T&T: ^%$^%#* Bow Thruster!

[Keith]

Well, just as I was docking yesterday, the bow thruster gave it up again. 
Hit the switch and heard a horrible grinding noise... no thrust. Went down 
to take a look after we docked up, and found the two bolts holding the motor 
to the coupler flange still assembled, but the motor wasn't attached! That's 
right... the two bolts were still in the lower flange, complete with washers 
and nuts. The #%$^&&* mechanic that had reinstalled it last time had bolted 
it through two alignment wells instead of bolt holes on the motor plate. 
This is a polymer plate about 1/2" thick. Most of the holes are drilled for 
the bolts, but two of them are "wells", diameter larger than the bolt heads, 
and only maybe 1/8" thick at the bottom. So instead of 1/2" of polymer to 
hold the big 24 V motor in place, the guy bolted through these two wells, 
which of course gave it up, leaving the equivalent of two plastic washers 
hanging on the bolts, and the motor backed out of the couplers.

I pulled up my pix of the original installation to check orientation, bolt 
positions, etc., and noticed that the guys had rotated the motor, and the 
flange was different. Couldn't fix it quickly, and we're only one day from 
home, so just taking it home the old fashioned way and will call the guys 
who did this to come fix it the right way. I won't mention any names yet, 
because I don't know if they're going to turn out to be heroes or bums yet.

A couple of learnings... when somebody else works on something on your boat, 
at least give it a good once-over physical inspection yourself. It was 
working fine, so I never really checked the workmanship inside, which 
probably would have caught this and been an easy fix. Also, the value of 
taking pictures of everything is really great. Not only do I have pix of the 
original installation, I took pix of the failure yesterday, and WISH I would 
have taken pix after they fixed it. Digital cameras rule!


Keith
_____
 "We're going to turn this team around 360 degrees."
-Jason Kidd