Hi All,

A friend was having his 1999 C-36 surveyed last week (next to our boat) and there was some question as to the condition of his cutlass bearing - which appeared worn after only approximately 360 hours on the engine.

The surveyor used our boat as an example expecting that the cutlass bearing should almost be like new (our boat with 256 hours on the engine and was final commissioned in 2007). The finding was that ours was equally as sloppy as our friends and replacement was recommended.

I was down to our boat to have a look at it and it does appear worn and the shaft does move vertically in the cutlass bearing more that it did last spring.

Upon further inspection, I noted that our fixed Catalina provided 3 blade prop was loose on the shaft. We had this issue when our dealer commissioned the boat and it was no issue at launch last year.

It is odd that the fixed prop would be loose on the shaft as the castle nut was tightened right down and the cotter pin is right in there.

One thing that seems odd is that the shaft key is not visible at all coming out of the prop.

Tyring to figure things out here - could be shaft, prop or the key at this stage - but figure that if the prop became loose during the season, it would have caused the wear on the cutlass bearing. Our last boat had about 2,000 hours on the cutlass bearing before we needed to replace it.

Anybody have this issue before? I am thinking that the key may have broken and the nut allowed the prop to move which now may have "loosened" the fit of the prop to the shaft - which should be a very tight fit.

Thanks in advance for any advice or experience on this?

Thanks,

Brett