Wednesday, the boat was hauled. I had a premonition the starter would act up (it had been getting harder to start) so I went to the boat very early. Sure enough, the solenoid would click but the engine would not turn over. I called the yard manager and let her know the problem. She arranged a club tender to come out and tow me to the dock and then used dock lines to haul the boat into the travel lift slings. The hull was pressure sprayed and then the soda blasters tented the bottom and blasted the paint off the keel. Once the keel was stripped, the shipwright primed the keel so it would be ready for fairing on Thursday.

On Thursday, I inspected the propeller and found it was not moving thru most if its range and would never fair at all. It is a Max Prop and I have the service manual and a service kit for it so I took it ½ way apart and determined that it had been improperly installed when last serviced. I set the correct pitch settings and tested the range and it seems to be better now. One of the mechanics from the local Max Prop service dealer told me he feels it is still not moving thru the full range and I should have their prop guy come and verify if I need to completely disassemble the prop to adjust the initial settings as well as the second setting I changed. Unfortunately the prop guy is gone for the weekend so I will have to wait until next week to see if I need to do further work.

Today (Friday) the mechanics came on board and looked at the engine starter, generator exhaust and bow thruster. Once they removed the main engine starter, they found that a small ground wire from the solenoid had corroded and was making intermittent contact. The solenoid is also looking very corroded so they will replace it and its wiring harness. The good news is that the starter tests to be fine and will not need to be replaced. The generator turns out to have holed in the exhaust manifold at the point where the exhaust elbow bolts to it. They will see if it can be repaired or if a new exhaust manifold is required. They believe the bow thruster issues may have been caused by loose contacts and will test further once the boat is back in the water. The batteries and cable connections seem to be OK and can handle the bow thruster load without problems.

I had a refrigeration company come out today to review the fridge and freezer systems. During the survey, the freezer was not cooling and it was recommended to replace the evaporator plates and tubing back to the compressors. I will get a quote next week and these items may be completed in February or could wait until coming back north from Tasmania.

The yard manager expects the boat should be ready to go back in the water next Wednesday. I have a few maintenance tasks to complete before then.