Pearson 365 and 367

Good on you (Kiwi speak meaning "Great move)!!! 

And good luck.  Your energy and willingness to engage, inform and give advice will be great assets.  One thing with business:  Remember to charge more than you pay.

Your old pen-pal Carl

At midnight on Feb 28/ March 1 POG rounded Cape Brett, which is the southern cape of the Bay of Islands in New Zealand, and turned South for Gulf Harbor just North of Auckland and 130 miles away.  A large swell was running from weeks of persistent hard southeasterly headwinds that had kept us from going, but we now had the wind on the beam and were doing seven knots on a magically shimmering sea with a full moon above the masts.  The self-steering quietly kept the boat on track as she plowed the waves.

It was my last passage on POG.  It was the first passage longer than 30 miles for Brendan Thompson, the new owner - his first night under sail at sea - and he was so happy he was almost glowing.  

This is a round-about way of announcing that POG is no longer mine - and the moonlit sail along the coast of New Zealand was a sweet farewell to a great boat where in the end everything worked so well, so well.

POG arrived on Dec 4 (2012) at Opua in the Bay of Islands in New Zealand after traveling a total of 7,400 miles and a 12.5 day final crossing from Vavau, Tonga.  Alas, I was not part of that last voyage because of my hernia operation in October.

One of the really good things to happen to me on POG's not always wonderful Pacific crossing was coming across Larry Schneider and Sheri Roberts on the island of Vavau in Tonga.  After my monster crewman had finally deserted for good and having sailed way too fast (because of monster crew wanting to go home) through the island world - I was not a very happy camper. Meeting Larry and Sheri turned things around.  

Larry and Sheri are an American cruising couple that settled in Tonga and started a small business of supplying a few moorings in a beautiful and remote bay to people that need to leave their boat for a while.  The two of them live on their minute one room houseboat and closely supervise and check the moored yachts.  Their help allowed me to go home and lick my wounds and get needed parts.  When my untimely hernia surgery stopped me from getting the boat to New Zealand myself this great couple found a good sailor to bring the boat down for me.  It cost some bucks, but was worth every penny as hurricane season is now in full swing with hurricane Evan already laying waste to Samoa and Fiji.

POG is now an imported  New Zealand boat.  Most of the needed repairs and maintenance are done.  The ripped cruising spinnaker is mended and the boat is happily tied to the dock at the Kerikeri Cruising Club Marina in the Bay of Islands.  There were times I doubted that it would happen, but all is well that ends well.

Thank you to all that have helped with input and advice and outright help - Dale Tanski, Nelson Tolar, Ray Deming - as I worked on getting the boat in shape for crossing the Pacific and whenever problems struck.  You are a great bunch of people.

When I bought POG there was a river coming from under the engine also.  Turned out to be the raw water pump seal that was shot and the water was spurting out from the holes about the middle of the pump body.  Another consequence of the diminished cooling water flow was just a trickle coming out the stern exhaust tube and lots of white smoke as the small amount of cooling water in the exhaust system was mostly turned to steam.

If this is not your problem you have to investigate the hose from the pump to the oil cooler or the oil cooler itself for a leak.  Best of luck.

As the years go by I am getting ever more befuddled.  One symptom is chasing off emails before I have read through them properly.

Where the aft strap is located when I lift my boat is between the STRUT (not the skeg!!!) and where the prop shaft enters the hull.  Not aft of the strut.  Forward sling is just under the beginnings of the ballast part of the keel.  Gives good balance and support.  The aft sling is not dragging around on the prop during attempts to put it in place.  Easy pull through of the sling in the opening between the hull and the prop shaft.

I will modify my first posting where I was talking about the skeg but meant the strut.

Here is what to do:

Tie an empty plastic bottle to a modest line (1/4" dia or so).  Look at a side diagram of the boat and determine the location of the STRUT.  You can also feel for it with a long stick from the dock.  Push the bottle with a boat hook under the hull in the space between the STRUT and where the prop shaft enters the hull.  Catch the bottle on the opposite side.  Draw the line tight and cleat on either side.  Make sure the shaft can be turned freely in neutral and that the line is on the hull and not under the shaft.

You can now travel to your haul out where the yard will use the line (or a bigger one scarfed to it) to pull the aft sling in place forward of the STRUT.  Before they lift, have them tighten the sling slightly and once again make sure the shaft tuns freely.

When they block the boat make sure that the aft block is not right at the aft tip of the keel.  Have them put a long support under the keel in this area to spread the load.  Several P 365 have had trouble with the hollow, vulnerable aft part of the keel.

How things can turn around.  I notice that the above conversations took place on 10/16 and 17.  The rest of that day I was on heavy duty garden and house maintenance duty, before leaving here on 10/20.

However, the morning after the full day of maintenance I had a bulge in my groin.  Hernia, said the doc in the afternoon. Hernia, said the surgeon the day after.  "We can operate on Tuesday 23".

After that a circus of expensive rearrangements of travel and other plans.  And here I sit, licking my wounds, hoping to get the boat down to New Zealand in the middle of hurricane season, if I am mended then and can pluck up my courage.

The lesson, I think, is:  Do it while you can.  I am glad I sailed around the world when I was 27.  Getting across the Pacific at near 70 is proving a bit of a chore.

Nah.  I or my wife send out occasional updates to a select little group of people.  I plan to write the story, briefly, of POG's voyage on this site, once the voyage is finished.

Hope you are getting somewhere with your prop and gearbox linkage issues.

I fly from San Francisco to Tonga on Saturday, Oct 20.  A friend from New Zealand and a buddy of his are joining me to bring the boat down to the Bay of Islands at the very North of New Zealand's North Island.  About 1,500 miles of sometimes treacherous water.  Thank you to all you nice people on this forum who have helped me with advice and encouragement and more.  Keep your fingers crossed for a good passage.

I have my own gearbox issues from crushing coral with my prop in French Polynesia.  The boat is now in Tonga and I am on my way back there Oct 20 to try to sail the last 1,500 miles down to New Zealand.  I have some parts with me and hope to fix what I believe is  most severely wrong with my Paragon before beginning the passage.  As I am a bit short of time this will be brief, but it will be a start for you.

If I understand the Paragon gear right the clutch discs are only operative in forward. You have had the lid off your gear and you have seen the long "arms" that move forward and aft on the drive shaft inside the gearbox.  When in forward the forward rounded end of these "arms" are forced against the clutch plates and the whole cylindrical planetary gear is forced to rotate together with the shaft as a unit, producing forward rotation of the propeller shaft.

In reverse the gear lever clamps a band around the forward part of the planetary gear and prevents it from rotating.  Instead the input shaft from the engine into the gearbox rotates gears inside the planetary cylinder that produce reverse rotation.

The reasons you don't have a reverse may be that you have broken the gears (teeth?) inside the planetary gear.  This is severe and expensive.  Or you have broken - or, in the best scenario, just slackened the reverse band mechanism.

You should have a manual for the Paragon on board.  If not have a member email you the pages on forward and reverse adjustments and try tightening the reverse clamp band adjustment.  I don't have access to this right now, so cry for help...

If, by mistake, you have now over-tightened the forward adjustment, back it off, as it may be the reason your shaft moves in forward even when you have shifted into reverse.

In fact, if you are going to have bad luck like this it is better to have the prop get stuck when in forward than reverse as the clutch plates slipping may save the gear from more severe damage.  Golden rule when a rope is anywhere in the vicinity of your prop:  Get out of gear!

Also check your V drive and oil seals, which are also vulnerable when this kind of thing happens.

Other members, if I am wrong about anything here, please correct me.

Best of luck.  I know what you are going through.

No worries, Ray.  As long as you can distinguish between your wife and your secretary you'll be fine.

Ray, Thank you for your concern.

Quote from: RayNWanda on October 12, 2012, 09:29:48 PM
Ummm, I have a question about the Paragon. I have never been inside one. Are the forward and reverse clutches the same size? The reason I ask is that if Carl has a RH prop, he is having to run in reverse to go forward. Some of the old Twin Disc marine gears have a smaller (wimpy) clutch for reverse, the wisdom was that it would not spend much time backing. Musta looked good on paper...

Carl, I'm not trying to buy more trouble for you, just trying to prevent a repeat failure.

This discussion is NOT about my Paragon, but about the troubles of Sta - Sea - Dawn, who started the posting.

I am not the one with a RH prop and I am doing well, I believe, with my problem thanks to parts scavenged from the Paragon you sent me.  The Paragon only employs the clutch plates in forward.  In reverse, flipping the gear lever clamps a band around the Planetary gear and the rotation becomes right handed at the prop as long as you keep pressure on the gear lever and the band tight on the planetary gear cylinder.

Because of this mode of operation of the Paragon I think Sta-Sea-Dawn has to get a proper left handed 17x12 prop which matches the function of the gear box.

And StaSeaDawn... Don't worry too much about the Edson pedestal and cable linkage and levers.  They can be easily switched to work as designed.  Just get into it and you will see.   

YES - as far as I can recall.  Boat is in Tonga.  OOOOPS! - Looking at the drawing of the gear box I am inclined to think NO.

Better wait for confirmation from someone who has his boat nearby.

How is that for unhelpful "advice"?

You can buy a new Sailer 3 prop from Deep Blue Yachtsupply (see internet) for $511.  Takes them 4-5 weeks to deliver.  How your present set up has worked at all is beyond me....

And Dale, I am off to Tonga in ten days.  Ray Deming, that angel of a man, sent me a discarded Paragon gear and right now I am busy fitting a new bearing and oil seal to the end assembly.  I will bring that assembly piece with me and put it in place of my leaky one before departing for New Zealand.  You will hear more from me soon  Keep your fingers crossed for a good passage.

Noise, slippage, oil leak(s), overheating, wobbly shafts for example.  On the other hand "don't fix what ain't broke".