The Voyage of the Swan
 
Ventura Harbor Boat Yard’s organized shop area includes the Paint Shop, Mechanical, Welding, Machine Shop and Electrical Shop.
The lifting. This is the smaller of the two lifts at VHBY. They can handle up to 165 tons.
Tom Bowman (Mechanics Shop), Dale Morris (Paint Shop) and Rusty. Rusty is easily the smartest person I’ve ever met.
After the prop was pulled, I tried for part of a day to pull the cutless bearing out, but there wasn’t enough of it showing to grip.
Tom Bowman, supervising the removal of the rudder. The rudder just cleared the opening without having to lift the boat.
It was necessary to apply heat to break the grip of the sealant bedding the rudder shoe. Then, it was knocked off with a bronze drift.
John Dysland refits the prop. He discovered the prop had previously been “key bound.” Good catch!
The new cutless bearing is installed along with propeller and zinc.
John uses a rudder jack to ease the rudder upward while I worked inside to guide the shaft into the steering drive wheel.
Our paint problem: successive coats of paint broke the adhesion between the first coat and the epoxy barrier coat.
Pressure washing the old bottom paint off.
After the power wash, which removed most of the loose paint. The boat was then skirted and the rest was power sanded off.
First coat of epoxy primer.
Applying the bottom paint.
Finished.
Outfitting: Haulout (pictures below)
I’ve hauled out at a lot of boat yards. I can’t recall a comfortable experience, ever, until this last haulout. We had heard many favorable recommendations for Ventura Harbor Boatyard (VHBY), but we were skeptical. In light of my previous experiences, we felt no yard could be that good. We were wrong.
We found the VHBY people very friendly, helpful, knowledgeable and experienced. Fact is, people from all over the West Coast, some traveling great distances, come to VHBY because of the unique way this yard does business. Customers can do all the work themselves, part of the work, assist, or let the yard do it all. Advice is given freely. Tools are available for customer use. The yard is clean and organized, with separate specialized shops for paint, mechanical, welding, metal fabrication and electrical. In spite of the fact our boat had some tough issues to deal with, our stay at VHBY was a very positive experience. The rates were very reasonable. We would recommend VHBY without reservation. Check out their website at vhby.com
Our two primary problems to solve on the hard were replacing the cutless bearing and painting the bottom. I had hoped to replace the cutless bearing without removing the shaft. However, after taking one look at it, Tom Bowman, who runs the Mechanics Shop, predicted the shaft would have to come out. Still, I had to try. After a day of mostly mutilating the bearing liner, I realized Tom was right. The bearing was just in too far to grip and wouldn’t budge.
Tom put John Dysland on the job of removing the bearing. Tom told me what to do inside the boat, so I loosened the steering drive wheel, steering cables, packing glands and prop shaft. Tom supervised the removal of the rudder shoe, which required heat to break it loose. The boat was blocked high enough that the rudder shaft just cleared the opening without lifting the boat. The prop shaft came out with a slide hammer. With the shaft out, John made quick work of the bearing, cutting it lengthwise from within, then folding it in on itself. After I cleaned up the prop, prop shaft and rudder shaft, John put it all back together. I helped on the inside again. What would have taken me days working by myself, came apart and back together in just a few short hours. And, I learned a lot.
Our second problem was the old bottom paint. It was just falling off. There were just too many old coats of hard paint attached to the original barrier coat. It’s also possible the barrier coat might have been allowed to completely “go off” before the first coat of bottom paint was applied, weakening the bond. Dale Morris, in charge of the paint shop (also an owner), recommended power washing the old paint off, thoroughly sanding, applying multiple coats of epoxy primer and rolling on two coats of high copper load epoxy bottom paint (three coats at the waterline). Dale has an immense reputation when it comes to paint, so we went with his advice. Given the need for expertise on this job, we elected to have the yard do it. Step by step, his trained people made it happen. We were really impressed with the care and competence they demonstrated.
Finally back in the water, we are glad we used VHBY. Not only did the work get done right, but we met a lot of great people. Thanks Dale, Tom, Kim, Steve, Jeanette, John, Brenda, Otto, Bill, Nick, Luis, Elias, Ivo, Rick, Jose, Travis, Mike and all the other folks at VHBY that made our stay a safe and pleasant one.
Outfitting Pages 1 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9