Other aspects of the refit included various repairs on the deck and the wooden cleats which had been subject to storm damage. One of the hydraulic power-packs was also replaced and we were tasked with a complete overhaul of Arrabida‘s propeller and the related shaft, tunnel and variable pitch controls. Wear patterns on the tunnel showed that it was misaligned by some eight millimetres, an unusual find that meant we had to cut out the original shaft tunnel and replace it with a new aluminium section. A new propeller shaft tunnel was then drilled, this time with the precise alignment required.

As well as demanding the flexibility to adapt to complex changing requirements, this kind of challenge requires a great deal of knowledge and technical prowess. We successfully completed everything in-house leveraging on our yard’s experience not only with yachts but also with the demanding propeller installations required on the canal boats of Amsterdam. TheArrabida project is a fine example of the way we work at AYB. All the homework was done in advance for a custom refit that stuck strictly to the areas the client required with complete transparency in terms of costs.