Revisiting the Steins on the Great Loop – Too many prop problems

by Peter Janssen on 20 May 2017 On the one hand, the Steins are having the trip of a lifetime, already cruising a bit more than half way around the Great Loop from their home in Chicago on their 57-foot Carver with their two young girls. On the other, there are the props… The Steins, Ben, Laura, Molly, 9, and Madelyn, 7, had owned their Carver 570 Voyager Have Another Day for three years before they left Chicago last Aug. 29 to start the Loop, but they’d spent most of that time cruising around Lake Michigan and Door County, where they didn’t have to spend a lot of time worrying about the boat’s five-foot draft. The boat does not have a keel, so the props are exposed.

On his blog, Ben wrote that before they left, he was worried about shallow water on the Loop. “We’d never boated in shallow water before, so I knew that would be a new dynamic to deal with. Turns out that concern was well placed. Very well placed.”

By the time the Steins had reached salt water in Mobile Bay last fall, they had hit bottom three times and damaged four props. Then, after circling around Key West and spending six weeks in the Bahamas, they hit the Waterway in northern Florida and the prop problems escalated.

A few weeks ago, the Steins left New Smyrna, heading for Daytona Beach. Laura says that just past Ponce Inlet in the middle of the channel they ran aground, “hard enough to stop us in our tracks. We hadn’t heard that awful sickening sound since October in the middle of the Ten Tom. It’s terrible.”

They floated free with the rising tide and then Tow BoatU.S. lead them through shallow sections into Daytona Beach. By the time they tied up and Ben started calling a list of divers the marina had given him, it was Saturday night. A diver and his helper did show up on Sunday afternoon, but while the diver started putting the spare props on the boat he cut his hand, slicing it down to the bone. He went to the hospital but said he’d have another diver come on Monday morning.

The next morning the new diver and his assistant came but couldn’t get the props on. They called another diver. Finally, all three divers managed to get the props on and the Steins were on their way, following a Kadey-Krogen 42, a keel boat, through some narrow channels.

All was well until they got to St. Simons in Georgia. After they tied up Ben saw a diver working on another boat and realized that his Carver needed a new zinc on the port shaft. When the diver came over and started to install it, he saw a ripple in the starboard prop. Ben says “I was shocked as we hadn’t hit anything (that I knew of) and the damn props had only been on the boat 11 days.” Then things got worse. The waters were choppy, and the key stock that locks the props onto the shafts washed off the swim platform and sank; so did the diver’s tools, phone and money that Ben had already paid him for the job. The diver said he’d have to leave for the day, but he’d be back the next morning.

When the diver didn’t appear, Ben called his wife, who said he had woken up that morning with a slipped disc and had gone to the hospital; he had to stay off his feet for 24 hours. At this point, Laura wrote, “We couldn’t make this stuff up if we tried.” Ben managed to find another diver who finally got the props back on the boat. The next morning the Steins were on their way to Brunswick to get some fuel.

Frustrated, Ben summed up the prop problem so far: “At this point in the trip we are up to a propeller count of six props damaged, five separate instances of having to swap props, and two multi-day sagas in getting them done. The thought has occurred to us that a keel would be a lovely feature on a boat. We have tried to get a deal done to purchase a different boat but it seems that we aren’t going to be able to get it done while on the trip. The primary complicating factor being our unwillingness to own two boats. So we either need to find someone who will take our boat in trade or a buyer for our boat. That’s not easy to do when living on the boat and traveling continuously. So it seems likely we will return to Chicago with our current boat and figure out our plan once we return. Unless, of course, anyone is in the market for a 570 with two sets of very recently tuned props.”

For her part, Laura takes a long view. “Despite these hiccups, we are thankful for every day for this adventure, for our health and our happiness.” For more on the Steins and their unfolding adventures on the Great Loop, visit here.

This article has been provided courtesy of the CruisingOdyssey.