No More Chirps in Boatyard Purgatory
For a week after Poe died, it felt strange when I’d return to Swell–no more chirping, no more fishy stink, and no more fuzzy head popping up? Instead I found only piles of progress-less projects staring at me. Despite grinding off the recent epoxy job and making a more precisely-fitting steel washer, the āextracteurā continued to fail at removing the shaft tube. Finally, a sledgehammer swing by my friend, Josh Humbert, broke the āextracteurā for the third and final time–severing it in half at the upper threads and sending it flying across the yard.
So the shaft tube remained stuck in the hull and Laurentās behavior (the yard glasser who was supposed to help me) continued to puzzle me. He would walk by me stone-faced and cold, dead-set on disregarding my existence. It was obviously time to seek out other helpā¦but who? Where? How?! Rain poured down and I wandered circles around the yard in a cloud of despair. The weather matched my bleak humor as I stomped puddles and squished mud between my toes. It seemed useless to fight anymore. I was defeated, broken, sinking on landā¦doomed to indeterminate boatyard purgatoryā¦
Then on Friday afternoon, Mike, from āAppleā (another sailboat in the yard) yelled down at me from his shiny blue hull over on the āeast sideā. āHey Liz! We got my rudder shaft out today using a hydraulic jack.ā
āFantastic,ā I replied, struggling to sound enthusiastic.
āThis could be your answer!ā He said. āTake it over to Swell see if it might work push against your tube!ā
ā¦Youāve never seen a girl sprint faster with a 15-lb hydraulic jack in hand. I hauled it up the ladderā¦
āIt fits!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!ā I cheered with a shuffle-step-wiggle. āIāll have to remove the v-driveā¦and cut some wood and steel supportsā¦and it will have to work on its side so Iāll need some extra fluidā¦ā
At once a surge of hope rose inside me. I raced cheerfully back down to the Friday gathering. Ā The owner of the yard teased me as I arrived, āLize!! Ma belle, we donāt want you to fix your boat, anyway. We like having you here. You love it here, donāt you? ā
āOf course!ā I replied with a smile. āIn fact, Jacques, how about you sell me the land underneath my boat so I can start planting a garden!?ā
āIāll tell you what, Liz,ā Mike interjected from across the ramp, Hinano in hand. āIāll be at your boat at 10am tomorrow. If I canāt get that tube out in 2 hoursā¦itās officially impossible!ā
2 Comments
Ed Champagne
March 17, 2010Liz I removed my cutlass bearing by taking a sawsall (don’t know how to spell it) and making many cuts from outside. Then used small chisel to pry it out in small pieces. Worked great o my Morgan 30. I saved $750 that the yard wanted to charge. Good luck…love reading about your adventures.
Ed Champagne
March 17, 2010Liz one more thing your cutlass bearing ismost likely is install with 3m 5200 so I thing its hard to PULL out. Good luck Ed