My refit took way longer than I expected it to – should have been a 4-6 week stay and was around 9 months, at ~$800 boatyard ground rent a month (Hooking Bull). That’s on top of the nearly $400/month I pay for the marina berth. Ouch.
One holdup was the weather – pretty crappy for Texas. Another was work – it was incredibly busy. The other was waiting for a new propellor and cv joint from Bruntons. The original MaxProp that came with Frank was not up to the job. So I bought a new folding prop, an Autoprop, which has the same power going forwards as well as in reverse.

This extra power can be very useful when in close-quarters combat in a marina with little turning space, when the lag, prop-walk and drag effects of shifting direction can make accurate parking difficult. Those boats that turn on a dime usually have bow thrusters. I have an offset prop, so Frank turns easier to starboard than to port.

Anyway – the “drive” to the boatyard had been a 1 kt crawl into headwinds, even after I’d paid to have my prop cleaned if all the accumulated growth from a couple of years sat in the berth. My return journey was totally different. 5-7 kts of joy! And here’s the thing – that was in reverse! I’d re-worked the controls to accommodate the ever-flipping prop and they were now the wrong way for the (correctly installed) prop!
I screwed up the install, because I mixed the threadlock up from the Bruntons’ cv joint – the Sigmadrive, which compensates for the difference in angle of the gearbox mounting and the propellor shaft, to reduce vibration, wear and noise. So I put red threadlock from the sigma drive into the grubscrew hold for locking the prop to the shaft! EEEEK! I lost a few weeks getting the grubscrew out, the hole re-tapped, new grubscrews ordered.. But both are on.
One surprise about the Sigmadrive fittings – the mounting bolts are not 316 stainless. My bilge pump failed in a series of storms in Corpus and sea water (which seeps in through the prop shaft gland) backed up, covering the brand new Sigmadrive. The bolts corroded. I cleaned them up as best I could and coated them with WD40 Grease, but that was a major disappointment in an otherwise happy buying experience.