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Maintenance and Repairs

Major care tasks that may interest other owners

Replacing the Engine Mounts

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If you need to replace the engine mounts on your Perkins 4-108, here’s the simple answer:  use Bushings Inc. DF 2207-2 mounts. Now, it was a lot of work to figure this out, so I am going to give the long answer too.

Overwinter 2011-12 Improvements

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Rainshadow overwintered at her slip at the Port of Poulsbo. It’s a good slip, but we were spoiled rotten having our boat only a 1/2 mile walk away prior to this – now it’s a 35 minute drive each way. Anyway, it didn’t stop us from making a lot of improvements this winter/spring.

Boom teardown–outhaul revealed

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OK, so the sailing season is over for us, and I have started several projects, including tearing down the boom.

Prop Analysis and Replacement – Part III: The Second Axiom Prop

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We hauled out on July 21st, hoping to “haul and hang” for an hour to pull off the old Axiom and put on the new one, but with the nagging fear in the back of our minds that we should have replaced the white metal bearing during our haul out in June.

Replacing the White Metal Bearing

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Nicholson 38’s do not have a cutlass bearing, they have a white metal bearing in a stern tube. This works well as long as you keep it well greased, and that’s why there is a stern tube greaser integrated into the stuffing box. But after 37 years, the white metal bearing was worn enough, you could wiggle the shaft quite easily and make it go “thump thump thump”. It was well past time to replace the bearing.

Galley and Water Improvements

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Fresh water has been a problem for us so far. The built-in fiberglass tank was badly affected by venting blisters, and as of last summer, we weren’t content to drink water from it any more. We tried using Sanitred to fix it, which was a complete disaster!!  Never ever use Sanitred products on your boat!!!

Summer 2011 Haulout

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We hauled Rainshadow at Sea Marine in Port Townsend for a week, starting June 13th. We had a nice stay there. Sea Marine pushed a staircase along side the boat, so I could climb aboard (I certainly would not be able to climb a ladder). So we lived aboard on the hard, and worked on her every day. Weather was pleasant enough (read, very little rain) – it was a nice “vacation” even though Van slaved away on the boat non-stop.

Prop Analysis and Replacement – Part I

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Rainshadow has a 16 inch diameter, 12 inch pitch propeller that is specified by Camper and Nicholson for the Nic 38.  It sits in an aperture, which is about 20 inches in diameter.  She also has the original Perkins 4-108 with a 2:1 reduction transmission.  We find there are three major problems.

Awaiting Spring

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It’s been a long cold and wet winter. Finally, the 3rd week of April has had some reasonable sailing weather – good wind and not-so-cold temperatures (mid 50’s F). So we took Rainshadow out for a day sail, and had a wonderful time.