The cost of owning a boat

We did the haul out yesterday to swap out the prop.  I have been nervous about this since I knew that we had to do it.  If I could turn back time, I would have done this job in Seattle but at the time the prop wasn't in the shape it is in now so hindsight and all that. The haulout was scheduled for 1300 and they fired up the lift at 1315.  Not bad for Mexico.  By 1330, Appa was hanging in the slings and the workers were swarming over her.  They have scales on these lifts and Appa weighed in at 16 tons.  That's about 32,000 pounds.  Dry weight on the boat is 28,000 pounds.  We got some stuff on her, eh?  Notice the towels still hanging on the lifelines.  

Barnacles are everywhere on her bottom.  Not too impressed with the bottom paint but then the word around town is that almost no matter what you use, the bottom is going to get fouled.  The water is so warm and rich in life that it is inevitable.  Just have to stay on top of it.  Of course having the boat just sitting in the marina for a couple weeks with the occasional day sail will also doesn't help keep the bottom clean.  

So here is the problem.  See the taller coupling?  That is the new one.  It is suppose to be the same size as the one on the left.  The old owner had the prop shaft changed out and switched to SAE.  We are turning 1 3/8" prop shaft.  The old one was metric.  The old owner wasn't sure what the taper was, metric or standard.  Since the shaft is now standard I assumed the taper would be standard.

That about says it.

Ah hell.  What a waste of time and money.  I could have been on the beach with my wonderful wife and kinda weird kids.
So here is what I think the old owner did.  He got tired of trying to find or couldn't find a cutlass bearing that would fit his metric shaft as the boat was built in France.  But he already had a very expensive MaxProp on the metric shaft.  So he had a new shaft made and then had the tapered end made to fit the old prop.  So SAE shaft and metric taper.  Of course he forgot that part of it or I didn't ask him the right questions.  Either way, there was no way to know till I took the old one off.  PYI who makes MaxProp wasn't much of a help as they didn't have any record of the old owner buying the prop years back.  Maybe not their fault but it sure would have been nice if they could have pulled up the old receipt and said, "Yep, metric taper on this prop."  Grrrrrr.
My good buddy JC stopped by while we were in the throes of this stuff.  The voice of reason as it were.  I was so frustrated I was going to cut the slings and be done with it.  In the end, we just put the old one on and pumped it full of grease and Max will take the new back to the Seattle and exchange it for the right one.  JC took detailed measurements and that should help PYI figure out the mess that is my prop shaft.  And here I was worried about pitching the new prop correctly.  When Max comes back, we will be heading back to Puerto Vallarta in March for the Banderas Bay Regatta and I might haul the boat yet again and put the new prop on.
That is another thing.  The old owner told me that Appa has a 19" prop and he always thought that it was too small and should have gotten a 20" prop.  So I ordered the 20" prop.  Turns out that Appa had the 20" prop all along.  All the old paperwork that came with the boat from PYI shows adjustments for a 19" prop.  It is all wrong.  The old prop is a 20" prop.  No wonder I had to adjust the pitch soon after buying the boat.
As frustrating as this all is, I am thankful for my wife who was very understanding and didn't make me feel stupider than I already felt.

If you are reading this Jen, high five!  Go team Appa!!

So the boat is sitting in her slip and we are next to JC and Shauna on Sand Dollar and across from us is Sea Otter who are back from Bend OR.  Just down the dock are Winterhawk and Unleashed.  All of whom we have done the HaHa with.
Couple days left in La Cruz and we are outta here.  Heading south, baby!