Our Journey So Far

Hi to Panos and David.

I was of the impression the seals for the Yanmar drive were of a bespoke design and not a standard rubber ring.  Am I wrong?

Secondly, we are in a relatively new marina called Red Frog. It is well along the East Panama coast in a beautiful natural park called Bocas del Torro, rated in the top 10 unspoilt holiday destinations in the world.  Costa Rica is just down the road, there are islands dotted all around. People are friendly,  good restaurants everywhere, the rum is good and inexpensive, climate is almost Camelot - ish (rains between 3 and 5 in the morning, otherwise sunshine everywhere. Money goes a long way.  Only downside there are very few marine chandlery or services available, for example I have to bring back our Mastervolt inverter to UK for repair because there is no-one who will touch them here.

We will be here till January so if you fancy a break for a week or two we always welcome guests.  Flights are into Panama City, local flight down to Bocas del Torro.

www.redfrogbeach.com/marina.html

Firstly a Happy and Enjoyable Christmas to all the people who have read and been so helpful in dealing with our problems.

After rereading Alain's comments on MyHanse, I sucked out about 2.5l of oil from under the engine.  It is slightly blacker than than brand new oil  but has the same smell.  I guess if I put about 4 l of oil into the drive on the journey from San Blas to Red Frog Marina, this would account for a fair portion of the missing oil.  The point raised is how it ended up in the oil pan.

When in Trinidad I did a modification to the bleed screw on the top of the gearbox, I had it drilled and a small nipple soldered into the hole.  I attached a tube to this nipple with a small feeder bottle (with an airhole in it) about 50cm above.  This idea was suggested on the Cruiser's Forum and also by the engineers in Trinidad; it allows the oil in the saildrive to expand and gives a visual indicator if I am losing any oil.  As far as I can see, it has not been leaking.  Which leaves the oil seal between the gearbox and the engine.  Are these prone to breakdown, do you think my little feed bottle would be putting too much pressure on the seal?

How difficult is it to replace this seal?  Does anyone have any suggestions, can the engine be separated in the boat enough to get access?  I have a seal with me, I bought one before I left London.

I have ANOTHER conundrum (this expression reminds me of Red October when the Russian Ambassador has to admit they have lost another submarine...). I wrote a while ago about the poor engineering design of the Harken electric winches.  One of the motors we took out in the beginning because the rough noises we heard seemed to be motor bearing noise.  This turned out to not be the case.  However ever since I reinstalled this motor it runs half the speed of tghe one which was not removed; ie it is a two-speed motor and both speeds are half those of the other motor.  It was suggested to me that the control relay contacts may be worn (It is the winch on the main halyard so gets more use) so I replaced that with a new one when we returned from London

THis has made no difference.

Before removing the motor I colour-coded the wiring so the external connecting cables went back together the same way.  I asked the engineers who checked out the motor if they had changed anything inside, they said the brushes and bearings were all ok.  I cannot think of what else may have changed or whether in fact they miswired something inside the motor somehow.

Does anyone know how the two speeds are achieved or how a wrong wiring could cause the problem we have?  It doesn't seem to have the same amount of power as the untouched winch either, though this could just be subjective.  

Regards,  Graeme
Warmest regards,

Graeme