Sep 26

Rollercoaster

This year has been just that. Ups. Downs. Twists. Turns. And we are still riding along, white-knuckled, screaming, wondering when we can get off and get back on solid footing.

Since the port gear exploded, we have endeavored to get it fixed. Of course you say, and our adventure has taken us all across the country, back in time, and for a brief moment, other countries.

As such, Brad has been on fire! He's cataloged a long list of numbers for transmission shops and making sure if it's a dead end, he doesn't accidentally call twice. Thankfully Brad enjoys research, and listening to the old marine guys, but primary to the task, he's channeling his inner detective, hoping to crack the case of the elusive parts.

June 26 was the fateful day for our port gear. Going into July, we were hopeful to find the parts we needed. Our gear guy was searching and contacting all the folks he knew (all the same people Brad called too and then some). Basically, the whole month was a u-joint yoke hunt and what might be alternatives, until July 30th. That's the day we reluctantly filed an insurance claim after getting nowhere with finding the parts and not getting much help from the folks who had been working on the boat, plus hearing really bad news about ostensibly never finding the parts. But we keep looking.

August brought in the insurance sleuthing and trying to figure out exactly what happened. As of now, I am not convinced of any one thing, but I have my suspicions and hope they will be or have been investigated fully. I have voiced that rather firmly. But we do not have a report yet... One of the things very important for us to provide the adjuster is an estimate to get the repair done. We are between the rock and hard place. What a disaster.

One other August development of note was when Brad reached GL Power and spoke to the owner, Harry Allen. We were on to something. After what we were told was a reasonably exhaustive search, including Europe, it was discovered, right at their own headquarters in Ohio, that GLP had an old Paragon, our model, on display. It was dismantled, but to no avail, there's a reason it was on display - it didn't have all the parts inside. But that's not the end.

A little reminder on the history; Paragon Power was not always that, it started as Paragon Gear which was bought by Twin Disc, got its name changed somewhere along the way and then finally Great Lakes Power (now GL Power) bought Twin Disc. Parts were around, but at some point GLP discontinued Paragon and tossed parts. Our gear guy tells us he tried to get some of those parts but had no luck. And by the way, all the transmission guys know each other no matter what state they are in, and most are twice as old as our gears. So you can imagine the stories we've heard about the days of old and the transmissions of yore...

Meanwhile, in pure frustration, I went so far as to say we're going to do new gears and even engines, and some boat deck reconfiguration, etc., because f-it, we're not planning to sell the boat for a long time, she is a beautiful, capable boat that has the luck of 2024, like me. Brad shuddered at the idea of the cost of that. Me too. We'll keep our engines, but new gears may be the only choice if we can't find parts.

I must digress to say that each month has brought some kind of hurdle. Besides the boat having its own, I too have been enjoying a monthly escapade of setbacks. August was the death of my laptop. Luckily, I had the extended warranty and Dell came to the house and replaced the hard drive. What that it were the case for CAYUGA! But besides that favorable outcome, August hadn't gotten by without an issue. Don't believe me? July had handed me a sick dog - a bad ear infection. Only 4 more days in September, I wonder what's in store? Yesterday we had a very near collision. A car driving too fast lost control around the dead man's curve in our community as we were heading home. Had it not recovered, Brad and I would probably have been at the emergency room. Let's continue.

Sometime around the beginning of September, GLP was considering machining the parts we needed. I was thrilled and shared that with friends who have of course been following along and asking about the status. And then... Yesterday, we got the disappointing news that GLP will not be able to help us. Reason? Attorneys. I leave it at that.

Brad sent him the September PropTalk and the Ray Hunt Design summer 2024 quarterly articles about me (Brad very lovingly combined them) and while not helpful, Mr. Allen had very kind words and was supportive besides his attorneys, so at least he knows of our CAYUGA and wishes us well in our endeavors. Unfortunately, that does not fix the problem. But my fame is not limited to these two publications, no! The Antique & Classic Boat Society's quarterly magazine, ACBS Rudder, will have an upcoming article written by me.

As of now, we are still hunting down proper estimates to do whatever repair we will need to do. You see the difficulty. Without finding the parts, how can anyone give a real estimate? Chickens. Eggs. Horses. Carts. Getting an estimate to put in new gears should be easier but that too have proved unusually difficult. If I worked in the industry, you can be sure I'd take this challenge on. It's a bit complicated but the outcome would be serious glory.

But yesterday. And I need to go back to the one entity, Marty Brown Racing, who refurbished the engine - of which has worked flawlessly. Brad called Marty yesterday to ask about engine rotation. Shall we dive in?

CAYUGA is equipped with two engines, one rotating as it would "normally" and one counter-rotating. This is to work with the way the props rotate. They spin outward - the starboard prop is a right-hand and pushes clockwise. The port, the opposite. Our engines function by the way the camshaft is set up. Our Paragons have zero to do with how the props spin, however, they are right and left working because of the engines and props. If I've got this wrong, please contact me - don't just laugh at the girl and her boat.

What we are finding is that most gears today do not work that way. There is only one manufacturer, that we know of so far, Velvet-drive, where the v-drive itself can be reversed. That would be our solution if we go with new gears.

Back to Brad's call with Marty. The question was what it would take to change the cams on an engine. Marty answered but then asked what were we trying to do? Brad explained the issue with the u-joints and to Brad's surprise Marty said he had a guy may be able to machine what we need.

While this seems to be exciting news, there is so much left to sort out for that to happen, but we may actually for the first time in 3 months, see a faint, very faint, glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel. Hope, again?

Here's what needs to happen:

insurance still needs estimates to wrap up
- we still need estimates for a refit - this scenario is outfitting new gears both port and starboard
  - if this is the path, then the rest is moot, and the boat goes to that shop
- we still need estimates to fix the broken gear which involves
  - the gear guy
  - Marty Brown
  - a mechanic who takes things out and puts them back in
we have a space lined up at a yard where she could be hauled and stored for the fix
we need would need an estimate from a shrink-wrap person to build an enclosure so the mechanic can work on the boat over the winter
we will have the boat towed by BoatUS to wherever the boat needs to go

While this may sound not all that hard, our insurance person said he'd never seen such a complicated ordeal for what is otherwise a simple claim. Cue the Rube Goldberg machine: