WHAT WORKS: Plastic bag on the prop.

That's The Bag I'm In -Fred Neil

Once again I was away from the BIANKA for an extended period of time. One month or so. I wanted to avoid the marine growth on the prop the boat experienced earlier this summer as you can see below:

So this time I decided to do an experiment of something I had heard about from other sailors. Before I left the boat I covered the prop with a plastic bag. One of those that you get when you buy something in supermarkets etc... I tied it around the prop and came back a month later and it looked like this:

I dove under the boat just using my snorkel and quickly removed the bag from the prop:



I must say it worked pretty good  in keeping the prop clean of the major marine growth and only had a barnacle or two on the blades:

So if you are going to away for an extended time covering the prop with a plastic bag does work pretty good in keeping marine growth off the prop.

PROP TALK

As I mentioned I was away from the boat for over a month thanks to some freelance work that came my way. It will certainly help pay some of the boat expenses. Unfortunately, it was in the wicked city of Washington DC two hundred and fifty miles away from the boat and so I was not able check on the boat. I was expecting the worse and hoping for the best when I finally returned. I was hoping that I would not greeted by a sail cover full of bird poo like I was last fall after being away for three weeks. I had deliberately kept the lines securing the boom a little loose hoping that it's movement would discourage the birds from landing there for long. This plan seemed to work or maybe I was just lucky.

The other area of the boat I expected to have to clean was the prop. Unfortunately, this had met my expectations for a mess. I don't paint my prop with any anti fouling coating as I try to keep metallic interactions to a minimum. I also don't mind diving down below to clean the prop with a paint scrapper on occasion. As you can see in this video below the sponges and barnacles can grow pretty rapidly on a prop that has not turned in over a month. Even a small blackfish seems to like hanging out there. Interesting that the two zinc are relatively clean:



After seeing the job that awaited me I decided to see if I could minimize the cleaning and scrapping I would need to do by using the torque of my electric propulsion system to knock off what marine growth I could. Turning the prop with an EP system for this function is a lot easier than with a diesel engine. One of the nice benefits of electric propulsion is there is no need to warm an EP system up. You just turn the key and run the  throttle back and forth for under a minute. It's not really healthy to turn fire up a diesel and  turn it on and off for such a short time. Electric Propulsion does not care if you just need it for a short burst of power to clear the prop. The video below shows how  my little forward and reverse propulsion routine cleaned away a lot of the marine growth:



I still had to dive down and clean some of the barnacles of with my handy dandy five in one paint scrapper tool. The video below shows what it looked like after a quick cleaning:



Much better but, I found the blade on my scraper blade was a little wobbly due to rust finally having it's way. So it looks like it's time to replace it with a new one.

Perhaps one made from stainless steel next time. So it won't rust out and I can scrap the prop blades with a little more force next time.

EASY ELECTRIC BOAT MAINTENANCE PART TWO: SHAFT COUPLING REPLACEMENT

One of the hardest areas to work around when BIANKA had the Westerbeke diesel was the stuffing box. Because the boat had a V Drive transmission the prop shaft ran under the engine and transmission:

Trying to get two wrenches to adjust the stuffing box was not in the category of what I would call fun. There was hardly enough room to move the tools because of the tight space:

Just looking at these old pictures of the limited space and the grime gives me the shakes.  That all changed once I put in the Thoosa 9000 electric propulsion system. Now access to the stuffing box for adjustment is no longer problematic as it was with the diesel:

The area is easy to get to and open and which means there is a lot of range to use the wrenches for adjustment. Best of all it is clean!  Capt. Mike is very happy about that. As I mentioned I've gone five years without a lot of maintenance on the system including the stuffing box once the initial adjustments were done.
I think part of the reason is because there is so little vibration when using an electric motor for auxilary propulsion there is little need to adjust or replace the packing around the shaft when compared to the vibration of operating a diesel engine. But, since this is a standard stuffing box and not one of the newer Dripless Shaft Seal type stuffing boxes that does not mean they won't drip a little bit. Indeed that is what they are supposed to do to make sure the packing is lubricated and not compacted to tightly around the shaft. 


 When I purchased my electric propulsion system five years ago. I had the distributor at the time provide me with a shaft coupler to connect the motor with the prop shaft. Unfortunately, the one he provided was made of steel but, not stainless steel. Since I was new to the idea of electric propulsion I trusted his choice. Here are the couplings side by side:

 Well, five years of drips from the stuffing box had started to rust one end of the original steel shaft coupling. Now there's a saying that "rust is natures Loctite" and it may perform that function for awhile but, it won't do that forever. Which brings me to why I'm doing this maintenance sooner rather than later.

 The fact is a stainless steel coupling would have been a better choice to connect the stainless steel shafts of the motor and prop. I decided that removing the motor would allow better access to the coupling and since removing the electric motor is easy and weighs only about 45 lbs it was a no-brainer. I just removed the four screws and two bolts shown in the previous post and lifted the motor away from the bracket :

Access to work on  the rusted coupling was now even better:

I was hoping that I would be able to remove the eight bolts holding the two piece shaft coupling to the shafts easily just using a ratchet with the proper allen head bit:

But, unfortunately despite spraying the bolts with PB Blaster  over several weeks I was only able to remove four of the bolts with the ratchet.  I guess it's true that "rust is natures Locktite" after all. Oh well time to take out the Dremel Tool  and cut through the rusted bolts in the coupling with a  Dremel reinforced cut-off wheel.

 and remove the old coupling:

Here is an inside view of the removed rusted coupling:   

and a look at the stainless steel replacement:

Once to old shaft coupling was off I cleaned the shafts with some denatured alcohol and heavy duty paper towel and clamped on the new coupling and torqued it down:

CAPT. MIKE NOTE: Before I put the screws in the coupling I coated the threads with Ultra Tef-Gel  which will help prevent any future corrosion issues and make it easy to remove the coupling in the future without having to use a Dremel tool to cut the through the screws. 

Once that was done it was a simple process of putting the motor back onto the frame. I tightened the two bolts and four screws and the motor was mounted ready to be hooked up to the controller:

Well, that was an easy repair and I did not have to contort and squeeze my six foot two inch frame into positions and spaces it was not meant to be in. I did the entire motor removal and coupling replacement while remaining inside the main cabin of BIANKA.  There was no need to empty the cockpit lockers and squeeze through a hatch like when I had the diesel on board. It's just another reason why I love my Thoosa 9000 electric propulsion system.
Since I had already removed the motor . It seemed like a time to check out the motor after five years of use. I'll show that in a future post.

EASY ELECTRIC BOAT MAINTENANCE PART ONE

SPRING CLEANING: PROP AND DYNAPLATE

I don't put any anti fouling on my prop. I do occasionally dive over the summer and clean the prop by hand when the boat is in the water. But, late in the season the water gets a little too cold to do so. When I pull the boat there might be a few barnacles that have attached themselves to the prop. So one of my annual spring outfitting chores is cleaning and polishing the prop. I start using my trusty hand held Paint Scrapper to knock off what barnacles I can:

It easy to knock off the hard barnacle shells using this tool both on land and also when the boat is in the water too.

Once I've removed most of the barnacles that attached to the prop late in the season. I then switch to using an electric drill and an 3M Paint and Rust Stripper which makes cleaning and polishing the prop a fast and easy process as this video shows:



It also does a real good job cleaning and polishing the boats Dyna Plate ground plane too:

WHAT WORKS: 3M PAINT AND RUST STRIPPER

BIANKA is about to be splashed so I'm busy putting the finishing things that need to be done below the waterline. There are not too many things to do beyond fresh zincs and checking to make sure the through hulls are clear. One thing that needs to be done is to clean the prop and ground plate of whatever growth still remains. I use to spend a lot of time with a hand scrapper accomplishing this task. Then I discovered that a  3M 7772ES Paint and Rust Stripper and an electric drill makes this task so much easier and faster.

 Here is the before photo of the prop:

There are few pesky barnacles and some hard sponge like growth. Below is what one of the blades looks like with less than a minutes worth of work using the 3M Paint and Rust Stripper and my trusty Black and Decker Drill:

In five minutes you can have the prop nice and shiny and ready for the water. It might also uncover some important information about your boats prop as I did:

The above shows I have a 16 inch right hand turning prop with a 13 inch pitch. Important info if one wants to change or replace a prop. Props are not the only thing the 3M Paint and Rust Stripper can make shiny and new. It also does a great job on on the boats Dyna Plate grounding bar making it really shine:

My biggest concern here is that some landlubber yahoo wandering through the boatyard is going to think it is a gold bar instead of bronze and try to steal it off the boat. So it's best to get the boat in the water as soon as possible.

JUST SCRAPPING BY

No this is not a post on the state of the economy.  BANKA has been on the mooring for a little over a month. This is because I was in the process of redesigning and building the boat's solar dodger after the damage from  the ill fated Reid Stowe flotilla trip. Then my girfriend dragged me out on a beach vacation for a week. The beach vacation is over and the new and improved solar dodger has been installed and secured (I'll be posting about that installation in a future post) so it's time to start cruising again. Well,  not so fast. Especially, when I dove under the boat to check the condition of the prop.

The waters here on the Isle of Long have been exceptionally warm this year thanks to the hot summer and the marine organisms have been loving it as much as I have.  Somewhere in the photo below of sponges, seaweed and barnacles is a 16 inch three bladed prop and prop shaft.

Some of the sponges are actually quite colorful:

And if the shrimp who are also hanging around the area where just a bit larger I'd have some appetizers for my sundown drinks. While this sight might be very interesting to a marine biologist. To this sailor who is chomping at the bit to get some more cruising in something needs to be done. But, what to do?

 

Behold the GAM PRO ADVANTAGE 6 IN ONE paint scraper tool! This nasty medieval looking weapon is just the thing I have found when one needs to attack a barnacle encrusted prop. It is very stiff and sturdy and the curved crescent area is great for clearing the prop shaft or grabbing onto it when the boat swings in a current. It also has a convenient hole to attach a lanyard to put around your wrist. Plus I like that is called the GAM PRO. It adds a little nautical feel to the tool.  Not that I want to have any more conversation with the barnacles that I remove off the prop beyond ADIOS!

INTERESTING PROPOSITIONS

One good thing about pulling the boat every year is that you get to inspect the hull without holding your breath or putting on Scuba gear. You can also look around the boat yard and see what other boat owners have for keels, props etc... Sometimes there are some mysteries as well. Such as what's the story behind this prop?


Did this boats owner never turn on his engine? Did he always sail off the mooring? Perhaps they never even got on the boat the whole season. Looks like they would have been in for a little surprise if they did need to use the motor considering the growth on the prop. Speaking of props I have a little mystery concerning BIANKA's prop. While polising it last spring I noticed some confusing markings on it.


From the numbers stamped on it I am assuming that it's a 16 inch diameter right handed prop. But, it appears that the original 14 inch pitch was restamped to 13 inch. Since I speced BIANKA with a 16 inch 14 inch pitch I will need to try and see how the 13 inch pitch would affect preformance under electric propulsion with the different pitch. Another reason why it's good to double check things on haulouts.

GOING ELECTRIC PART 13: Motor on!

At this point the diesel has been removed, the area cleared out of any unnecessary items, the stringers have been extended and cut, brackets and motor mounts have been installed. It almost is anti climatic how easy it was to install the motor. But, here it is:

Below is an overhead view. You can see the tabs where the wires will be connected and also the stuffing box through which the prop shaft travels. Speaking of the prop shaft....

Below is a photo of the original V drive transmission setup from the diesel days. The prop shaft ran under the transmission and engine. This made for some difficult maintenance issues of the stuffing box.

Below is a photo of what it looked like underneath the transmission. There was not a lot of room underneath to try and loosen the stuffing box nut. This made changing the packing in the stuffing box very difficult. It was also out of sight. You can also see the corrosion on the transmission flange from salt water that dripped on it over the years . The conversion to electric propulsion has made changing the packing a much easier procedure.

With the electric motor installed (below) the stuffing box is out in the open and much easier to get to compared to the photo above. This will make adjustment very easy. But, there is no free lunch. I will have to remove the Stafford coupling that connects the motor shaft to the prop shaft to replace the packing but, since it too is easily accessible and removable it is a much better setup from a maintenance standpoint.

I am very pleased with the installation. But, it is useless without some of the other components. Most importantly the batteries. So it's time to move on to the next phase which is installing the batteries, controller other components.

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