Winter Work (Part 3)

With the tent cleared away and the painting finished, the New Year brought the opportunity for some other work below the water-line. We’d noticed that the propshaft cutlass bearing was showing signs of wear when we had hauled out BV and so asked for that to be looked at over the winter. January’s task for the guys looking after BV was therfore to remove the propeller and propshaft so that this bearing could be replaced.

The new cutlass bearing in position minus the driveshaft and propeller 

I would have loved to have seen how the engineer did this job because removing the propshaft on a Rustler 42 looks to be a trick task. From what we have judged there is not enough space between the cutlass bearing and the skeg to remove the shaft in the conventional way by pulling it out of the boat. I think that the engineer had to disconnect the driveshaft and the CV joint at the back of the gearbox and then draw the shaft in towards the engine to get it out.

The polished propeller and propshaft back in position

However he did it, the engineer worked out the ‘Rustler jigsaw’ and, having removed the propshaft, arranged for that and the propeller to be descaled and polished. With new sacrificial anodes fitted to the prop everything was put back together, greased and covered to protect them from the dust until it was time to relaunch.

Marmaris, Turkey