LORD’S PRAYER LOG, Part 239:
We catch up on our laundry and we pick up the weatherfax, which I reinstall and reprogram; this takes several hours. I set the weatherfax to the times listed in the 2002 Reed’s Nautical Almanac so that we might confirm the download schedules for Boston, Halifax and New Orleans. Once we have the schedules we can finish programming the fax for our next planned trip into Nova Scotia.
0635 We fire up the engine; again the solenoid must be jumped (13th time since “repair”).
0640 Lord’s Prayer is underway, bound for Boothbay Regional Boatyard. Chris is driving over in the mustang.
0715 I secure the boat alongside the bumper float by the Travel lift.
0745 Lord’s Prayer is lifted from the water
0800 Andy is our mechanic; he is preparing to remove the MaxProp propeller. I ask hem to shake the prop and check the Cutlass bearing. He does and immediately determines that it is in need of replacement. He removes the spurs to check the shaft; it is burned and may need replacement, as well. I think a lobster trap line that wrapped around the shaft last summer probably caused the burn damage. I had the Cutlass bearing inspected several months ago; it presumably was ok then; shaft damage was noted at the time but not considered enough of a problem to warrant changing it. A new shaft and a new Cutlass bearing will have to be ordered if they both need replacement. The Rudder will have to be dropped to pull the shaft. Ordinarily we would just block the boat on the hard at this point and leave her there until the job was done but we cannot do that, as the whole yard has just been resurfaced with asphalt; it needs at least another day to cure. Andy tells me he thinks our vibration problem is due to the worn and damaged cutlass bearing rather than the propeller.
0845 The yard puts the boat back into the water so that Andy can work on the starting problem. We discuss the details of what we have been experiencing with the starter and Andy decides after a brief check that the problem has to be in the starter motor itself. He goes off to see about ordering a replacement.
0925 The starter motor people want Andy to re-run all the checks he did previously. So we are going to do that.
1100 After considerable additional troubleshooting, Andy removes the starter motor to put it on the bench.
1330 The starter motor troubleshoots ok.
1400 Andy finds an in-line fuse holder in the start circuit that evidently has intermittent continuity; he cuts it out, replaces it and installs a new fuse.
1500 Andy starts and restarts the engine numerous times and it seems like the problem might be fixed; but eventually it fails to start. He finds an intermittent connection and repairs it but still the starter won’t respond. In fact it will not even start when the solenoid is jumped; we get plenty of sparks, but no response whatever from the starter.
1515 Chris asks Andy what he thinks the timeframe might be to have all these problems resolved. He tells us we should expect to be hauled and blocked in the morning; we will be out of the water over the weekend and maybe have things in repair and back in operation by mid or late week next week.
1530 Chris takes the Mustang to see if she can find a place to make a hair appointment.
1545 Andy calls it a day, cleans up his tools and heads for home. His wife is a nurse; she works 7 pm – 7 am shift. He needs to be home in plenty of time to look after their 2 boys, ages 6 & 9.
0500 In thinking about Andy’s remark that our vibration problem is most likely due to the problem with the cutlass bearing rather than the propeller, I decide to not change the propeller; but I am going to need to talk to PYI, which makes the MaxProp because I am uncertain of the setting I should use for this propeller; in fact, I am all but convinced after trying every logical pitch setting that the MaxProp I have on the boat is too big for the engine.
0615 I attempt to start the engine; it starts normally. I shut it down and try a second time; again it starts normally.
0730 The only weatherfax schedule that we have successfully downloaded is the schedule out of Boston; I set the fax to continuous download from Halifax to see what we can get
0800 We shut the engine down and attempt to restart it; it will not restart. Andy makes the pronouncement that the problem has got to be in the starter and that all the other mechanics here that have been consulting on the problem now also think the problem is probably in the starter motor. Since we have thoroughly checked out every other part of the system, we make the decision to order a new starter motor.
0900 The yard hauls Lord’s Prayer out of the water and positions her near the heads and showers; I find us a ladder so we can get on and off the boat. Our position: 43 49.764 N 69 40.588 W.
1000 Andy starts work removing the propeller. Once it is off he uncouples the shaft at the engine so it can be slipped aft. When it slides back we initially think we will be able to save the shaft. But it does not clean up.
1100 Andy begins disconnecting the rudder. This requires removing the lower gudgeon; the gudgeon is a large bronze casting that stabilizes the bottom of the rudder. When the gudgeon comes off, we discover that it is cracked. It will need to go out for repair.
1300 Andy lowers the rudder. With the rudder removed from the boat, he is then able to fully withdraw the propeller shaft.
1330 I get on the phone with PYI; I am armed with all the pertinent details about our engine including the rated HP (30 HP at 3200 rpm – continuous, 34 HP at 3400 rpm – for one hour - a speed I have never seen), the gear ratio of the transmission (2.14 ahead, 2.5 astern), and the history and operating performance of the boat with the propeller set at 4 different pitch settings over the past 3 years. The operating problems included things such as the engine making black smoke when the pitch was set too high, poor boatspeed performance whenever the engine is pushing the boat upwind at any pitch settings in high (20+ kt) headwind conditions, plus more black smoke, and very poor boatspeed under power at the lower pitch settings. The feathering MaxProp, in fact, has never performed as well in forward gear at any of the pitch settings as the original fixed pitch propeller – a 17” x 11 USTRAL. Initially the conversation with PYI goes pretty much the same as it has gone on other occasions when I have tried to discuss the propeller performance with them. PYI notes initially that our 17” propeller is the standard propeller prescribed for the Crealock 34. After further conversation, however, we establish the fact that Pacific Seacraft is currently putting a larger engine into the Crealock 34 sailboats than it did when Lord’s Prayer was built in 1990. The engine currently going into the new boats is the Yanmar 3JH2E, which is reportedly a 36 hp engine. The 17” Maxprop presumably is the correct prop for that engine in that boat. The engine in Lord’s Prayer, however, is the Yanmar 3HM35F – a 30 HP engine that is now out of production at Yanmar. Further digging on the other end of the phone results in the revelation that the 3HM35F engine should actually have a 15” propeller. This information sort of confirms my gut feel on the subject. PYI proposes that I ship them the prop, they re-cut the blade to 15”, and return it; they will put it on “rush” so that Lord’s Prayer can go back into the water by the end of next week. We put the wheels in motion here at the boatyard to get the MaxProp shipped.
In reflecting on my MaxProp saga, think I may understand how it perhaps came to pass that I have the wrong prop on the boat: 1) the old prop was a fixed pitch, 17” x 11 3-blade propeller with narrow blades, 2) the standard prop for new Crealock 34’s with 36 hp motors is the 3-blade 17” MaxProp but with fat blades, and 3) the designation of my engine – 3HM35F – seems to suggest that this 30 HP engine is a 35; if it were a 35, this would seem close enough to the 36 HP 3JH2E that the difference should not matter. Perhaps these factors taken together somehow contributed to the confusion that resulted in my receiving the wrong propeller 3 years ago. In any case, I am really pleased (delighted in fact) to think that we may FINALLY have solved a problem that has plagued me since the MaxProp went onto the boat. I do like the MaxProp a lot; it would not have remained on the boat this long if I didn’t.
The Boothbay Region Boatyard has really nice facilities; everything is in good condition. The heads, showers and laundry facilities here are the cleanest and nicest I have ever seen at a marine facility. If one had to choose a place to be broken down and stuck on the hard, I cannot imagine a place that would be any better.
0700 After running the weatherfax for about 24 hours, downloading the Halifax data, we have a complete picture of what to expect from that weather source; the quality of the downloads is the best I can remember ever receiving over a 24 hour period. We will use these data in conjunction with the Halifax and the Boston schedules to plan our download schedule when going into Nova Scotia later in the month. We shut the fax down for now.
0830 I close the communications loop with Matt Sledge, the yard foreman (Andy is off today), to be sure that the MaxProp is going to be overnight shipped today and that each of the other maintenance actions on the boat that need to happen today are going to occur. The propeller shaft is already out for replacement; we are going to put a Drive-Saver” (a shock-absorption devise) between the coupler and the engine to protect the transmission in the future (This is something Tom Babbitt in Camden suggested to me); as a consequence, the new shaft will be slightly shorter than the old one. The Gudgeon is going out today to be repaired. And a new starter motor with solenoid piggy-backed on it is on order.
1045 I rig a power-line that I borrowed from Bob & Dawn to bring A/C power to the boat; with it we can run the computers, phone chargers, razor chargers, etc, without drawing down the battery with this stuff. Our shore-power battery charger is inoperative, so we are trying to be conservative with the use of the battery power, since we cannot start the engine to recharge the batteries. The solar panels and wind generators will restore what we do use from the batteries as long as we are conservative; the batteries are providing the power for the refrigerator, TV, radio & lights. I have also borrowed a battery charger from Bob & Dawn, but it is an automotive unit that does not charge as fast as the solar panels do alone; added to that, it does not achieve a voltage adequate to provide any additional help to the solar panels. So we abandon further attempt to use that charger.
1130 I remove and disassemble our shore-power charger. I find that it has suffered corrosion damage. I clean it up as best I can and I check the several internal fuses. They all appear ok. I reassemble and test the charger; it fails the test. At this point, any further repair effort is beyond my capability. We consider taking it to a shop to have it repaired but it would not be back in time to be used while we are on the hard. Since it has been damaged once by corrosion it is unlikely to be reliable in the future, so we decide to replace it with a new unit. But we will place the new unit in another location where it will be better protected from moisture and salt and we will do this back in Cambridge.
1315 My Daughter Jodie, her husband Geoff, and their 15 month old son Grady arrive for the weekend. We visit, catch up and then go to lunch together at Robinson’s Wharf. Later we all go over to Bob & Dawn’s where we are going to have sort of a mini family reunion.
1800 My brother Dave, his wife Jennine and their daughter Brittany (11) arrive from California. After catching up a little we take a walk together around the point. After dinner my son Jon, his wife Meegan and their daughter Olivia (10 months) arrive; we have wonderful reunions. Afterward we are we are all hanging around in the kitchen gabbing when my grandson Grady takes his first steps; he walks for the first time. His mother, Jodie counts ten steps. Grady did this at a moment so that everyone of us there was witness to the event. When Grady sat down after his 10-step walk, we all cheered and clapped. He looked quickly about appearing somewhat startled by the outbreak of applause. The look on his face suggested puzzlement that he had missed something.
1300 We all take a hike on Indiantown Island. Bob & Dawn’s oldest son Eric and his friend Christine join us on the hike.
1630 We launch “the punt”, a rowboat that our dad built in 1965. We all take a turn rowing it. Dave and Brittany do a lot of rowing in it. This is a wonderful learning experience for Brittany. It is wonderful to see the punt back in the water.
1730 We pick up some cooked lobsters, clams & mussels at Robinson’s Wharf and have a Maine style lobster-bake type dinner outdoors at Bob & Dawn’s home.
1100 Jodie, Geoff & Grady depart for the airport at Manchester, as they must be back at work tomorrow in Maryland.
1300 We take the three boats at Bob & Dawn’s (the punt, the Boston Whaler, and Atricilla, a J-22 sailboat) and all go over to Powder Horn Island for a picnic. Brittany picks a napkin full of wild raspberries, which are delicious. It is a perfectly beautiful day; it is hard to imagine a more perfect time that we all have together!
1800 Eric & Christine depart to return to Hanover, NH.
0950 Dave, Jennine & Brittany arrive at the boatyard for a tour of Lord’s Prayer and then they strike out in their car to visit Plymouth Village before proceeding on to Cape Cod and eventually back home to California.
1000 Jon, Meegan & Olivia arrive at the boatyard before departing for the Manchester Airport. They depart in their car and Chris and I in the Mustang; we all go to Bath where we visit the Maine Maritime Museum. Perhaps the highlight of our museum tour is the opportunity to go aboard Sherman Zwicker, a Grand Banks Fishing Schooner built in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia and launched in 1942. The Zwicker is 142’ long on deck, 26.9’ in beam and weighs 81 tons. She is powered with a 320 hp 8-cylinder Fairbanks-Morse Diesel engine. All of her equipment is still in operating condition. Built in the same yard as the famous Bluenose, the Zwicker represents the last version of the North American Grand Banks Fishing Schooner. Her diesel engine was used for propulsion; her sails actually were not. They were used only to steady her in rough seas. Out on the banks (shallow places in the ocean, on the continental shelf), her twelve dories would be put over the side, two fishermen in each, to fish for cod and other species with trawl lines.