After 7 weeks back in the UK we flew back into Washington, picked up the rental and headed back to Zahnisers Yacht Centre on Solomons Island. The boat had been out on the hard and we had a few jobs done on her

 

Rudder – we had always had a “graunch” on the steering and had always thought it was air in the hydraulic system, despite bleeding it many times. After we lifted her we felt the rudder movement was a bit excessive and on investigation it appeared that one of the bearings had come loose, so they dropped the rudder and fixed that, which is covered by warranty  

 

MaxProp – We had this re-pitched to give us 15% more speed at the same rpm, as we have the upgraded 160hp engine not the standard 100hp, so have plenty of power and should now cruise at 9kts at 2,000 rpm

 

R&D Marine – We fitted a flexible drive coupling between the gearbox and prop shaft, which should make motoring even quieter and allow for up to 0.010” of misalignment, but we will get that checked now every couple of years. The first year or two see the most movement as the boats settles and the rubber engine mounts are compressed into a working position

 

Keel - they tightened the keel bolts which they said quite often need re-torqueing after the first year, less of a problem on an encapsulated iron keel with lead insert like ours, but on a soft lead keel they need checking more often – this was also covered by warranty

 

We had the hull and topsides polished and had a team of girls from Red Sky in Annapolis “detail” the boat – boy, better than new – everything shone, they even wanted to polish inside the engine room and bilges, they were quite expensive, but did the most fantastic job. The sinks had been cleaned with metal polish and gleamed , they did the cooker, even polished the stainless kettle – amazing – well happy !!

 

So we have re-fitted the sails (taken down as a hurricane precaution) and stocked the cellar, fridge and kitchen and Suzanne has had great success with her new Panasonic bread maker