"Wilbur Hubbard" wrote:

"Rosalie B." wrote in message
.. .
Jere Lull wrote:

On 2008-06-22 13:43:44 -0400, Rosalie B. said:

Bob thinks cutlass bearing deteriorating and letting the prop shaft
vibrate. It is about 9 years old.

Oh, just a youngster ;-) We got a new one 15 years ago and it's still
tight -- a check I do each spring just before I change the zincs.

I'm still leaning towards something on the prop. As I read your
account, it sounded like what I hear and feel when the prop cavitates
when we try to punch through waves and get stopped dead in our tracks,
but you didn't have appreciable wind or waves, and you're less at the
mercy of such with your heft.

Keep us up to date, as I'm curious what the cause is.

We pulled the boat yesterday and Bob said the cutlass bearing was
extremely loose and he is pretty sure that was the problem. He said
it was vibrating again on the way over to the haul slip, and there was
nothing on the prop except some barnacles..

He had put a vibration damper spacer in and he thinks he didn't get
the cutlass bearing far enough back to account for that.

However, someone has just emailed me and explained that they change
the cutlass bearing every time they haul the boat as a precaution.
(They only haul about every two years)


Thanks for the update but . . .

It makes me feel somewhat sad that two wonderful folks like you and your
husband have so many problems with your boat. But, I guess it's to be
expected when one opts for a so-called sailboat that is really a motor
boat/home with sails. I hope as you two get older you decide to downsize and

How much older should we get g?? I'm 70 and Bob is 72.

sell the motorboat with all its attendant problems and get yourselves into a
real sailboat.

I would recommend something in the 27-foot range for that is the perfect

I would have said a smaller boat myself - either a CSY 33 or 37. But
that's not what Bob wanted, and the love of a specific boat isn't
rational.

size for two older folks who don't live aboard but still enjoy sailing. A
27-footer can be fitted with a nice, modern, 4-stroke, outboard engine on
the transom. It can be tilted out of the water when sailing so it causes no
drag. You can, consequently, actually enjoy sailing for the first time in a
long time.

I find both sailing and fishing a little bit boring. I go with Bob
because I think he wants me to go, and I think he needs me to go. I
would be just as happy at home. BUT - if I go sailing, I want a boat
that is comfortable to live on, not just someplace to camp out on the
water.

I know a lot of former sail boat people go to trawlers, but while I
think he may eventually decide on his own to sell the boat, he's not
to that place yet, and I doubt VERY much if he will go to a trawler.

Your entire past month's sailing reports have been marred and disrupted by
the mechanical problem of a worn cutlass bearing - or so it is thought.

I wouldn't have said that the sailing was marred and disrupted. I had
a good time. And it certainly wasn't a month - we sailed out one day
and sailed back the next day.

What
if that isn't it and the same noise appears again when you splash? Another
month of wondering if and when a noise will turn into a disaster? How can
anyone enjoy sailing with something like that hanging over their heads like
the sword of Damocles'?

And I can't help noticing how you two tend to sail on a somewhat fixed
schedule and seem comfortable with that. Sorry, but that's not sailing -
it's motor boating.

It's not that fixed a schedule - it is only that if we don't go to a
marina, one of us has to cook, and that's not going to be me. So I
try to plan so that we can go somewhere that Bob doesn't mind going
and I would like to see and where we can pull in and go to a
restaurant for dinner. A plan is not the same as a schedule.

You can't get a rise out of me by called our boat a motor sailer or
saying that we are motor boating, because I don't really care which it
is.

You two fine folks really DO need to discover (or
possibly revisit) what pure sailing is all about. The only way to do that is
to have a boat that is a pure sailer. Any time an outboard motor is tilted
out of the water while you are under sail you are a pure sailor.

I don't like outboards (we have two), and I've never claimed to be a
sailor - pure or any other kind.

That's
something to be proud of and to enjoy thoroughly knowing so few others these
days are able to accomplish the act of pure sailing. You will spend your
hours not worrying about mechanical breakdowns but enjoying the quiet, the
freedom from worry, the clean wind in your hair and the beauty of an almost
forgotten art - that of pure sailing.

Wishing you and yours the best and long life and sailing forever.

Wilbur Hubbard