We leave Paradise Village Marina and anchor for the night off of La Cruz. On the way out we have no power, the engines are smoking black and boat speed is limited to 3 knots. Props? I don’t swim in marinas, which can be pretty gross and may even sport the occasional crocodile; plus, being a cheapskate, I didn’t have the bottom cleaned since we were going to the yard for that service.
We anchor outside the mouth and I dive in to scrape a thick layer of calciferous creatures off of my propeller. Boat speed increases to 7.5 and engines stop smoking. Another cruising lesson learned.
Prop looked like the drive leg
Day One
We motor into the yard and they pick us up right on time. The boat glides into the way with a couple of feet between the boat and the cement walls. We spend the morning supervising the blocking of the boat. Footloose has a cored hull so taking the pressure unevenly on the supports can cause delamination.
Peter Vargas at the yard shows us the trick of using pieces of foam boogie board to spread the load from the blocking. We have two jobs to take care of in the boat yard. 1) bottom paint, which the Peter Vargas crew will handle. 2) my job- is to replace the sail drive hull seals. I’m nervous, thinking about it.
We check into our hotel, the La Cruz inn, take a swim and enjoy a Paloma by the pool.
Day Two
The yard guys are sanding the bottom and I begin the work of removing first our propellers and then output shafts from the sail drives.
Next, I remove the starboard sail drive from the boat, a Volvo 130S. I have been worrying about this step. The instructions include the direction to slide the engine forward 30 mm. They tell you to support the front of the sail drive with a 12 mm rod, but after spending a lot of time looking for that, I learn that a 12mm is actually too big and the hulls are too narrow to allow sliding the rod in anyway.
Wedge to Position Sail Drive
The Catana group on Yahoo enlightens me. One of the members emails me a word document that describes using a piece of 2×4 fitted between the drive and the hull opening to keep the drive in position. I modify the procedure making a wedge that gives me the ability to adjust the input shaft angles slightly as needed.
I create a short fall with two triple blocks that came with the boat and a length of dyneema I had on hand. I am able to lift the motor slightly and after disconnecting the motor mounts, I am able to separate the sail drive from the engine with one gentle kick on the bell housing. At about 50 lbs I am able to lift the transmission assembly out of the engine room and drop it over the transom with the help of a line. This won’t be so bad after all.
Both propeller shafts are scored from the lip seals, so Peter Vargas drives me down to Torno Neptuno in Puerto Vallarta and we plan to have the grooves welded up, then lathed to specification. I am a little worried about the welding taking the shaft out of true, but they assure me that they apply the weld in small lengths on opposing sides of the shaft. The answer I wanted to hear.
Scored Shafts
Back to the pool and another Paloma.
The Inn has a restaurant and Lupita our waitress befriends us and patiently helps us to learn a little more Spanish… Gotta figure out the verbs.
Day Three
We are removing the drives because we want to replace the rubber seal that goes between the hull and the sail drive. If this fails, your engine room fills with water… not good. Volvo recommends replacement every 7 years. I think the port side is original with the boat (20 years). The metal retaining ring is oozing rust, so the time has definitely come.
To change the hull seal, we need to separate the transmission from the lower portion of the sail drive. In the middle, there are a series of shims that you need to keep track of. These limit the endplay of the vertical shaft in the sail drive. I separate the two pieces and am moving things around when Peter comes over to talk about something. I look down and there are 2 shims lying on the ground. Argh.. I pick them up and with two more shims and a spacer, I put them safely in a plastic bag and into the tub with the rest of the parts from that side of the boat, and then double check that there are no more shims that may have rolled a distance.
The sail drive is aluminum and needs special anti-fouling treatment, so a guy from the yard takes the drive leg along with the parts tub over to the shop to carefully prepare for the new specialized aluminum bottom paint we are using, a coating called Petit Hydro coat.
I take the Port side drive out during the rest of the afternoon and then back to the inn for a swim and another Paloma. Just sitting on the steps sipping an icy drink made for a great end to another very sweaty day in the yard. Most days are mid 80s for both temperature and humidity.
Day Four
I disassemble the second drive leg. This is a Volvo 120S. Yes the two sail drives are different because years ago, the boat hit a log off of Panama and the starboard drive was replaced with a later model. I carefully place the shims in a plastic bag and then into the parts tub. The yard collects the second leg and tub to prep for antifouling. I reassemble and reinstall the 130
Outer hull seal
and glue a new outer hull seal to the bottom of the boat. This does not keep water out of the boat, but acts to improve the hydrodynamics as the water flow passes the drive leg.
Meanwhile, Hurricane Willa is parked off shore and boaters are doubling up their dock lines and preparing for the worst. If the Hurricane comes here, hauled out is a good place to be.
Swimming and another Paloma.
Day Five
Time to reassemble the second drive. I carefully set up the drive gasket with Permatex adhesive and then get ready to replace the shims. I cannot find the shims! I tear apart our garbage. I never really throw anything out until I’m done with a project like that. The yard guy is sure he never saw them. In my heart I believe he misplaced them in the shop which is very busy with many simultaneous projects going on, but I have no way to be sure, so I keep looking.
Permatex on the gasket
No dice. I spend the afternoon figuring out how to order new ones. I use my old Vernier caliper to measure for replacements according to instructions in the manual. Some shims for the older 120s drive are discontinued, so I contact another outfit who specializes in out of production Volvo parts….for a price.
Swimming and more than one Paloma.
Day Six
It is raining off and on but the air temperature is still mid 80’s giving me the odd sensation of walking miles in my shower. Lisa accompanies me to the yard. Fresh eyes, new day, we will try to find those shims. The tubs have been closed up in a garbage bag to keep the rain out, and I carefully look again. Lo and behold the shims are actually in their bag in the garbage bag! Somehow I missed the tub when I put them in there. Hooray….. I confess my sins to the yard guy who seems relieved.
How many shims does a saildrive take?
I begin to reassemble the drive, but now there seem to be too many shims. The spacers and shims seem about ¼ inch too thick for the space they need to fill. Remembering the 2 shims that I dropped originally, I begin to worry that some of the shims from the first drive were confused with the second drive. Although the dropped shims were far less than ¼ inch in thickness. OH NO that means there may not be enough shims in the first saildrive….. I feel trapped in a bad movie.
I have to be certain. Tomorrow I will remove the first drive again. At least I’m getting good at this.
Swimming and multiple Palomas.
Hurricane Weather
Day Seven
It’s Hurricane time, raining a lot but only light winds, even the predicted swell fails to materialize and the storm passes 100 plus miles outside of Banderas Bay.
I remove the 130s for the second time and dissect. No problems, the shims are actually a different diameter and not interchangeable. I measure and all seems good. But what is going on with the 120? I start to measure again and press firmly against the bearing race that will support the shims. It slides into the transmission ¼ of an inch. Now it will work out. I measure again and everything seems OK. I start to put the 130 back into the boat, but stop when the rain picks up.
Things are looking up. I sit on the steps of the pool in the rain drinking my icy Paloma.
Day Eight
It’s raining, but the yard charges $50 per day for parking there, so I need to keep moving. We rig a plastic awning over the engine room and I finish connecting the starboard transmission to the motor, then shift to the port side and install that transmission.
The rain made for a dark day, but things are looking up.
Pool and Paloma
Day Nine
The sun is back, and the yard is sweltering in the humidity. They need 24 hours for the paint to dry so today is the day. I arrive early and glue down both external seals. They do the first coat, while I reassemble the propellers and put oil in the sail drives. The second coat of paint goes on in the afternoon. What a great job Peter and his crew have done. In the afternoon, I prep the propellers and apply Propglide, a less expensive version of Propspeed, but probably the same stuff at a better price point. Tomorrow is Splash Day!
Almost done. A relaxing swim and a sweet Paloma.
Day Ten
We wait through a little scheduling issue. The delivery captain ahead of us is fuming, but I’m done with heavy lifting, so what’s a few more hours? They hoist the boat and paint the patches where the stands were touching the hulls and it’s splash time. They gently lower boat into the ways, stopping for a moment when the deck is at ground level so we can get aboard, then into the water. We check for leaks and after a minor exhaust issue, we are good to go. The engines start and we begin to back out. Oh no, the starboard dagger board snags the lifting strap causing the starboard side to drag against the cement wall, with gel coat crunching and popping off to my dismay. Disappointed, we move to the Marina. At least we are back on board and afloat. Paloma please.
Day Eleven
We meet Dublas, a freelance gel coat artist who comes highly recommended. For $1000 he will repair the injury plus about 30 or 40 minor dings and scratches. Boats accumulate these things over 20 years and this is a great deal.
Soon we will be off towards Panama and new adventures—with the boat yard, a distant memory.
That’s not a Paloma
Michael’s Paloma
2 parts tequila
1 part soda water (Aqua Mineral)
2 parts grapefruit juice (Toronja)
Mix well, Pour over ice,
