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.
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.
Axiom made the new prop in just under three weeks, and UPS got it here in just five days. What an amazingly flat world.
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.
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.