Welcome

Welcome to my blog. Here you will find the journeys of Ti Gtu and information that I have researched and found useful for maintaining and servicing yachts and motorboats.

I post full information that I find on the Fay Marine information site, accessed through www.faymarine.com/ and I can be emailed at paul@faymarine.com.



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Happy sailing,



Paul Fay



Monday 8 May 2017

Broken down.


Broken down.

 

We left Harlingen for a gentle motor through to Dokkum. Leaving the marina was interesting as at high tide the lock from the sea into the canal is opened for a few hours causing quite a current through the marina. The manager and another man came to help us and were very pleased when we managed to get out easily. Actually when reversing the skeg and rudder got stuck in the mud allowing the current to turn the boat in what appeared to be perfect control. PHEW!!! if only the watchers could have taken my pulse!!

We motored up the canal for just a few kilometres when the engine slowed and shortly after that started making a horrible loud rattle. I dived below and started examining the motor. It was quickly evident that something had gone wrong with the drive between the engine and gearbox as there was an enormous amount of what looked like sand coming out at the bottom of the housing.

We were approaching a bridge which opened and on the other side was a yacht waiting quay which we gratefully tied to.

Up on the bridge there were workers cleaning it and Mo went up to them and they called the bridge controller who said that someone would come and see us. After a short while a launch with police type people aboard came and discussed things with us. They preferred us not to stay on that quay and arranged for us to go to a commercial dock where we could stay for a while. As it was difficult for us to move they tied us alongside the launch and took us back through the bridge to the Shipdock Draaisma, which is actually a covered dry dock with two boats in being worked on.

There is a supplier of the R&D drive plate in The Netherlands and the boss of the yard called them and after a couple of days a new drive plate arrived. The supplied plate is an R&D one but different to the original which did worry me but another call to R&D in the UK reassured me and the cost was reasonable for an essentially British part supplied abroad working out at £208 rather than the £168 it would have cost in the UK. Thank goodness I can fix it myself as labour would have been expensive.

Why it happened.

This is actually the second time in 15 years that this plate has failed so I called R&D and had a long conversation with their excellent .






 

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