20. You can go sailing in a rubber suit and nobody will think you are strange.
19. You don't have to sneak your sail magazines into the house.
18. If you are having trouble with sailing, it's perfectly acceptable to pay a professional to show you how to improve your technique.
17. The Ten Commandments don't say anything about sailing.
16. If your partner takes pictures or videotapes of you sailing, you don't have to worry about them showing up on the Internet when you become famous.
15. Your sailing partner won't keep asking questions about other partners you've sailed with.
14. It's perfectly respectable to sail with a total stranger.
13. When you see a really good sailor, you don't have to feel guilty about imagining the two of you sailing together.
12. If your regular sailing partner isn't available, he/she won't object if you go sailing with someone else.
11. Nobody will ever tell you that you can go blind if you sail by yourself.
10. When dealing with a sailing pro, you never have to wonder if they are really an undercover cop.
9. You don't have to go to a sleazy shop in a seedy neighborhood to buy sailing magazines.
8. You can have a sailing calendar on your wall at the office, tell sailing jokes and invite coworkers to sail with you without getting sued for harassment.
7. There's no such thing as a sailing transmitted disease.
6. You and your sailing partner always finish at the same time.
5. Nobody expects you to promise to sail with just one partner for the rest of your life.
4. Nobody expects you to give up sailing if your partner loses interest in the sport.
3. It is social acceptable to sail in large groups.
2. You don't have to be a newlywed to plan a vacation primarily for the enjoyment of sailing.
1. Your sailing partner will never say, "What? We just sailed last week! Is that all you ever think about?"
Wednesday, December 03, 2008
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Friday, October 03, 2008
Saying good bye to Yankee Point!!!
Why I am leaving Yankee Point Marina.
At the end of July I wrapped a line around my prop and pulled the engine off its mounts.
I asked YANKEE POINT MARINA to haul the boat and inspect. They found that the motor mounts were damaged.
YANKEE POINT MARINA wrote an estimate to replace the mounts.
YANKEE POINT MARINA ordered mounts and when they arrived they noted that they didn’t appear like the old ones:
Instead of finding the right mounts they told me the original motor mounts were in Ken Knull’s words “no longer available”.
YANKEE POINT MARINA sent a supplement to install new style mounts which I agreed to since it seemed there was no other option.
In a later email ken stated,
I inspected the boat in mid august and found that the mounts would not fit the beds due to a steel brace right where the bolts were supposed to go. I then found the OEM style mounts by simply emailing westerbeke and asking if they had a mount that looked like mine. It took less than an hour to ascertain the right mounts were available.
I even asked Westerbeke if they were a rare mount:
I met with Ken and Staff late in August in a contentious meeting where I pointed out that they had installed the forward starboard mounts too far forward and much farther apart than they should have been. This was due to the beam supporting the beds blocking the mounting bolts. YANKEE POINT MARINA were trying to force a part that would not fit into the wrong place.
I showed them where the OEM mounts were available and asked them to get the right mounts and install them. I was met with a defensive, almost hostile tone. Ken would not even look at or consider evidence that is as plain as day.
In fact Ken Knull also asserted at that time that the beds were originally installed wrong and the engine would never align. I told him that day that of course it "wouldn’t" align…since he had just told his employees not to align it otherwise they would be proving him wrong!
The beds were installed by a renowned engine installer in annapolis maryland who only does only engine installs and maintains diesels. The engine, shaft and cutlass bearing have over 1000 hours on them and the bearing measures:
Interior diameter sea and bilge end are identical at 22.7 mm
Exterior diameter sea and bilge are identical at 34.9 mm
The bearing has eight rubber ridges that the shaft rides on. To locate each I noted the two set screw dimples and counted from there to ID each ridge and measure it.
For a bearing that is over 1000 hours old it basically is perfect. The bearing is in my possession and anyone is welcome to measure it themselves.
Ken Knull later emailed me:
The after edge of the bearing was chewed up. remember I sucked a line into the aperture and it wound up around the shaft and pulled the engine backwards. The bearing bore is concentric based on the measurements above.
I am not sure what Ken is talking about as I have measured it myself and he would not even look at it when we met. Fact is the the engine aligned before. Now Ken wanted to bill me for ripping out and installing beds to the tune of $2400.00.
YANKEE POINT MARINA had already billed me $630 for lifting and re-drilling the beds to install the WRONG mounts. Money that was only spent to do work that was un-needed since they failed to procure the correct mounts.
As a point of fact the beds could stand do be beefed up, but they have operated in this fashion for ten years+ with no issues. They did not need to be ripped out. All I ever wanted was for YANKEE POINT MARINA to return my boat to its pre-loss condition.
YANKEE POINT MARINA installed the correct motor mounts as prescribed by Westerbeke from my attempt to procure the OEM mounts and informed me they were unable to align the motor and abandoned the job.
YANKEE POINT MARINA asserted that:
I couldn’t fathom why an engine that fit before and resulted in a concentric cutlass bearing now couldn’t be aligned and needed to be dropped an inch. Once the engine was in the correct place all the contact would resolve itself.
My father and I, with years of boating experience combined, experience in building houses, maintaining power and sail boats, restoring cars and race cars, and generally being very mechanical, did get it aligned.
My best guess is that YANKEE POINT MARINA was attempting to align the engine coupler to the resting position of the shaft. In fact they should have centered the shaft in the stern tube and then aligned the engine to that position.
Since the boat was in the water we couldn’t remove the stuffing box or we would get very wet.
What we ended up doing was gently pushing the prop shaft left and right and up and down to the limit of its travel and measuring that range of motion. This measurement, when divided in half effectively centered the shaft in the cutlass bearing and stern tube. We then fixed the shaft in that position and aligned the motor to the shaft. Which just so happened to be about an 1” HIGHER than the shafts resting position..imagine that..there is the missing inch that YANKEE POINT MARINA said the engine needed to be lowered!
I am just glad they didn’t rip the motor out and install the engine 1” too low. If they had proceeded they would have install the shaft permanently out of line and we would have had to jack the mounts way up or add to the bed to get it to the right place.
This whole process probably added a week or two to the total job.
I got a final bill from YANKEE POINT MARINA and went through it. I actually found a $300 accounting error in YANKEE POINT MARINA favor and pointed it out to them.
I also told them I wasn't paying for the work that resulted from them not doing the due diligence to locate the correct mounts. This work was to lift the beds and drill eight wrong holes in my beds.
I sent them a letter with an explanation and full payment in good faith.
Ken eventually responded thusly:
To done with this fiasco I paid him off, told him he was wrong and I am packing my bags.
So we will miss our friends and the wonderful area around Yankee Point Marina. We will be berthing at a great marina off the Mobjack that is actually closer to Richmond and quicker to get to the Chesapeake. They are building a new pool and clubhouse and include all the fun stuff like bikes, dinghy storage, internet and kayaks for one all inclusive price.
Let us know and we can meet half way for a raft up or I can get you a great rate on a transient slip.
Ric and Lisa
At the end of July I wrapped a line around my prop and pulled the engine off its mounts.
I asked YANKEE POINT MARINA to haul the boat and inspect. They found that the motor mounts were damaged.
YANKEE POINT MARINA wrote an estimate to replace the mounts.
YANKEE POINT MARINA ordered mounts and when they arrived they noted that they didn’t appear like the old ones:
Ric,
Bryan began the motor mount replacement today and discovered the
mounts from Westerbeke are not the same as the mounts on your engine. The mounts on your engine are not a type of mount anyone here has seen before. To install the mounts Westerbeke provided; we will have to drill new holes in the engine
beds.
This will take more time than we estimated to the insurance
company.
Do you want to submit a modified claim?
Please let me know how
you would like to proceed
Ken Abrams
Service Dept
Yankee
Point Sailboat Marina
(804) 462-7635
Instead of finding the right mounts they told me the original motor mounts were in Ken Knull’s words “no longer available”.
YANKEE POINT MARINA sent a supplement to install new style mounts which I agreed to since it seemed there was no other option.
In a later email ken stated,
You had the option of looking for the original mounts yourself prior toWhy? Was I supposed to be doing the work or were they being paid to do the work in a professional manner? There was no evidence that anyone tried to do any problem solving or effort made to get the right mounts.
the authorization of the work.
I inspected the boat in mid august and found that the mounts would not fit the beds due to a steel brace right where the bolts were supposed to go. I then found the OEM style mounts by simply emailing westerbeke and asking if they had a mount that looked like mine. It took less than an hour to ascertain the right mounts were available.
Hello,
The photo of the mount below is PN#040510. Four are needed. These were used on late model M35A units. Late 1995 early 1996
Kind Regards,
Westerbeke Corp.
I even asked Westerbeke if they were a rare mount:
Hello,
This style mount went onto all Universal models in
that time period and are used on the current models today as well as Westerbeke
propulsion models.
Kind Regards,
Westerbeke
Corp.
From: Ric Bergstrom [mailto:ric.bergstrom.hckj@statefarm.com]
Sent: Tuesday, August 19, 2008 5:17 PMTo: helpSubject: RE: motor mounts
m35a
thanks so much.
My engine is of that
era.
Hopefully you have saved me several thousand dollars and my
existing beds.
Marina said they hadn't seen any like this
before...that sort of makes sense since they were only on for 2 years. I
told them it was an M35A though. Were the only used on the M35A
exclusively???
Ric
I met with Ken and Staff late in August in a contentious meeting where I pointed out that they had installed the forward starboard mounts too far forward and much farther apart than they should have been. This was due to the beam supporting the beds blocking the mounting bolts. YANKEE POINT MARINA were trying to force a part that would not fit into the wrong place.
I showed them where the OEM mounts were available and asked them to get the right mounts and install them. I was met with a defensive, almost hostile tone. Ken would not even look at or consider evidence that is as plain as day.
In fact Ken Knull also asserted at that time that the beds were originally installed wrong and the engine would never align. I told him that day that of course it "wouldn’t" align…since he had just told his employees not to align it otherwise they would be proving him wrong!
The beds were installed by a renowned engine installer in annapolis maryland who only does only engine installs and maintains diesels. The engine, shaft and cutlass bearing have over 1000 hours on them and the bearing measures:
Interior diameter sea and bilge end are identical at 22.7 mm
Exterior diameter sea and bilge are identical at 34.9 mm
The bearing has eight rubber ridges that the shaft rides on. To locate each I noted the two set screw dimples and counted from there to ID each ridge and measure it.
Thickness-Bilge Land Thickness-Sea
5.5mm #1 filled set screw 5.5mm
5.5 #2 5.5+(the plus means more like 5.55)
5.5 #3 5.5+
5.5 #4 5.5+
5.5 #5 empty set screw 5.5+
5.5 #6 5.5+
5.5 #7 5.5
5.5 #8 5.5
FYI .5 millimeters = 0.0196850394 inches
For a bearing that is over 1000 hours old it basically is perfect. The bearing is in my possession and anyone is welcome to measure it themselves.
Ken Knull later emailed me:
Remember the incredible wear on the old cutless bearing?
That clearly showed long term mis-alignment.
The after edge of the bearing was chewed up. remember I sucked a line into the aperture and it wound up around the shaft and pulled the engine backwards. The bearing bore is concentric based on the measurements above.
I am not sure what Ken is talking about as I have measured it myself and he would not even look at it when we met. Fact is the the engine aligned before. Now Ken wanted to bill me for ripping out and installing beds to the tune of $2400.00.
YANKEE POINT MARINA had already billed me $630 for lifting and re-drilling the beds to install the WRONG mounts. Money that was only spent to do work that was un-needed since they failed to procure the correct mounts.
As a point of fact the beds could stand do be beefed up, but they have operated in this fashion for ten years+ with no issues. They did not need to be ripped out. All I ever wanted was for YANKEE POINT MARINA to return my boat to its pre-loss condition.
YANKEE POINT MARINA installed the correct motor mounts as prescribed by Westerbeke from my attempt to procure the OEM mounts and informed me they were unable to align the motor and abandoned the job.
YANKEE POINT MARINA asserted that:
The starboard mount top is hard against the transmission and the
flywheel housing is hitting the bed. Also the starboard oil fill is
hitting the bed.
The engine front and back mounts need to go down 1" which means lowering the beds by 1 " and the engine needs to go to starboard by about 0.1"..
We did not connect the shaft to the engine as it is so far out of alignment that had we done so, it would have caused the shaft to bend.
I couldn’t fathom why an engine that fit before and resulted in a concentric cutlass bearing now couldn’t be aligned and needed to be dropped an inch. Once the engine was in the correct place all the contact would resolve itself.
My father and I, with years of boating experience combined, experience in building houses, maintaining power and sail boats, restoring cars and race cars, and generally being very mechanical, did get it aligned.
My best guess is that YANKEE POINT MARINA was attempting to align the engine coupler to the resting position of the shaft. In fact they should have centered the shaft in the stern tube and then aligned the engine to that position.
Since the boat was in the water we couldn’t remove the stuffing box or we would get very wet.
What we ended up doing was gently pushing the prop shaft left and right and up and down to the limit of its travel and measuring that range of motion. This measurement, when divided in half effectively centered the shaft in the cutlass bearing and stern tube. We then fixed the shaft in that position and aligned the motor to the shaft. Which just so happened to be about an 1” HIGHER than the shafts resting position..imagine that..there is the missing inch that YANKEE POINT MARINA said the engine needed to be lowered!
I am just glad they didn’t rip the motor out and install the engine 1” too low. If they had proceeded they would have install the shaft permanently out of line and we would have had to jack the mounts way up or add to the bed to get it to the right place.
This whole process probably added a week or two to the total job.
I got a final bill from YANKEE POINT MARINA and went through it. I actually found a $300 accounting error in YANKEE POINT MARINA favor and pointed it out to them.
I also told them I wasn't paying for the work that resulted from them not doing the due diligence to locate the correct mounts. This work was to lift the beds and drill eight wrong holes in my beds.
I sent them a letter with an explanation and full payment in good faith.
Ken eventually responded thusly:
I do not intend to be dissuaded from my position, in cases like this
where an owner refuses to pay for services received (sic), we have no option except to attach your property with a mechanic's lien. That will go to court and we will have our attorney represent us. If that is the way you wish to proceed, we will begin that process at the court house.
Finally, since we have had such an adversarial relationship on several issues, I sincerely think that you will be happier at another marina
for 2009.
To done with this fiasco I paid him off, told him he was wrong and I am packing my bags.
So we will miss our friends and the wonderful area around Yankee Point Marina. We will be berthing at a great marina off the Mobjack that is actually closer to Richmond and quicker to get to the Chesapeake. They are building a new pool and clubhouse and include all the fun stuff like bikes, dinghy storage, internet and kayaks for one all inclusive price.
Let us know and we can meet half way for a raft up or I can get you a great rate on a transient slip.
Ric and Lisa
Sunday, June 01, 2008
Memorial weekend cruise 2008
Passed this little (75') gem. Named Palawan, used to be owned by the guy that started IBM. One of the Crew hailed me and said he had an Alberg 35 too..
Nate in a happy mood.
Polaris
The as yet un-named Dyer 12.5
I am practicing as cox...i think he's got the hang of it!!!
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