Riding the waves...

Not ocean waves, not for a while.  Not even lake waves, that will be a while yet as well.  No, I mean emotional waves which, I must tell you, is a novelty to me.  But this V-drive thing is getting to be quite a ride.  Yesterday I was convinced we were completely sunk.  Walter machine just didn't have any good news and about had me convinced that getting Kintala underway again was going to require nothing short of mechanical magic.  The tech there is convinced that our boat isn't factory and that there is simply no good way to put the parts back together again.  And neither the Tartan factory nor S & S (who designed the Tartan 42) seems to know just what engine / tranny / V-drive combination was originally installed.  (I'm still baffled as to how that can be.  Does the factory just have the assembly line go pull what ever bits happen to be laying around on a shelf somewhere and stick them in a boat?  I admit I used to build go-carts that way, but really?)  The yard that did the inspections has been less than encouraging as well; "You can't expect us to look into the future, can you?" (Well, YES, actually! Why else would I pay you to inspect something?) All that the broker seems to know for sure is that the boat should float. (I'm starting to suspect more lawyers and nasty letters are in my future.)

I was about as discouraged as I have been since we started The Retirement Project.  Retire?  I was starting to think we would be lucky to avoid bankruptcy.

But this morning Deb went into full Internet Sleuth mode and soon turned up pictures of at least three other Tartan 42 drive trains.  Two are very similar to ours and one is down right identical.  Clearly Kintala is factory after all. 

Even though they didn't have the exact information I needed, the email from S & S included the following; (I sent them these pictures.  Ours in the one on the left before I started ripping things apart.)

The two V drives you sent look identical with the exception of the mounting. It looks like they added some hefty mounts on yours, probably for vibration reasons. It also looks like the attachment is simply handled through the small bell housing between V drive and gearbox. I can’t imagine what the big deal is with Walter that they can’t assist you. Perhaps they had a bunch of these blow up. In any event I would probably try to put it back together as it was (obviously with gearbox and V drive rebuilt) and you will undoubtedly get many years of continued use out of it.

Sorry we couldn’t be more help.

Best Regards,
Bruce Johnson
President and Chief Designer
Sparkman & Stephens

I decided that Mr. Johnson has it right.  If its factory that means it worked once upon a time, is working for other people right now, and I can surly make it work again.

Tranny, V-drive, coupler, mounts...

Put the boat back together. 

Make it go. 

Go. 

So in the morning we will head out to the lake and I will start changing engine mounts...  Getting it all done will still be a massive amount of work and cost a hand full of SBUs.  It probably can't be finished much before spring.  But there is no reason to think that it isn't going to get done.  And that has me feeling much better now.