Decided at the last minute, the weather looked good for a trip to the Farallones. No-one was available on short notice, so me and Wilson (aka the Monitor Wind Vane) left Berkeley at 7AM and headed out. Fetched the Farallones around 2PM. Wind was less than 10 knots with tall seas on the ebb tide heading out, so motor-sailed until hitting the slack tide about 8 miles out. Wind filled in at 18-23 with 6-9 foot swells and had a glorious sail out and back complete with Dolphins. 
Monthly Archives: July 2010
Transmission’s Broke
Yup, that’s what the mechanic said. Went out for a sail on coming into the harbor on the way back the engine started making “expensive” noises. You know, the screeching, grinding ones. I initially thought it was the fresh water pump, but when I took off the fan belt and tugged on the pump shaft it was tight and spun freely. Started the engine again and realized it was coming from the transmission area. Time to call in the mechanic. He immediately diagnosed it as a broken stress plate spring. Turned out that was close. It was the fan on the stress plate that broke. Pieces were flailing around inside the bell housing. The “tranny” was fine, but the stress plate was toast. We pulled the bell housing, took off the stress plate and it turned out the flywheel had to come out too due to some bolts on the stress plate corroding onto the flywheel. A week later and a new stress plate and we’re back in motion (oh, and about $1500!) 
