Ahh, the saga continues. Almost ready to drop the boat in the water and we discover that the propeller shaft is shot. This explains a lot. I was having trouble getting the engine to drop out of forward and having a frozen bearing exerting so much pressure on the shaft would likely account for this problem.

Trying to get the shaft out of the boat was a bit of an ordeal since the bearings had seized to the shaft and the resulting crevice corrosion on the shaft had created a kind of stainless mush glue locking the shaft in place. It took two of us to brace and hammer away at the shaft to get it out.

Taniwha has a strange system for the propeller and I have to admit it is a design flaw, with no other real alternative. Because Taniwha has a flat bilge keel with a centerboard she had no real bilge to speak of. Additionally what bilge space she does have is utilized as either diesel tanks or water tanks. The diesel tank sits right behind the engine and the propeller shaft goes right through it. To get through the tank the propeller shaft has to be 2 meters long. This presents a bit of a problem. Most of that 2 meters is unsupported and there are only bearings where it enters the fuel tank and exits the boat. That is how we thought it was but it turns out that the owner 2 owners before me added a middle bearing. This bearing was to become a bit of a nightmare. It was seized into the shaft tube and we couldn’t remove it. It was impossible to get at also since it was over a meter into the tube. We couldn’t leave it since it was destroyed and the key contributor to the destruction of the original shaft. The idea we came up with was to take the old propeller shaft and add a cutting head to the front like they would use to make tunnels. It was a flat plate of metal with two blades. The plate was a 10th of a millimeter smaller than the shaft tube and welded to the tip of the old shaft. A bearing was placed immediately behind the cutter head to keep the cutter dead center in the tube. At the other end of the shaft we placed a sliding bearing that would keep the whole thing centered. We attached a drill and started cutting.

I couldn’t believe it even worked and neither could anyone else. Once the lads got the hang of it they managed to cut the bearing out in about half and hour. After that it was smooth sailing. I had a new shaft milled and threaded, 3 sets of new bearings made out a special hard graphite impregnated plastic and a new locking nut for the propeller. It all went in like butter. I have lingering concerns about taking out the center bearing but the boat wasn’t designed to have it in the first place.

I also want to thank the machinist, Terri. The quality of his work was outstanding and he was great craic to work with