Loss of Volvo Folding Propeller! That should have been the end of it....

This little yacht stays with us for a few hours but he is motoring

Here is our report of what happens next:

On Saturday 4 August we depart Elba Island at 1000H bound for Arno Vecchio Marina in the Arno River, near Pisa. We plan to anchor at Castiglioncello overnight approximately three quarters of the way to our final destination.

Wind is SE 10-15 knots and we enjoy a really pleasant sail for 7 hours. We are feeling very positive and enjoying the day. The boat is going well and the wind holds until we are west of the lighthouse at the outside end of the reef at Vada 7 miles from our destination. 

Richard turns the engine on and engages forward gear.  He instantly reports that the propellor does not feel right and puts it back into neutral.  His comment is “It feels as though the propellor does not fully open”.  We have a discussion about one of us going over the side to inspect the propellor, but as we have the dinghy tied across the back of the stern and it will take some time to get it off, we decide to try going into gear again.  This time everything seems to be normal and we proceed to motor the final 7 miles to our destination.

On arrival we drop anchor and proceed to reverse backwards in a normal anchoring manouvre.  We reverse approximately 20 metres and lay out the chain.  Richard has the engine in neutral by the time the chain is laid out and then puts it into reverse again to set the anchor.  There is a big ‘thump‘ much louder than when the blades normally open and then no response to reverse gear.  On going over the side to inspect the propeller it is obvious that it has come off - gone.  The empty drive shaft is all that remains.

We immediately take a note of our long and lat position.  We call up Cala de Medici Marina Ormeggiatore who are incredibly kind to us and very efficient and send a diver out immediately to search for the propellor.  Unfortunately the sun is low in the sky at this time and the search is abandoned.  We decide to stay on anchor for the night to enable the diver to search again the next day, but have to be towed into the marina at 2300H because the wind comes up and we find ourselves on a lee shore with sea state building.  The sea becomes short and very choppy and we are most uncomfortable and concerned for the boat. Its all a bit tense for a while there until we are safely inside the marina thanks to Riccardo the Ormeggiatore.  

Prop is found all in one piece!  Pietro our Hero!

The next day at midday we return to the long and lat position with the same diver, Pietro and are incredibly lucky that he is able to retrieve the anchor within minutes of going over the side.

Prop parts cleaned up ready for re-attachment

We are hugely relieved that we have the propellor back and to discover that all the parts are intact.  We proceed with plans to haul out and have it reinstalled on the shaft.  Naturally we are keen to understand what caused it to come off.  Initially all the blame appears to lie with the design of the 'nut' and washer which screws on to the end of the shaft.  The nut is round, when the Volvo diagram we have shows a hexagonal nut which is held in place by a lock washer and two grub screws which go through the side of the hub.  Our research leads us to discover that Volvo do not provide this nut with a shaft fitted propeller.  It is the responsibility of the manufacturer of the shaft to provide a proper nut which fits the shaft provided.  The shafts apparently come in many different sizes.  So.  Although we have purchased in 2008 a brand new shaft and a brand new propeller and had them both fitted by a Volvo Agent in Isola, Slovenia by the name of Felix Yachting, we are now in a marina in Italy paying Euro 106 per day for the pleasure and will have to haul out during peak season and pay Euro 500 for one hour in the slings to have our lost and found prop refitted. 
  

Prop hub showing nut in place

We take a couple of days to research all this properly and to try and have a proper nut sent to us to re-install the shaft with, but the local Volvo people send us the wrong size and the wrong part.  We are stuck with the nut we have (.... not talking about Richard or Pippy) and take all our parts to Livorno to visit a highly recommended Volvo engineer who takes one look and suggests we ditch the washer and just screw the grub screws into the side of the nut.  It makes sense... we like it.
  

Nut on left with grub screws lined up and washer

We haul out on Wednesday.  The first thing we notice after the bare looking shaft, is the new chip out of the rudder leading edge.  Obviously the prop has slammed into the rudder on its way to the bottom.  We watch attentatively as the prop is re-installed.  Every move is checked, every screw is installed with 'lock-tight'.   Once everything is in place and just before we are about to re-launch and almost as an afterthought, the engineer grabs the rudder and wriggles it.  To our surprise he reports movement in the bearings.  We had the rudder and bearings overhauled by the same company in Isola and have not had any symptoms of problems with the bearings since then, nor should we.  We continue with launch and return under our own power to our berth.  The prop appears to be working just fine.   

That should have been the end of it.  

Our costs so far:  Euro 700 for haulout and prop re-installation, Marina fees Euro 530,Tow to haulout E50, Diver E100.

Later, on leaving the marina and increasing the revs to 1800, we are experiencing extreme vibration.  Something is definitely not right.  So back we go for another expensive overnight and a diagnosis that our engine is some way out of alignment.  

It is not until this point that we start to connect the incident 7 miles off the coast when the prop did not feel right when we first turned the engine on.  Something wrapped around the prop would have possibly caused the misalignment of the engine, and the feeling Richard described as a sense that the prop did not open properly.  Another Euro 120 plus Euro 90 marina fees and we are out of there the next day with everything apparently functioning normally.   

That should have been the end of it too...

Unfortunately for us, it is not the end of it as we continue onwards on our summer cruising and some days later on our first off the wind sail, we experience considerable vibration from the rudder, enough to eventually cause us concern about the safety of the boat.  More about that later.