That Maxi Prop is a MARVEL

I took the Maxi Prop home to work on it. It looked pretty bad with years of different bottom paints and coatings on it. The fasteners had been abused but I was able to get it apart. I then tried just a bench mount wire brush but it only polished the bottom paint. I then used a small orbital finish sander and 100 grit sandpaper and removed the paint. I then dressed it with the wire brush to give a burnished look.

Look at 2 blades -- Before and after:


I processed all the other painted part and it all looked very good afterwards.

Look at the collection of parts awaiting reassembly:


Now I just need to wait for the replacement fasteners. The PYI Web site has a screw kit with all the fasteners and cotter pins used in the prop. I ordered the set.

That is all the work to be done here at home. Need to wait for the weekend and tackle the prop shaft again. I have the longish fasteners I'll need to press it out with.

Bruised, Sore, and Gouged!

Sunday was not a great day working on the boat but a necessary day.

After reviewing the steering and pondering the rudder it appears that the stiffness may be due to an interference between the rudder cutout and the skag that supports it. I hope this can be adjusted via the 4 bolts around the main top bearing or maybe drop the rudder an eigth inch.

I then looked over the prop shaft packing. Hmmm that prop shaft log is original and needs to be replaced. Well I had to undue the packing nuts first. Ohhhh somebody had no idea what tight is. It does NOT NEED to be that tight!! I had to use two bare feet to hold a pipe wrench on the locking collar and my very large Channel locks and both arms on the packing nut. It took both legs and my back to break that damn thing loose. But loose it came..

Now I have to remove the prop shaft from the engine coupling collar. I undid the locking bolts on the shaft and tried to pull -- uhhh no affect. I then tried pulling the prop shaft from outside -- no movement, then I put a nut on the prop shaft and tried to beat it out -- again LOSER!! I was going to have to remove the coupler from its mate. Now these are held together by 4 - 3/8" bolts which should have been torqued to 40 ft lbs. Well after numerous slips of the wrenches and gouging skin on cable ties and bruise knuckles and other body parts on anything else I had to resort to banging on a wrench handle with a hammer!! That put the torque used to tighten these babies in the 100 lb range -- just pure amateur inexperience!!

I got them apart but still could not remove the prop shaft. I will have to press the shaft out by alternately tightening the 2 couplers together with a socket between them -- a very slow painstaking process but effective.

After lunch I started to look seriously at removing the head seacocks. Ohh it does not look good. These Seacocks are the large flange style and bedded in 5200. I put a monkeywrench on one but moved nothing. I think I'll leave this job for the Marina. Not just because of the difficulty but if I do it and it leaks, then I'm looking at another $420 for a round trip to pull the boat out, repair, and relunch. Let's call this insurance.

I was tired, sore, cut, bruised, and a bit disheartened by now so I called it a day a little after 2pm. I needd to recharge before continuing.

HAULOUT 2008

Ohhh it's that time of year. Well actually no time is a good time to haul out.

I need to take care of a few things before the BIG cruise. We need to address the stiff steering, both head seacocks are stuck and need to be replaced, and we want to redo the dinghy davits -- hate the current arrangement. I'll also have the voids in the rudder found during the survey repaired, and I will clean and wax the boat, make serviceable all head y-valves, repack the prop shaft stuffing box and replace the prop shaft log. Time to completely disassemble the Maxi-Prop and lube it up good!!

I took the boat over to the Old Minnesott Beach Marina now called Wayfarers Cove. It was the first time into their channel too. Good thing Mark and Steve told me I could make it because damn -- it is narrow at the end of the channel -- maybe a good foot on each side of the boat.

No one to help so I had to single hand that big ol 42 in there myself. They put me a T-dock temporarily while they launched another boat and then let me back in that big ol 42. It took several iterations but I did it without bumping anything.
That Maxi Prop does have a little walk to port when in reverse.

The haul out went smooth but was HOT!! They put me in a spot next to the Haul out slip. Not bad but far from the showers.

There she is all blocked up -- top of page.

Ralph from Luna C came over mid afternoon to give me a ride back to Matthews Point to pick up my truck. After getting the boat settled and AC on we had a beer and relaxed then I took him to dinner at Gary's DownEast in his truck. Nice dinner then we took the Ferry over to Mathews Point.

I was worried the truck would be hard to start but it fired right up --Yippee for small things. Then back to the Ferry Crossing to wait the next ferry.

Now back on the Minnesott side it was DARK. Not a problem but it has been years since I drove back to the Minnesott marina. Oh boy a few wrong turns and it was 20 minutes before I found the Marina -- I was getting just a little worried.

A couple of Rum Swizzles and then off to bed but first rehashed my backing the Big ol,42 into the haul out slip -- I felt pretty good about that.



Saturday Morning I then surveyed what I was going to work on.

The bottom was not bad. Just barnacles around the lower parts of the keel and rudder where it would lie in the mud on those very low water days at the Marina.

The prop was foul with old paint and crap and a few barnacles. Here is the before shot:


What a job it was to remove that prop. All the fasteners were covered with old paint and barnacle leavings so it took awhile to find them. Then over the years they had been abused by sanding and ill fitting tools so it took some finessing to get it apart but I did. Packed it up to take home and clean it up right!!

I then washed the sides and removed all the Neuse Juice stains with Wood Bleach -- nearly pure Oxalyic Acid. Wow she is white now.

It was getting hot so retired inside of the AC courtesy of Jim and Barb's window unit and disassembled the steering quadrature and cables. I also opened the packing nut. Not too bad today since Jim and worked as a team last weekend to get it open -- damn it was tight -- too tight!!

The packing was there and not too deteriorated but very stiff. I thought the stiffness was due to this but not entirely. Still some there.

That was a days work. Mark came by late afternoon and I took him on a tour of Temptation and he took me to dinner in Oriental -- the Toucan Lounge. It was okay.

Back on the boat later on I just relaxed and read and then went to bed early -- 9pm.

All in all a pretty good start on the boat.