Untitled Document

Trip 45 - Tuesday Night - Aug 26th

On Sunday, the Stuffing Box developed a leak. Only when under power.

Here is a closeup of the culprit.

A better perspective. The transmission is on the left in blue. It provides forward and reverse and lowers the prop rotational speed to one half that of the engine's. The black item is a joint that absorbs any misalignment between the engine and propeller shaft. At the far right, is the tube which exits the hull and the propeller shaft runs thru.

The bronze thingy is the Stuffing Box. It is a large nut that threads onto the housing and by tightening the nut, squeezes a packing material, usually flax rope, against the shaft and hence, no leaks.

It is not unusual for these to leak, as, small amounts of water lubricate the flax. But, to fill the bilge in a few minutes? Sure got my attention.

Here we have some HiTech rope which is supposed to do a better job than flax.

The trick is to back the nut off the housing, remove the old material as water gushes in, place three layers of new material around the shaft as water gushes in and then replace the nut, as water gushes in.

Then, clean the bilge from the water that gushed in.

+++

Yes, Our Boate is getting far more hospitable. Some interior images before I left.

Oh. I sanded and varnished the chopped off handrails, I dug out a gallon can of fibreglas polish from under the galley, made certain the drain for the cooler worked properly, decided on a game plan for the stuffing box, removed the instruments from the cockpit and glued on plastic discs, cleaned the lazarrette and pumped out and cleaned and dried the bilge.