Yacht pulls to starboard under power, did!

[brightontrader]

I posted a while back about this and had a lot of response from you forum members. This is what has happened since:


NOW:

Problem solved, boat now goes completely straight under power without a hand on the wheel even..

I did 2 things and I am not sure which one has worked as hauling the boat out several times is too expensive however:

1st I ordered a new type of propeller from Axiom Propellers Ltd :: home and the director advised a 24" left handed (as before) and offered a money back guarantee it would solve the issue. Can't get much better than that.) It seemed very low cost and as he may have thought solving my problem was worth a low price as his main market for these is narrow boat, presently.) I am keeping this to myself as reporting the success as the unwritten side of my deal with him.

2nd, when the boat was hauled a local marine engineer, Mike West from West Marine Brighton, noticed that the prop was 7 inches from the back edge of the P bracket (ie: far too far away) and the cutlass bearing was shot, presumably from the vibration, although this was not noticeable before.

There was an alternator fitted to the shaft with a sort of universal joint as the engine is not totally aligned with shaft tube. It looked like the alternator may have been an after thought and when the boat was built the builder possibly mounted every thing, saw the problem and thought fxxk it, I'll just leave this like this and hope no one notices.

Anyway, the original prop top blade was only 5 inches from the top of the semi balanced rudder and the flow was pushing the rudder over under power.

Mick West's engineer managed to grind off 4.5 inches of shaft inside the boat without dropping the rudder and re attach the shaft alternator et al..

And bugger me, today, I motored round the marina and it completely worked.....Phew!!!

to be honest, or dishonest more like it, if it had not worked I was going to sell the boat...as it was so annoying the pull to starboard I would have constantly hated it..