Momentum - and a lack thereof.

[tdw]

Well that was fun.

So.....Sunday morning we get up, have breakfast, break out the sails and get ready to head out for a sail. Wonderful day, blowing 15-20, perfect weather for the Womboat. Cracking time was had by all but.....

When we sailed off the mooring I had the donk running and didn't need it. Coming home, I started her up to prepare for picking up the mooring buoy, slipped her into gear, engine revs, nowt else happens.

Resorted to the Code of the Wombats - "When in danger or in doubt run in circles scream and shout" - funnily enough it did no good.

Ok then have a quick squizz at the prop shaft , she is not doing the voodoo she should do so well, just sitting there as quiet as you like. Shine torch towards drive shaft to engine attachment point and hey hey it's spinning quite happily, merrily in fact. Sadly there are also four bolts hanging loose and a gap of some 50mm between engine and shaft. Oh dear.

Time for the great American screwdriver I'm afraid. Tappity tap tap until we were down to 10mm gap then replaced the bolts and pulled it tight with a spanner. All good, well except for a somewhat flustered Ms Wombat who was on deck wondering what the hell was going on with the banging.

Freaky at the time but I confess I've never checked those bolts. Perhaps I should have ?

What can go wrong will go wrong and at the most inconvenient moment. Toast, buttered and dropped will always land butter side down. Sod's Law and all that. Shite happens.

[PBzeer]

Glad it worked out. Of course, now you have to recheck your alignment. Had you removed the shaft recently? Seems strange that all four bolts would be loose, not to mention, if they had been working loose, you should have had some extra vibration when motoring.

[Sapperwhite]

TDW, I can't remember the name right now, but there are bolts with a hole in the head and you connect them together with siezing wire so they cannot back out without removing the wire. You lace all of the coupling bolts together and viola, no backing out. You might want to check into them.

Good recovery though, there are some that would have s#!t thier pants and called for a tow first.

[bestfriend]

A happy ending, and I love a good Blazing Saddles reference.

[sailingdog]

Are Wombats French??

Resorted to the Code of the Wombats - "When in danger or in doubt run in circles scream and shout" - funnily enough it did no good.

[pedrodelrio]

Usually such mischief happens on new installations when nuts and bolts are shiny, new and coated with a thin layer of oil. Then as the oil falls off, moisture takes over and a thin layer of rust keeps motor bits from vibrating loose.

[bestfriend]

Anyone use the non-permanent locktite, or does that not like salt water?

[fcsob]

You can drill the head of the bolts for safety wire. Locktite work fine.I like red just use less. We bilt race motorcycles & that is all we used,had no problem on disasembly.

[sailaway21]

Fluffy,
Would I be wrong to possibly assosciate this with the recent yard work done on the boat? I'm thinking all four, all at once, with no prior racket indicating looseness?-sounds fishy.

I also suspect you're downplaying just how busy the Wombat actually was in his burrow. I'll bet you were shitein' and gittin'. Very glad for a happy outcome.

[Bermuda30]

as fcsob referenced, this is required at motorcycle track days and racing. Quick search turned up this: http://www.sportrider.com/tech/146_0002_hand/index.html