I finished reassembling the transmission this week. Latest posting is on the Rhapsody Blog

Here are some teaser pictures - go to the blog for full size picture links and the story.

Torquing the lock nut


Transmission Reassembled & Painted


I'll report how this works when the boat is launched this spring.

For future reference I found some fiberglass tubing at Tap Plastics.
.524"OD x .417"ID Drilled out 2 of the lower and 1 upper to 3/4", put a little thickened epoxy on one end and bolted the brackets into place. This held the tubes in the proper position while the epoxy set up. Then removed the brackets, turned the rudder over and filled the rest of the void between the 3/4" hole and the tube with unmodified epoxy. Once that was set up I drilled out the rest of the holes and repeated the above process. Then faired out all of the holes with thickened epoxy.
This turned out to be a good solution for me as I was very concerned about just filling the holes with epoxy and redrilling and keeping the brackets in their proper position.

I posted more information on my blog about other projects including new hatch boards, repainting the boom, and drying out the "hidden bilge". Here is a link to the post.

and of course a teaser photo of the boom sanded.

I wanted to give a heads up so people can check their boom and boom bail. Over the years, the force on the bail for the main sheet has elongated the hole in the boom, effectively causing the bolt to be lower in the boom. This has the undesired effect of interfering with the wire on the outhaul. On Rhapsody, I found the boom bail bolt was sawed about 1/4 way through from the interference.

Check out the picture below. I've ordered the Boom Bail Bearing Plate for 3/8" Bolt: K-2172RP from Rig-Rite to prevent the hole from elongating further. I'll also get a new boom bail bolt and put a stainless sleeve over it to act like a pulley if the outhaul rubs against it.

Good time to change the outhaul to spectra (-:

I received the Boom Bail Bearing Plates and installed them, also using a SS sleeve to prevent the wire sawing through the bolt. Below is the "sandwich" made, and the finished product.





Just a picture from the Rig-Rite page below to show how to properly reassemble the reef line and the cams - I had it reversed at first and couldn't figure out why. The cam is on the aft bolt, not the forward one - duh!

Just a follow-up on my previous posting about the Rhapsody clutch rebuild. Rhapsody was launched Friday and went on sea trials on Sat 1 May. The transmission works great. There is a solid "clunk" when shifting into forward or reverse signifying the clutch is engaged. No chatter at all.

It's been a while since I added anything to my maintenance blog. I just fixed that since today I cut into the deck and started recore work.

Below is a teaser photo - read the blog entry at this link.

Day 2 of the cockpit recore. Finished the rough work and ready for fairing / gelcoat in the spring.





More info on the latest blog post.

Bill, what was the source of the water? It looks like it came in from the main sheet track fasteners?