When The Boatyard Doesn't Know How To Put Your Max Prop Back Together
- Thread starter fstbttms
- Start date
The boat came out for a new bottom recently and for some reason, the owner had the yard service the prop. Not that anybody in any boatyard knows jack shit about Max Props.
It is a nightmare to have any boatyard do anything to my MaxProp........I've had MaxProps for over 20 years and nobody but yours truly has ever touched them...
Hiring someone without assurance he knows what he is doing is equally a self-inflicted problem. In this case, blaming the boatyard is misplaced blame.
Slightly off topic- If you want to dive in a marina to do something like this, how do you know if it is safe to do so, as far as electrocution risk? Doesnt it just take one boat with a grounding or polarity issue to make marina dives a danger?
This same way an electrical worker avoids it, when working on a live power line. Test the waters and avoid being grounded. Note his neoprene gloves.
Jim...
PS: Is electrical shock how you got your SBO name?
You assume that the yard didn't provide those assurances. If I don’t know that to be the case, you sure as hell don’t either.
ESD (electric shock drowning) is so rare in saltwater as to be virtually unheard of. Hull cleaners like myself perform millions of service events in saltwater marinas every year without issue. Freshwater is a different story however.
Boat owners do talk to each other and often about boat stuff including maintenance/repairs/ word of mouth recommendations and horror stories. In fact, I have more confidence in their experience and recommendations (and my own) than the “yard”.
Third hand advice is usually worth what we pay for it.
I've been a mechanic long before I could hold a job. I repaired my mothers washing machine since the time I was 13. New Pump, new belt...etc, it lasted over 20 years. At 17 I pumped gas and worked on cars, got a job in a marina and packaged new boats, start to finish and put the Draw-Tite hitch on your car to boot. I have seen some horrible things that morons who are hired as mechanics have done. Beat the end of a prop shaft into the garbage as there was no coming back from the misuse and then blame the owner for not taking the prop off often enough. Put bottom paint on a boat who's paint was peeling off. The last yard that tried to take off my prop beat the hell out of the back of it with God only knows what and told me they couldn't get the prop off. I had to go to the boat with a puller and a torch and I saw the marks they left in the back of the hub. Had the prop in my hand in ten minutes without any brutal force, a little tension from a puller and a little heat from the torch. I hate having anyone touch my boat or my vehicle. There are so few craftsmen left that actually know their trade and ply it well. It's a shame to hear all the horror stories, it's more of a shame that we can't shut the morons down.