Scandalous!

This morning I have ordered the first batch of service parts for our stern drive. Volvo Penta certainly do know how to charge for their service items, the prices are quite frankly scandalous, but they know they have you by the short and curlies as you need to buy the parts.

Hopefully by the end of tomorrow the stern drive will be in the back of the car and ready for Liam to take to work to service and fettle it in the warmth and comfort of the workshop where he has all of the necessary tools to hand to do the job. This has to be better then attempting to do the job outside in the weather which is forecast.

In the first batch of service items as the oil seals, these are what caused us to be pulled out so early in the first instance this year, the gear linkage oil seal, and two cans each of primer and Volvo Penta drive paint. These few bits will enable Liam to crack on with changing the shaft (which was already bought previously), changing the oil seals, and then the labourious task of buzzing the drive down and repriming and painting.

Last year we decided to antifoul the drive which was a waste of time and effort. The paint was no better then the previous surface at repelling marine growth and within a couple of months had started to wash off. So this year it is back to bare metal, repriming and repainting in the original Volvo Penta paint. It will be a shame to submerse it again when it's finished!

With the heavy mechanical work being done away from the boat this year during the week this frees up our remaining weekends to finish off the odd jobs on board and crack on with the polishing and fettling required to get Naughty-Cal looking her usual gleaming self once more. 

With the turning off the new year the new year the end is finally in sight for what has been our longest session ashore since owning Naughty-Cal. Hopefully we will get everything finished in time, but we are well on course to do so.