Day 59 Another delay

We got hit by another delay today.  Tracy was checking thru the boat inspecting systems since we had planned to head to Astoria on Monday or Tuesday.  She lifted a floor panel in the aft stateroom and found the bracket that holds the driveshaft to the hull had shattered.  It had been chipped by the bushings on the right side of the boat.  We had been told about it by the man who surveyed our boat when we bought it.  It had been fine until today.  Zephyr had been fine when we took it to the gas dock two days ago.  Some time it just decided to shatter.  You can see the big hole on the right side of the fitting in the photo.

We got several other boaters to come and look at it.  People who know a lot more than I do about these things.    One had recently installed the same type of unit on his boat.  One has been sailing for almost 50 years and the last had owned the largest boat repair facility in Newport till 7 years ago when he sold it.  The general thought is to reenforce the broken board with two plates of stainless steel.  One in front and one behind it.  Put all the screws back in it and fill the remaining void with epoxy.  Once it cures, it should be fine.  We made a template of what we need.  If that doesn't work, we may have to rip out the entire wood panel.  That where it gets tougher.  It's been fiberglassed to the hull.  Plus the drive shaft has to be removed to get the drive unit out so I can get to the board.  Not a easy thing to do.  

That's about all we got done today.  This type of thing can take up your entire day.  Now I have to notify several people that we will be late getting to Astoria and Port Townsend.   We couldn't move the boat if we wanted to as of now.

Better it happen now than when we were out traveling.  I'd have hated to have it go wrong as we were crossing the Columbia Bar.  That could have been disastrous.  We may be later than we expected but we will be safer!