O'day 39 shaft replacement

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Nov 3, 2010
564
Oday 39 Lake mills WI
Most of the boats are in the water so the boat yard finally got to my shaft project.
You may recall:
My marina's service crew is more experienced with fishing boats than sailboats. They broke the 1 1/4 bronze drive shaft when attempting to pull the prop off to replace the cutlass bearing. At that point the Marina manager and I decided to haul the boat 30 miles north to a big time boat yard.

I have a buddy with a 39 that is one digit off from my hull number. The boats were born side by side at the factory. He is a long time boat mechanic and has actually replaced the transmission in my boat many years ago.

He told me to cut the shaft to and replace with Stainless but I thought I could get by with just replacing the cutlass. When they broke the shaft, my choice was clear and now partially funded by the Marina.

The pros started work Monday. I was working at the bow. I told them my mentor said to cut the shaft. They insisted on trying to bang it out with the sliders. Five minutes later they went for the sawsall. It took 5 minutes and everything was out.
The prop was pressed out with a five ton press, the coupling did not budge using the same press. The couplings are cheap I would not have had them Re-install it anyway. So much for the theory that bronze will not seize with steel. My guess is that the steel coupling rusted so much it clamped down on the bronze. A bit of heat would have loosened it but torches, confined spaces, lots of penetrating oil do not mix. Cutting the shaft and unbolting the coupling from the transmission was the way to go.
As my mentor predicted , the shaft was badly worn where the packing tightened around it. The mechanic said it would never last and would have been a recurring project.
The shaft is will cost me $700 from the boat yard. I know from my buddies at the stainless factory the cost from a machine shop is $300. I can't deny the boat yard the mark-up. They will install a PSS drip-less seal so I'm hoping for a dry bilge when the boat goes back in the water.

I am installing a free fall windlass in the anchor locker. It's made by power winch and is only $600 for a winch that can pull 900#, enough for the 39.
That is a fraction of the cost of a lewmar or other windlasses.
I'll send take photos and post more info soon.
 
Last edited:
Feb 26, 2009
716
Oday 30 Anchor Yacht Club, Bristol PA
The ineptness of "mechanics" defies logic. The banging from the sliders pretty much insures they damaged your transmission. A well made and stout prop puller is a must have for a yard too. 1 1/4" bronze? is worth $ just in scrap, bet they kept it! Did they drop the rudder or bang past that too? It all sounds like an expensive job performed by hammer and duct tape mechanics! You will love the PSS seal. going of 4 yrs in my boat. not a drip.
 
Nov 3, 2010
564
Oday 39 Lake mills WI
Powerwinch windlass installation

I used the glass layup that Joe gave me the last time I visited YOT.
My installation is not very nice cosmetically but it is very strong. It was hard to fit the structure in the tapered anchor locker and still be perpendicular to the centerline on the boat. The thick layers of mat were tough to work with in the small space but again, IT IS STRONG! Thanks again Joe for the material.

The Powerwinch 41 is a very unusual product. At $600 it's a fraction of the price of a Lewmar. It's a free fall windlass which has it's up and downs (sorry). It allows you to quickly drop the anchor exactly when and where you want it. The down side is that you can easily drop a pile of chain on the anchor yielding a mess vs a good set. We will soon see how this works out.

The Windlass comes with a helm operated switch. As you can see from the photo , I placed this next to the unit. I did it for two reasons:

(1)Placing the switch at the helm would have required an increase in wire run by 50% and would have required 4 more splices (more about that later)

(2)I do not intend to rely on the winch to hold up the anchor. We will have to go forward to remove the chain stopper. Why not drop the anchor while you are there?

The switch is not waterproof. This can be a problem but they do offer a waterproof version. I figure I will likely want a remote control by the time the switch fails due to water. I'm hoping this switch (in a water tight box)will give us a few years to see exactly what will work best for us.
The water tight box and rain cover came from Lowes. I saw no need to spend more money until we have more experience with this thing. As you can see from the photo it should do a decent job of keeping the water out of the switch.

My main concern about he Powerwinch is all the splices and connections switching from 6 gauge to 12 gauge back and forth. (see wiring diagram) Because of this, I was very careful making splices and connections. All were crimped and soldered. I eliminated the need for the 6 gauge from the switch to the motor by putting the switch close by.

I'm not an electrical engineer but all these connections and gauge changes do not look right. Anyone have a comment??


The Windlass came with 12 gauge motor leads that had been spliced to add an additional few inches. I thought that very odd, that and the fact that it was a green wire which they tell you to splice onto a red wire tells me that these units may have been designed for some other purpose. This may also allow them to sell them for half of what the competitors sell them for. Worst of it, the green wire that had been spliced at the factory came loose as I tugged on it as I was installing the winch. :eek:
My other concern is the the chain locker dimensions they recommend for different size lines and lengths. They give the dimensions for length and width but not depth. What good is that? And how many boats have a square or rectangular anchor locker?

OK so why did I buy this thing?
I checked around on line on several forums. People have had good luck with them. I read a few complains of mis-feeds but others say they have used them for years. I chock up the mis-feeds to installation/rode-chain issues.

The platform I built will be fine for a Lewmar Windlass if I find problems with the Powerwinch. The experiment was worth $600 not $2000 +,+,+.
 

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Jan 22, 2008
28
Oday 37 Fernandina Beach FL
Re: Powerwinch windlass installation

Thanks for the info on the winch installation. I have a 37CC. How much rope & chain are you going to have? My locker is shallow. Are you using the space below?
 
Dec 14, 2009
63
Oday 37CC Norfolk, VA
Do you have any power or amp spec's on this thing - 12 gauge wire in this circuit is scary to me for a windlass install. For windlass for a boat of this size you would be talking 35-50A @ 12V. More like 6 preferably 4AWG depending on your battery distance.
 
Nov 3, 2010
564
Oday 39 Lake mills WI
Do you have any power or amp spec's on this thing - 12 gauge wire in this circuit is scary to me for a windlass install. For windlass for a boat of this size you would be talking 35-50A @ 12V. More like 6 preferably 4AWG depending on your battery distance.
My thoughts exactly !!!
I went to practical sailor for some help.
The Amp load at Max working load is 24 amps. a 2 foot run of 12 gauge is rated at 15 amps or so. The unit has a thermal circuit breaker that trips at 25 after some period of time. It's not that far off and it must be OK since the 12 gauge is comes with the unit attached at the factory. Maybe the thermar circuit breaker protects the wire.

Digging a bit deeper and looking at the comparison charts from Practical sailor, the difference from the power winch and their pick the Maxwll HRC -8 is the speed of the retrieval under load. Maxwell 90 fpm to Power winch 56 fpm.
This is corresponds to a similar difference in amp draw. Maxwell 56 amps to power winches 24. The Maxwell pull is stronger too.
The advantage the power winch has is the freefall compared to 120 ft/min.

Shopping on line I found a Maxwell hrc-8 for $900 but it now has a free fall feature (but can't be activated remotely) it really is an emergency feature if you loose power.(makes sense) .

The difference is actually the motor size. The maxwell is 600 watts the power winch is 300. You get what you pay for. Both seem to be great values. You will need to buy much heaver wire for the Maxwell installation.

Practical sailor did not like the free fall feature but on-line many users love it.

I'll go with the Maxwell if this thing craps out.
 
Nov 3, 2010
564
Oday 39 Lake mills WI
Summer is here and the shaft has been installed. I'm heading up this weekend to assemble the Mast and load the boat. (It will require several loads)

I've just realized that I get mt garage back.
Photos coming.
 
Nov 3, 2010
564
Oday 39 Lake mills WI
A Fitting End To The Project

Shaft complete, boat launched ,mast set. Just in time for a hail storm but after the storm a beautiful rainbow.

It was a joy spending the last few weeks in the boat yard with the pro's near by just in case I get over my head. Took on a few projects I might not have done without them close by.

The dent doctor will be repairing my wife's car. Too bad my car does not have a hitch.
 

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Jan 27, 2008
3,045
ODay 35 Beaufort, NC
Nasty looking storm, usually along with hail comes a lot of wind, like tornadoes and such. Did you get the wind with the hail?

We had a storm about two weeks ago that went from dead calm to over 60 knots instantly. I was looking out my window and all of a sudden everything was going sideways, leaves, branches, stuff hanging on hooks. Blew down fences, a couple trees and large branches. I went out to look for a funnel cloud to see if I should head for the hills, but nothing spotted. Lasted for about ten minutes. The radar said the storm was moving at 40 knots. Crazy.
 
Nov 3, 2010
564
Oday 39 Lake mills WI
Nasty looking storm, usually along with hail comes a lot of wind, like tornadoes and such. Did you get the wind with the hail?

We had a storm about two weeks ago that went from dead calm to over 60 knots instantly. I was looking out my window and all of a sudden everything was going sideways, leaves, branches, stuff hanging on hooks. Blew down fences, a couple trees and large branches. I went out to look for a funnel cloud to see if I should head for the hills, but nothing spotted. Lasted for about ten minutes. The radar said the storm was moving at 40 knots. Crazy.
Yes, we got it all wind rain and hail. I was up there yesterday. The insurance companies had their mobile claims people their. It looks like the whole town got hit bad from the hail much worse than my wife's car parked and the marina. Her claim totaled $5,500.
 
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