When I had Rhapsody hauled out for the
initial survey,
George Jarvey recommended that I have the propeller shaft
replaced due to pitting. He also suggested that several
thru-hulls and the "water-chest" be replaced as they were old
and corroded. He also pointed out some corrosion on one of the
keel bolts and said they should be cleaned and painted
and inspected more closely.
So I called
Shelter Island Boatyard,
and talked to the owner, Bill, to schedule the work.
He told me that the boat yard would only haul the boat and do the bottom
painting and act as the general contractor. He recommended
Western Yacht Commissioning
to do most of the real work. He also recommended
Ocean View Yacht Repair to do the finish work,
to wax-and-buff the topsides and bleach the teak decks.
So I took his advice and gave them a call.
In the process, I was very fortunate to meet John Krase from Western
Yacht Commissioning. Not only did he do most of the planning,
logistics and actual work on the refit, but he also served
as an advisor and friend thru the process, helping me learn
about everything from adhesives to plumbing and rigging.
A boat's a complicated beast, and it's good to know people like this.
So, if you're ever in San Diego and need work done on your boat,
I highly recommend you call
John or Dave at
Western Yacht Commisioning on Shelter Island, at (619) 224-1474.
The boat was hauled (for the 2nd time now), on April 23, 2007.
My expectation was that the boat would be out of the water for
a week. It ended up taking nearly 3 weeks (mostly for the
propeller), but everyone at the boatyard,
especially the owner, Bill, and the yard manager, Wayne, were
very very nice about doing everything possible to minimize my
costs. When it turned out that the propeller would take
several weeks to get done, they even put the boat back in the water
and let me stay at their docks rather than pay the hefty
$150/day for keeping the boat in the yard. They worked
around my needs, not vice-versa, and I was very pleased
to have chosen Shelter Island Boatyard in the first place.
John Krase from Western Yacht Commisioning, installing new shaft
The first thing John did was pull the old propeller and shaft so that it could be
measured. It was a 30mm shaft (metric), and, much to my dismay, would have to
be special ordered and take weeks to replace. After some discussions, based on
Bill and John's recommendations, we decided to replace the metric shaft with a
standard 1.5" U.S. shaft, which was more available, and would make
future work easier as well.
Of course, this means that we had to rework the bevel on the inside of the
Max-Prop folding propeller. After some more consideration, we decided to
also have the propeller factory-reconditioned, as the distributor would be the
best choice to rework the bevel, and they could also completely recondition
the propeller at the same time. So we shipped the propeller up to Seattle,
Washington, the day after the haulout, expecting it to be shipped back
within a week.
At the same time, we commissioned a machine shop in Wilmington, California
(a suburb of Los Angeles) to machine the new shaft. Even though it was stock material, it had to
be cut to length and the proper bevel put on it. So, also on the 2nd day,
the shaft itself was shipped (via truck) up to L.A.
We also replaced the old Volvo Shaft seal with a new PSS
dripless shaft seal, and of course put in a new cutlass
bearing and so on. John handled all the work of rounding
up parts, making sure they were compatible, and installing them.
By the following Monday (one week after the haulout), the new shaft
was in the boat, ready for the propeller.
As I mentioned, we needed to have the bevel modified on the
Max-Prop and so we shipped the prop up to the distributor in Seattle.
The prop was fairly worn and pitted, and I knew they would
polish it up as part of the reconditioning, but was not expecting
it to look like brand new when it came back.
Although the pictures may not capture it well, when we
finally got the prop (a week late, it should be mentioned),
it looked great! It was as shiny as a brass clock, and
looked like a brand new propeller.
1. the old prop with pitted shaft 2. new shaft in pieces awaiting assembly 3. Johnny Kyrios putting final touches on new prop
After the extra week's delay, John and Johnny from WYC put the
new prop on the new shaft. It's kind of technical and they
had to make sure that it was assembled and adjusted correctly.
Above, Johnny is putting the finishing touches on it by
injecting grease into the bearing.
As mentioned before, the surveyor recommended replacing
several thru-hulls and the water-chest (which can be
seen in a "before" picture on the next page). The old
valves were a variety of metals: some were brass, some
were stainless steel, and so on, but most were corroded.
So I decided rather than replacing them with more metal
that would corrode again in the future, that I would
replace them with all Marelon valves, which
would never corrode.
Once again, John rounded up the parts and did most,
if not all, of the work. In total, we (he) replaced the following
thru hulls and valves.
Replaced the "Water-Chest" with three new thru hulls and valves
Replaced the Main Engine Cooling thru hull and valve
Fiberglassed and epoxied over the old Water Chest hole
Replaced the Watermaker Input thru hull and valve
Replaced the Kitchen Sink Output thru hull and valve
Replaced the Port Head Waste Output thru hull and valve
Replaced the Starbord Head Waste Output thru hull and valve
Fiberglassed and epoxied over the unsued Master Head Waste Output
Fiberglassed and epoxied over the unused Crew Cabin Toilet Input
The photos don't show it very well (see next page for more), but there
was actually quite a bit of work done to get all the old thru hulls
and valves out and put the new ones in. Once again, John and WYC
did this work poste haste and to the highest standards of quality.
New FLS thru hull sensor
I also had John install the new FLS sensor. There was an existing,
unused and unhooked sonar sensor, and so we reused the hole, although
it had to be enlarged and moved slightly (with epoxy to make up the
difference). Then, finally, as we were about to wrap up the haulout,
at home one night, I discovered a sensor for the ST50
depth sounder in a pile of junk I had removed from the boat
early-on and decided I wanted it put on the boat. So I took it
down to the boat yard at the last minute, and, True to Form,
John had no objections about this last minute additional work.
Quicker than you can say "ST50 sonar depth sounder", he
had it installed on the boat.
After I had cleaned the compartment up, and particularly the bolt,
I asked John what he thought we should do. He said the odds were
that the bolt could not be taken out, as it would break in the process,
that it was a small bolt, and not really taking much of the load of the
keel, and that it wasn't completely deteriorated.
He recommended that we clean it with Phosphoric Acid and
then paint it with an epoxy based paint,
so that's what we (he) did.
Masthead Compartment, After
In the "after" picture, above, you can now see the bolt more clearly.
You can also see the new FLS sensor on the centerline.
When we hauled the boat out on Monday and sent the shaft off in one direction
(to L.A.), and the propeller in the other (to Seattle),
we thought they would be back within the week and Rhapsody would
be out of the yard by the weekend. But then the propller got hung up
in Seattle, and the boat got stuck in the yard. Then Bill, the owner
of the yard cut me a break and let me store the boat in the
water (at their docks), for an additional two weeks at a reduced rate.
Steve would stop by on his breaks to check out the boat, and was
ever encouraging and honestly interested when I would show him the
latest modifications to the plumbing. Or I might chat with John
on his break about his progress with one of the various boats that
he was working on. Or I might help with the lines for a boat
coming in (as we sometimes had to move Rhapsody and other
boats around to get boats in and out of the yard),
hustle on foot down to see Fred at
San Diego Marine Exchange
for some parts (nearly every day), or find myself chatting with
Wayne about the $10 million yacht that's been there for
2 years, has TWO full time architects AND an Italian interior designer
working on it. Wow! It was a very interesting environment, and there's a lot that
could be learned in such a place.
1. John Krase stepping a mast 2. John Kyrios, smiling
It strikes me very strongly that there are so many people working
so hard and putting so much effort into these boats. If you
multiply our feelings and the effort put into Rhapsody times the number
of boats and boat owners, the result staggers the mind.
So yes, Rhapsody got a bright shiny new wax job (Steve even
called me to tell me he saw it on break, and it looked great)
And the teak decks look wonderful, though I wish I had a nice
photo of them still wet right after they were cleaned. And
the bottom is coated with Interlux Anti-Fouling paint.
But, for me, the main thing about this set of "Improvements to Rhapsody"
was the people I got to meet and work with during the three
weeks I spent at the Shelter Island Boatyard.
