of the planned jobs.  The new cap and intermediate shrouds were cut to length and the spreader end caps clamped into position.  I fitted a new VHF radio aerial and ran a new length of coaxial to the mast head.  I had expected that to be an awkward job but was able to pull the old coaxial cable through with a thin length of mousing line.  This was then used to pull through the new wire and I left the line in place to make life easier if we ever have to run another wire up the cable duct inside the mast in the future.  I also fitted a new aerial for AIS.  We don't have that transponder system onboard yet but knowing the callsigns, headings and speeds of all the big ships in your area and letting them have the same details about your yacht seems to be a good idea, so the aerial was fitted whilst it was relatively easy to do so.  I had originally wanted to fit the aerial to the top spreader but there was no easy way of getting the cable there.  The masthead was not suitable because of the likelihood of interference with the VHF radio aerial.  The new AIS aerial therefore went on top of the radome.  I also ran a cable for a high power speaker which will be bolted underneath the radome.  Despite Nicky's jesting, this is not so that I can use it as a megaphone to bark orders at any poor crew on the foredeck; it is so that we can take advantage of the foghorn facility on our VHF radio.  We currently have an air-horn to make fog signals but the system using the radio and the speaker will be much better as the radio will keep sounding the correct signal at the right interval leaving us free to look-out and work the boat.

The final bit of news from Wednesday concerned our plan to change the cutlass bearings.  This was always going to be a precautionary job to try save us from having to change the bearings in an awkward location.  I had arranged for a Marine Engineer to do the work and he turned up promptly.  After spending an hour looking over our engine and drive chain he proclaimed that it was all beautifully engineered, there was no appreciable wear on our cutlass bearings and that he didn't want to disturb the system.  This prompted a lot of discussion; I had believed cutlass bearings to be wearing parts and therefore to have a lifespan but I knew not what that lifespan would be.  The engineer confirmed that though cutlass bearings are wearing parts, their lifespan is very unpredictable.  He changes the cutlass bearing on one yacht nearly every year but on other boats the bearings can last the life of the yacht.  Our driveshaft has a cutlass bearing at each end so the shaft is fully supported.  Additionally, our the cutlass bearings are fed pressurised water to provide excellent lubrication.  Finally, the thrust from the propeller is transmitted though a bulkhead fitting rather than through the engine mounts as it is on many yachts.  Adding all of those factors together means that the set-up on our yacht incurs very little in the way of lateral forces on the driveshaft that would prompt wear on the cutlass bearings.

So the decision was made not to disturb the drive chain as all was working well.  Not only did that save us several hundred pounds for a fairly lengthy job, it was also very reassuring to get a professional's view on our set-up.  He did recommend that we carefully de-coke, and probably change, the exhaust elbow at the back of the engine because if that starts to fail then the cylinder head can be damaged (very expensive to fix).  Job added to the list!  The Marine Engineer wouldn't even bill us for nearly two hours of his time; he said it was just a pleasure to see such a beautifully engineered set-up and he preferred to take money off people for fixing broken things.  What an honest chap, and well done Rustler Yachts for making everything as it should be and not cutting corners!