A trip to the machine shop at Grand Falls
The housing for the cutlass bearing was removed but the bearing itself was completely stuck and so it was sent off to Grand Falls to be pressed out and the new one pressed in. Today we drove the 200km round trip in the hope that it would be ready to collect only to be greeted by those spine chilling words, ‘we have a problem with the housing. It is oval and it should be round!’
Then the lovely Jim Flynn demonstrated how the round housing was now 0.3mm out of true. That didn’t sound much to me but it was sufficient to deform the bearing and solidly lock up the prop shaft. Clever fellows these engineers who work to such fine tolerances.
I know we have a sail boat but we do need a working engine and the bent bit of kit is essential for letting the prop spin and for keeping the water out. The bent bit is made in Norway and my mind went racing off on air freight tangents. But genius Jim Flynn wanted to try and bend it back using a vice and a pair of callipers.
It was like watching a delicate bit of neurosurgery knowing that if he squashed the whole thing we would probably be hanging around for a replacement for a few weeks.
Of course, he squashed the oval back into a perfect circle with a few deft stokes of the vice handle. He then polished out the interior and the new bearing slid snugly in. What is more the shaft turned too.
Tomorrow we will refit the bearing, the housing and the prop and then we should be good to launch on Saturday if the wind, tide and marina guys permit.
A million thanks to the genius that is Jim Flynn. What squashed the circle in the first place remains a mystery.