Recent content by Gordon J

Not much choice There is injury. One has a binary choice, sell your boat or don't sell your boat. Cheaper boats can be sold on boat trader or perhaps Facebook, but more expensive boats need the coverage of Yacht World. Only brokers can list on yacht World. Brokers collude to charge 10...

Biggest regret My biggest regret in my boating career is selling my Ocean Alexander 456 that had ABT Trac stabilization. I have been in some serious blows and some fairly rough. Seas and the boat came through with zero issues. More importantly the crew also came through with zero issues. One...

No banging on transmission The shafts were disconnected from the transmissions before all the violence. Gordon

Not required Literally only 18 inches or so between shaft log and transmission. Three mechanics use a cutlass bearing to center in Stern tube. Gordon

Likely not the problem I had the same thought. I wrote to Steve who said a misalignment was not likely to cause vibration. New engine mounts were installed and, while somewhat less, still have a vibration beginning at 1400rpm. It was aligned on the hard. Today a mechanic s will recheck...

Good thought, but No, I have not done this, but one of the few things I like about the Volvo engines is that they are super smooth. I doubt that would be very informative. To iterate, all summer long and coming into the yard everything was smooth. It was only after the mechanics got hold of...

Thanks, good thought We took the new props to a prop shop. They were dead on.

I will be pilloried here, but I would suggest a sailboat if you really are going to go to the Caribbean. OR, you would want a heavier trawler with stabilizers. Seas can get large enough in the Caribbean to make trawlering uncomfortable, especially between islands. Sailboats do a better job of...

Machine shop verified that shafts are true. Boat was not any further out of alignment after sea trial, but the mechanics went through the motions again to recheck. Also, eight mounts or even one on each engine would not typically fail simultaneously.

Ok, story thus far. Needed bottom paint and decided to renew the bellows on my pss shaft seals, and since going this far also decided to change cutlass bearings. This is a powercat located in Croatia. The yard had a deuce of a time getting the shaft flange off. After two days of pounding and...

A little surprised There are so many knowledge people on this site, I was sure I would get a response.

The problem is most likely that while at dock you are keeping the charger on float. Firefly's don't like that. To get you capacity back discharge batteries to 10.5 volts. Recharge fully at .4C, discharge back to 10.5 volts. This should restore you back to 100 percent or better. You can find...

Yesterday I discovered a leak on my Garmin autopilot pump. I lost what appeared to be about an ounce or less of hydraulic fluid before I tightened the fitting. The system worked well for the next several hours, and continues to do so. My question is, How do I go about checking whether I have...

Definately I would definately have. On the current boat, located in Croatia, I have a switch to turn on the transmit side. In many ways this is more helpful than radar. How many times have you seen a boat and hailed it, something like " large red south bound freighter at approx xxxxxlat...

Laws vary by country, but in our case we only need take the boat to montenegro for a day to start the clock over. This is a one day cruise from Dubrovnik.