I hired Your Boat Shop to replace the engine mounts on my motor vessel. Less than 20 operating hours later, my port transmission (w/ 1,000 hours) failed while underway, ultimately resulting in more than $25,000 in repairs.
What makes this especially concerning is that before the engine mount replacement, a pre-purchase survey and gearbox oil analysis found no evidence of transmission distress, abnormal wear metals, drivetrain vibration, or shaft-related issues. The transmission failure occurred only after Your Boat Shop performed the mount replacement.
Following the failure, Harbor Marine, a ZF-authorized service facility, documented approximately 0.010" of coupling misalignment and found the port shaft seized in the cutlass bearing. An independent SAMS-accredited marine surveyor later documented extensive internal transmission damage and concluded that the transmission-to-shaft coupling was grossly out of alignment following the engine mount replacement (SAMS report attached). The surveyor's opinion was that the failure sequence was precipitated by shaft misalignment after the recent mount replacement.
What concerns me most is that this was not the only alignment issue associated with this shop. During my claim investigation, I reviewed documentation from CSR Marine involving another vessel serviced by Your Boat Shop. CSR found significant engine misalignment and concluded that the shafts appeared to have been reinstalled without properly aligning the engines, requiring substantial corrective work--over $10,000. CSR images and cost to repair attached.
Equally disappointing was the response after the failure. Your Boat Shop was notified and given the opportunity to participate in determining the root cause but declined to become involved. The burden of investigating the failure fell entirely on me. Although my insurance carrier could not cover the loss because the work predated my policy, they still paid for towing, haul-out, and independent expert inspections needed to determine what happened.
A routine engine mount replacement was followed by documented shaft misalignment, a seized cutlass bearing, catastrophic transmission damage, and more than $25,000 in repair costs. Based on my experience, the independent findings, and the shop's unwillingness to participate in the investigation, I have no confidence in the workmanship or accountability demonstrated by Your Boat Shop or Chris Tomlinson Marine Services and would not trust either company with any work on my vessel. read more