When it comes to hauling out, finding the right marina can make all the difference. In this video we travel to the Napa Valley Marina, a picturesque destination for completing boat projects on the hard.
Upon reaching the Napa Valley Marina, we were greeted by its serene waters, surrounded by rolling vineyards and lush greenery. The marina offers modern amenities, including dockside facilities, fuel, provisions, and friendly staff.
Once on the hard, our boat was pressure washed by the marina staff. We hadn’t seen the bottom of our boat out of the water since we bought it in 2012. Surprisingly, it wasn’t in bad shape. The boot stripe paint was peeling and the bottom paint was sloughing off, but that’s to be expected. Once we were parked in our space we pulled off the propeller. We rented a prop puller from the marina and it came off pretty easily considering we’d done zero maintenance to the bottom of the boat for a decade. We also started to remove the thru-hulls which we are going to replace.
When we installed our new Beta Marine 43 we had to add an extension and a coupling to the prop shaft because the transmission on the Beta was shorter than the Perkins. We wanted to get a new prop shaft without the extension and coupling so we pulled out the shaft to take it to a fabricator.
We also wanted to look at the cutlass bearing, which is a key component found in the propulsion system. Particularly those equipped with inboard engines or stern drives. Its primary function is to support the propeller shaft as it extends through the hull and into the water, allowing for smooth and efficient rotation while minimizing friction and wear.
Visually, a cutlass bearing typically consists of a cylindrical sleeve made of a durable and self-lubricating material such as rubber, bronze, or a composite material. Ours is composite. This sleeve is precision-machined to fit snugly around the propeller shaft. It provides a stable and low-friction interface between the shaft and the surrounding hull structure.
The cutlass bearing is usually housed within a bearing carrier or strut located near the stern of the boat, where it is securely mounted to the hull. This positioning ensures that the propeller shaft remains properly aligned with the engine or transmission, facilitating efficient power transfer and smooth operation of the propulsion system.
We had eleven thru-hulls in our boat and most of them we couldn’t close without some serious torque. We decided to abandon two thru-hulls we didn’t want (under the head sink and an old transducer) and added a new thru-hull for the watermaker and one for a manual holding tank pumpout. We also replaced all of them with bronze Groco thru-hulls. We also replaced the wood backing plates with Groco fiber composite backing plates that are a lot stronger.
A boat thru-hull fitting is a connection point between the interior and exterior of the hull. Typically made of durable materials such as bronze, stainless steel, or composite plastics, thru-hulls are designed to withstand the harsh marine environment and provide reliable performance.
All of our thru-hulls feature a valve or seacock mechanism that can be closed when the boat is not in use or when maintenance is required. This valve allows the us to control the flow of water through the fitting and provides an additional layer of protection against leaks or flooding. The seacocks should be exercised regularly to ensure they don’t become corroded or encrusted with marine growth.
Our boat was built in 1977 and the topsides gelcoat is old and chalky. The word topsides sounds like it means the top or deck of the boat, but it actually refers to the vertical portion of the hull that lies above the waterline. This area encompasses the exterior sides of the vessel from the waterline up to the deck edge or gunwale. Visually, the topsides are the visible exterior surface of the boat’s hull when it is afloat.
Jeni spent hours and hours using a cutting compound on the topsides gelcoat to remove the chalkiness. Surprisingly, the gelcoat still had some shine to it. We also found some repairs to the gelcoat that we hadn’t seen before. The repairs weren’t done well and were easy to spot once they were buffed out.
There was also a lot of stains on the gelcoat, mostly from the brown river water we’ve been in for a decade. Jeni used a Total Boat stain remover and it worked great. Unfortunately, we ran out of time and good weather to properly buff and add some protective polish to the topsides.
Because our topsides has grooves molded into it, the boot stripe is defined by one of the molded grooves. We wanted to raise our boot stripe, but we were running out of time to get the bottom painted so we just painted over the old boot stripe for now. We can always raise it later if we need to.
We used a primer and Interlux Brightside on the boot stripe. We wanted to use Interlux Perfection Plus which is a two-part paint and is more durable, but chandlery didn’t have it in stock and it also takes longer to apply. For now the one-part paint will have to do.