(Originally published in 2012)
After our nightmare in Portsmouth, new rebuilt engine in place, we were eager to leave Portsmouth behind and get heading south again. We took off and motored down the Elizabeth River, passing through the lock at Great Bridge. Things were going smoothly and we were starting to relax a little bit, smooth water, pleasant day, the roar of our new Perkins engine. Pungo Ferry Bridge was ahead and we were making pretty good time, and then BANG – a crack like somebody set off a cherry bomb. I shut down the engine immediately and once again ran forward and dropped the anchor. Then, with some trepidation, I opened up the cockpit stairs for a better view of where the noise seemed to have originated. Once again, oil was everywhere. I got out my flashlight and checked things out. The rebuilt v-drive, which I had just sent in to the manufacturer and had overhauled for use on our new engine, had a hole in the cast external casing about the size of a silver dollar. The oil had drained into the bilge, and we were, once again, dead in the water. The cross bolt on the propeller shaft coupling was bent in half and resembled a “V” lying on the floor of the engine compartment. My immediate estimate of the situation: the prop shaft coupling cross bolt, although countersunk and held in place with a lock nut (glued on with Loctite), had evidently backed out and hit the v-drive housing, knocking a hole in it. We were aghast and devastated. We were also in need of a tow. Boat/US responded promptly, as promptly as they could when we were 30 miles downriver. On our way back to Portsmouth, as we were approaching the lock at Great Bridge we noticed a large boatyard on our port side, American Yacht Basin, and Annie and I had a little “what if” conversation. Our towboat took us all the way back up to Norfolk where we once again had Little Timmy assess the situation.
He removed the smashed v-drive and sent it off to the manufacturer for a new casing. We figured it had to be a fluke, some kind of accident. When the v-drive finally came back a week or so later once again all rebuilt, he reinstalled it and got us ready to go again. He rechecked and readjusted. We did the mandatory test sail, got our ducks in a row again, and we were off. Another week or so blown, another sizable chunk of our cruising budget shot. We motored down the river, transited the lock at Great Bridge one more time and headed on down the river past American Yacht Basin and off toward Pungo Ferry. As we approached the Pungo Ferry Bridge we looked at each other, ready for whatever might happen – and then it actually did. BANG! One more time for the road. Drop anchor, look in the engine compartment, same ol’ thing, different day. We called Boat/US and, once again went back to Norfolk. This was getting old.
A new casing for our V-drive was more than a quick little task. We had to send it in, have it rebuilt with a new cast casing and then sent back for reinstallation. While we again waited for our v-drive, our mechanic was busily figuring this whole thing out. He felt the problem had to lie in the coupling. The bolt was backing out because the coupling was not properly designed and we needed to replace it. I didn’t bother to ask him how the existing coupling had managed to do the job for over twenty years without having this kind of problem, before he installed the new engine. I had seen the coupling bolt back out before, but it never caused any damage, just a separation of the prop shaft from the v-drive. Smashing of the v-drive brought a whole new wrinkle to the problem. He searched high and low and hither and yon and could not find a commercially produced coupling so he decided we had to have one engineered. As the first step toward that objective, we ordered up a huge, ridiculously expensive chunk of stainless steel – a 10-pound cylinder of stainless steel that we would then have a local machine shop lathe and drill into the proper dimensions. Annie and I decided we just couldn’t wait around to have the machine work done in Portsmouth. The season was getting on and we needed to get south, so we took our souvenir chunk of metal with us to have it machined when we got further south. We were leaving, once and for all. This time, if it happened again, it was our fault for not listening.
We left anyway. We repeated the familiar departure routine – everything repaired, out for a test drive, yadda, yadda, yadda. We took off and headed on down the ICW holding our collective breath. We got past Great Bridge and further up ahead Pungo Ferry Bridge loomed. Third time’s a charm, right? We were almost starting to relax when, you guessed it: it all happened again. Loud bang, oil in the bilge, hole in the V-drive casing, and a lot of swearing, screaming, and gnashing of teeth. Boat/US to the rescue – one more 30 mile trip back to Portsmouth, or should we consider stopping in Great Bridge at the now familiar Atlantic Yacht Basin? We decided to give ourselves and our sanity a break and at the same time save the Boat/US people some time and money – we opted for AYB.
We told the folks at AYB our tale of woe. They were agog, flummoxed, downright gobsmacked. When I mentioned the shaft coupling and our large chunk of stainless steel, they suggested we should simply order a commercially manufactured one. We thought: are you guys nuts? They don’t make them. When we told them they weren’t available, they didn’t exactly understand what all the fuss was about. They checked availability and found it and ordered it up, no problem. With Thanksgiving approaching and the yard being closed for the long holiday weekend, we told them to go ahead and do their thing. Annie and I drove down to North Carolina for Thanksgiving with my sister and a little down-time to reassess our situation. Could we afford all this? No way. Selling the boat and calling the whole thing off was discussed. Were we ever going to get to Florida, let alone the Bahamas? Hell, were we ever going to get out of Virginia? When we got back to AYB after the long weekend, it took a couple days to put everything back together and get us on our way. It was all done with an amazing confidence and aplomb that impressed me. Were they knowledgeable, or just cocky? With great trepidation we made it past Pungo Ferry, waiting for the other shoe to drop… We never had another problem with the engine or the coupling. We went all the way down through the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico and the Virgins and well into the Leeward Islands. Then four years later we turned the boat around and came back – all without the hint of a problem.
So, should I have done it myself? I was afraid at the time that I might not get it right, that I should leave it to the “experts.” If I had done the original engine overhaul myself, when we did it up in Michigan before we left, I would probably have looked at the oil gauge choices and thought about it. A plastic capillary tube has no place in the washing machine environment of a boat’s engine compartment. If I had done the new engine installation would I have had problems? Without a doubt. But I would have sought help, and asked for advice, and when all was said and done I would have known every little nuance of how it was done and where to expect the problems to arise. It was a really expensive lesson, but I learned it well. From that time forward I have pretty much done all of my own work – not just on our boat but on most things in life. Better that I make the mistakes myself because at least I learn by doing and I know how it was done. If I only knew then what I know now….
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