It’s not usually good news when the captain is doing routine maintenance on the boat and greets you with the following words “I think we have a problem”. Well, it’s a boat so yeah what’s new I thought. Then he showed me this…

Nope, those are not gemstones or black diamonds, those are metal pieces that he found in the oil of our port (left) transmission. First he found 3-4 pieces in the oil, then put a magnetic wand in the oil drain and found a lot more… NOT GOOD!!! After some discussion with a ZF/Hurth Transmission expert, the consensus is those little metal bits are likely from our transmission clutch gears. Nope, not good at all.

The irony (pun intended), is that we have traveled almost a thousand miles with ZERO issues. No tale tail clunking, grinding or rough shifting. So our first though is can we keep cruising, take it easy on the engines and transmissions and have it fixed this winter while the boat is in storage.

Nope, not a good idea at all and the worst case scenario is that something could happen at the worst possible time and do even more damage to the transmission. UGH, we are not gamblers so continuing on our merry way didn’t seem like a good option. Our transmission experts were a bit puzzled about these bits of gear in just one of our two transmissions. They said this isn’t due to lack of maintenance – this usually happens because of an incident. Did we have an incident??? Nope, but there was one when the boat was being pulled out for the pre-purchase survey. Thats another long story, which I won’t bore you with. But honestly none of us including the engine and hull surveyor even thought about transmission damage. After describing that incident to the transmission expert, he agreed that it was indeed possible that this damage had happened then.

So now what??? We decided to bring the boat over to Bluewater Yacht Center in Hampton to have the transmission pulled and sent to Great Lakes Power to be repaired. Unfortunately , this type of repair can’t be done any other way. 

The good news is we can stay on the boat while the repairs are being made but the bad news is our 1998 ZF Hurth Transmission isn’t easy to find OEM parts for. The Great Lakes Power folks found everything except the gasket and seal kit. It might be available by late September. UGH… after some looking we found an aftermarket kit made by a reliable company so we are going to go that route.

Yes, we are both a bit bummed as an extended layover in Hampton was not on the agenda for sure. So … no cruising for us until the repair is done but at least we have our trusty SUV Ernie to go exploring in. The marina is nice, we have a pool and laundry facilities and a really great cider place nearby!!

Plus it really pretty here and Mother Nature put on a show last night just to cheer us up!