"Capt. JG" wrote:

"Jere Lull" wrote in message
news:2008062622045443658-jerelull@maccom...
On 2008-06-26 15:19:04 -0400, Rosalie B. said:

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..

I did wonder whether the barnacles might have unbalanced the prop or
something. It was so hot that I retreated to the ladies room (which
was A/C) while they were washing the boat and bringing it up the hill
to the yard.

Bob would rather have been down by the haul slip, but there are three
or four trawlers there taking all the space. They are from the yacht
club which is across the creek and doesn't have a lift. One of them
said that they tried to get the trawlers up into the yard (where he
would have preferred to be), but the travel lift couldn't get up the
hill with the trawlers because they were too heavy. But the trawlers
weigh 10,000 lbs less than our boat and I know that they've taken our
boat up that hill at least 6 times, Hearing that they hadn't been
able to make it made me too nervous to watch.

If it feels loose, it is.

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.

Hmmm. Sounds like there was an error in installation. Ah well, live and
learn.

I'm not sure what the exact sequence was, but Bob said that when we
bought the boat, the surveyor (Peter Hartoff) showed Bob that the
cutlass bearing needed to be replaced the next time we hauled. This
was in May 1998. When we sailed that summer, we saw that the fixed
prop kept rotating and made the boat under sail sound like a freeway.
So in the fall of that year, we hauled the boat to put on a MaxProp
and replace the cutlass bearing. At that time, we found that the
shaft was deeply scored, so we replaced the shaft too.

When we went down the ICW for the first time in the fall of 2000, our
throttle cable broke when we were in an anchorage south of Charleston.
We went into a marina on Dataw Island (it was the closest one), and
got a new throttle cable, and also paid to have the shaft aligned
because evidently Bob thought it needed it. I do not know at what
point Bob put the spacer in.

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)

I was given the impression that the old (70s) cutlass bearings lasted a
decade easily. The new ones are supposedly better. If they wear faster
than that, I'd look to other causes, misalignment first, bent shaft, then
prop balance. That doesn't seem to be your problem, though.

--
Jere Lull
Xan-à-Deux -- Tanzer 28 #4 out of Tolchester, MD
Xan's pages: http://web.mac.com/jerelull/iWeb/Xan/
Our BVI trips & tips: http://homepage.mac.com/jerelull/BVI/

I agree.. I've seen boats that have gone 5+ years without having to replace
it. Something else is wrong if you have to replace it every year.

They don't HAVE to replace it, at least that's not what they said -
they said they do it as a precaution.