Just when we thought we were finally making progress, the starboard motor decided it wanted equal attention.
After weeks on the hard at Lauderdale Marine Center (LMC), multiple delayed shipments from Finland, one brand-new motor install, and mounting costs by the day, we suddenly found ourselves right back where we started—trying to figure out why our other Oceanvolt motor system was now making the exact same grinding noise as the one we just replaced.
At this point, we stopped wondering whether we had experienced a random isolated failure and started asking a much bigger question: Was there something fundamentally wrong with the system itself?
Even Oceanvolt Goes Hmmm
Now, with our other motor repeating the same failing pattern as the first, Oceanvolt seemed a bit more inclined to figure out what was happening with these motors. With that, and a lot of pushing on my part, I finally managed to wrangle some additional information out of them regarding the original motor replacements in Spain.
Here is what they sent us:
2/26/2021 – During the build at Vision Yachts, ServoProp leg wire broke and was repaired.
4/14/2021 – Starboard motor controller was leaking (replaced), original parameters uploaded. Water Cooled. At Vision Yachts.
6/17/2021 – Bollard pull test completed and the ahead angle is updated to 132 stbd/131 port [motor parameters adjusted].
8/31/2021 – (OV Production) Due to leak and some performance problems, dual SP15+ accessories shipped [to Spain] and [2 top personnel from Oceanvolt HQs] will do the installation on site.
Not exactly helpful; or very reassuring.
Up until this point, none of this history had been disclosed to us when we purchased the boat.
The Questions Start Piling Up
None of this information was a smoking gun, but it confirmed something we’d been suspecting for weeks: these motors had a history.
Whether those earlier issues were related to what we were experiencing now was impossible to know. But it was becoming increasingly difficult to believe all of this was simply bad luck.
By this point, Motor #3 had become Motor #5, and we were now staring down issues on the starboard side (Motor #4) as well.
Oceanvolt requested the damaged motor and saildrive be returned for analysis. Which sounded great—we genuinely wanted answers.
Spoiler alert: we never received a single update on whether they received them or that analysis ever happened.
Is the Third Time the Charm?
With the starboard motor now making the same grinding noise that had started this entire ordeal on the port side, our attention shifted from replacing motors to figuring out exactly what was failing.
After pulling the system apart and inspecting the components, we found that while the oil was clearly compromised and the saildrive leg bearing showed signs of wear, the motor head bearing itself was still in good condition.
That was at least one piece of good news. Rather than replacing another complete motor assembly, we decided to replace only the saildrive leg.
So once again, Finland boxed up another shipment and sent it our way.
By now you’d think everyone involved would have become experts at shipping these things internationally. Shockingly…not quite.
Interlude: Coasters, Trains, and the 4th of July
As we rolled into July, with another shipment on the way, we had some free time. We had expected to be in the water and moving after the port motor swap was complete. We had completed all the other random tasks we could think of already, so we had a bit of fun.
Being huge Top Golf fans, we went and swung some clubs at the Drive Shack, similar in set up, but with different games to play.
In searching for fun breweries and events, we spent an evening at Steam Horse Brewing, where we had a fun night meeting new people and making coasters for the boat, which let’s be honest, at the moment was a very expensive paperweight on it’s own!
4th of July – And apparently the locals celebrate Independence Day by attempting to simulate active combat conditions for four straight nights. We celebrated with them at the Boynton Beach waterfront. Once they were over however…
It was absolute chaos. All night long. Random fireworks exploding in every direction for hours. Constantly. Loud enough to rattle windows. It sounded like we were in a war zone.
As an added bonus, we discovered a few burn marks on the deck from fireworks landing aboard during previous nights’ celebrations.
Cool.
And a final shoutout: Over a month living in our friend’s Boynton Beach ‘office’ apartment, we have to give a major shoutout to Florida’s TriRail system. Florida has some weird laws and practices, but TriRail? Thank you. Free service for life for veterans with service-connected disabilities. Small win for us, since we ended up using it almost daily during our unexpectedly extended stay.
Okay, Back to Work – The Third Time IS the Charm
As we approached five weeks on the hard—roughly four weeks longer than planned—the third shipment finally arrived on July 5th. While this shipment wasn’t as disastrous as the previous two, it still arrived a few days late. Added bonus…it arrived in one piece. At this stage, that felt like a major victory.
By July 7th, Nordic Marine had the replacement saildrive prepped and ready to install.
The installation went smoothly. Both systems were brought online and we once again connected with Finland to complete the required software updates and calibrations.
Both motors fired up.
Both systems calibrated.
Both passed testing.
For the first time since we arrived off the coast of Florida, everything was operating properly. We could finally schedule a splash date and begin water trials.
Of course, this all happened on a Friday heading into the weekend, meaning we still had to wait for an opening in the yard schedule to get back in the water. <takes a deep breath while watching savings account dwindle>
At least now…there was finally hope. At this point, we weren’t looking for perfection anymore. We just wanted a reliable way to safely get north.
Finally Back in the Water
After six weeks on the hard, one brand-new motor, two replacement saildrive legs, countless shipping delays, and more troubleshooting than we ever wanted to learn about Oceanvolt systems, we were finally ready to leave the yard.
The travel lift picked us up one final time and lowered us back into our natural habitat. The water. We checked for leaks. We watched every gauge. We listened to every sound. And thankfully, everything appeared normal. It was finally time for sea trials. But first…
Rig Removal
With the motors now apparently behaving themselves, it was time to tackle the ‘other’ major project to be completed.
Unstepping the mast.
We had already removed much of the boom and running rigging while sitting on the hard in-between shipments from Finland. We disconnected everything, coordinated the crane, organized hardware, labeled wires, and figured out where to store an entire mast’s worth of parts, which was a project all its own. (More on the Rig HERE.)
I shall call this piece “sails deconstructed: parts and pieces oh my!”
And so, once we were dropped back into the water and everything checked good, the fine riggers from Nance and Underwood, along with the crane, rolled up to remove the infamous AWS rig and set about turning our sailboat temporarily into a power(-only) boat for our upcoming ICW transit. She will sail again. We just have to get her safely to Annapolis It was a sad day…or was it?
Watching the mast come down was oddly emotional. The boat looked weird! Smaller. Stranger. But with our new rig on it’s way to meet us in Annapolis, MD, this was simply the next step. And while we weren’t excited about motoring all the way there, it did lead to one heck of an adventure.
A Pizza Party for the Yard
Of course, removing the mast was only half the project. We still had to figure out what to do with it.
The original plan involved cutting it up, hauling it away, or paying someone else to deal with it. None of those options sounded particularly appealing. So we pitched the boom in a dumpster and pushed the mast aside with the intention of cutting into pieces and find a way to dispose of it properly. We had 3 days to figure this out.
Thankfully, while making a trip to the bathroom, I noticed a guy eyeing the boom sticking out of the dumpster. I made a joke about it, and he asked if it was ours.
“Was,” I replied.
He looked surprised that we were throwing it away, so I explained the whole rig replacement situation. Then he asked if he could have it. When I mentioned the mast, his eyes got even wider.
Turns out he was essentially the yard maintenance foreman. He explained that he could scrap the aluminum, sell it, and use the money to throw a pizza party for his crew and buy extra water for the guys working outside in the South Florida summer heat. Apparently, the yard didn’t always provide as much as they actually needed to survive those brutal days.
That sounded like a win-win to me. We no longer had to figure out how to dispose of an entire mast, and he got a way to do something nice for the people working hard in the heat every day.
It was a win for everyone except…our project manager. He was very unhappy when he found out. Apparently, yard employees aren’t supposed to accept things directly from clients. I explained that I wasn’t giving him a tip or anything. It was getting tossed regardless and he was using to help out his guys. The conversation ended with a warning, and hopefully the foreman didn’t get himself into any trouble.
Regardless, I hope the crew got their extra water and pizza. They earned it.
With the mast gone. For the first time since we bought her, Water Wings wasn’t really a sailboat anymore. At least not for next thousand miles or so.
Allow me to officially introduce you to: Motor Vessel Water Wings:
Can We Go Now?!
We survived the yard. Now the question was… Could we finally leave Fort Lauderdale?
The boat was floating. The motors were running. The mast was off. We just had sea trials to go. So we should be ready to go.
Or so we thought.
The starboard motor had one more surprise waiting for us. Instead of turning north up the ICW, we soon found ourselves heading back down the New River and into troubleshooting mode once again, trying to answer one final question:
Could we actually trust these motors enough to leave Fort Lauderdale?
We’ll find out in Part 5, the gripping conclusion…
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