Well, I'm back to rec.boats after a long hiatus...Been busy.

So, the gods of boating finally evened the odds and I nailed a piece of wood
in the San Juan's (WA) on Father's Day weekend (June 19th). No hull damage
but drive damage. I was able to limp into a local harbor where the boat
was shored. It was determined the impact broke my upper pinion shaft and
caused bearing and gear damage. The insurance company decided to send the
drive out (Bravo 3) to be rebuilt rather than replace it. The drive was
then shipped back to the harbor, put back on the boat, aligned (supposedly)
and returned to the water. The whole process took about a month. (To long
in my opinion).

So I used the boat two weekends and noticed the drive seemed loud which I
reported to my claims guy. My drive fluid reservoir also went empty on the
second trip. I filled it and hoped that it was just a burp and settling.
So last weekend I used the boat and was planning on bringing it back down to
Seattle (about a 90 mile trip) but again my drive fluid reservoir went
empty. So I went back to the harbor and had the boat looked out. Turns out
a seal in the drive had gone and the fluid was leaking into the bellows.
The drive was again removed and shipped to the shop that had rebuilt it.
The shop claims that the seal went due to either engine misalignment or
something else putting pressure on the drive. So it appears that the
mechanics at the harbor either did not due an alignment or did it
incorrectly. I'm trying to get the insurance company to either send one of
the drive mechanics up to the island to reinstall/align the boat, or have
the boat transported down to them at the insurance company's expense. I do
not have a trailer and I don't trust the other shop in the harbor at this
point. It's been a few days and I'm still waiting for an answer from the
claims guy. I've been emailing the claims guy rather than phoning b/c I want
everything in writing as much as possible.

One of the guys at the drive shop also alluded to the fact that the
insurance company may not be responsible for the work done this second time
at the harbor (removal, shoring, drive removal, etc). So I'm a little
nervous that the insurance company may try and screw me on this. As far as
I'm concerned this whole mess is due to the original accident and the
insurance company's choice on how to deal with the repairs. I'm also
extremely concerned about further damage that may be cause to the drive
coupler from the engine misalignment. The drive coupler on the Bravo 3 is
very susceptible to damage when the engine is not properly aligned. That
repair requires pulling the engine and $2-3K to fix. So you can see my
concern. I would like to have an independent shop review the repairs when
this is all done but I'm guessing I don't have a leg to stand on in
compelling the insurance company to pay for it.

Any thought on this whole mess?

thanks in advance.