[Public-List] Launching 148

[rixquik at yahoo.com]

Roger, 

That will make an entertaining chapter the your memoirs, no doubt!

That slipped shaft/rudder jam scenario is why I drilled dimples in the shaft for the safety-wired setscrews and have a worm-drive hose clamp permanently installed on the shaft just in front of the stuffing box. The shaft/coupling joint seems to be the weakest point in the system transmitting reverse thrust loading to the hull. And no situation, much less one bad enough to require backing down hard, will be much improved by having the shaft part ways with the rest of the boat.

I'm curious about what measures or precautions others have used.

Rick Leach
Sugar Magnolia, #121
 1315443641.0