Saildrive Problems

Unfortunately, our Hanse 341 did not go back into the water this year until the end of June, which coincided with the start of the Scottish school holidays and therefore naturally, the start of the Scottish monsoon season.  Thankfully, after the Scottish school holidays finished mid-August, we had a period of good weather and so we managed a 3 week trip around the Inner Hebrides. 

The Problem

In 2021-22, we had the saildrive dual seals replaced on our Yanmar saildrive, as by then they were 18 years old.  More recently there was a rattle at certain engine revs and an engineer reckoned it would be a drive plate problem.  So earlier this year, with a different engineer, work commenced and the view is that the engineers who did the job in 2022 did not ensure the engine and the saildrive were perfectly aligned and the drive plate was distorted.  The distortion of the plate had also resulted in worn pinion shaft, bearing and seals so they need replacing.

Others have also suffered the same problem as us in that Yanmar spares were hard to acquire in the UK.  It took over 6 weeks to receive the simple shims that are used to set the gearing backlash on the final assembly of the saildrive.  We also replaced the saildrive rubber seals even though this set was only 3 years old.

Moral

If you are doing any work on the saildrive, make certain you support the engine in the correct alignment at all times.  Start work early and get the relevant Yanmar parts ordered.

Extra Point

Unfortunately, the saildrive was not our only problem, so see the thread “Oil Changes”.