Trawler School Charters Blog

We arrived at an anchorage late, at 8:15pm, as we could not anchor earlier. There was an unusual run of about 10 bridges covering a span of 25 miles in North Myrtle beach with no anchorage in between.

When we went to anchor the transmission would not go into forward or reverse. All I could think of was $8,000.00 new $3,500 used and lots of time for repairs. I went directly to the tranny and disconnected the cable and shifted it (nothing). There were a lot of crab traps where we anchored, so I thought a line was around my prop. After telling you I was not going into the water with the alligators, there I was, back in the water. The prop was clean. Consulting with my friend and marine mechanic, he was sure it was my damper plate inside my tranny. We have replaced 3 in ten years. They disassemble due to going into reverse and forward, and because I teach docking there is a lot of wear and tear. Called Boat US and got to Anchor Marina, where they work on Saturday. Pulled of the backend of the tranny, and sure enough, it was the damper plate. Lucky for me it cost $150.00 and 4 hrs labour $95.00 an hour. But need to order it Monday and over night it on Tuesday. In the mean time my clients were very patient, and because Carey is a Doctor he has lots of patients. Paula was right with him.

All in all they decided to rent a car and drive home 3 hours and return on Tuesday to continue on the trawler journey northbound. They were very nice when I met them and very cool and helpful under pressure. I know they’ll be back because they left a box of fine wines onboard, Ha Ha.

The part in question, there was no way to check it out no preventive maintenance could have warned me about this hidden and concealed part in my transmission. Welcome to boating! My clients got to learn a lot on how to go right into action on breakdowns. Always buy the best towing card $180.00 from Boat US so your covered up to 3,000 per tow, with unlimited tows per year.

Broken up damper plate. Please don’t ask me how Pee Wee’s head got in there.