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My boat went in yesterday. In a project which started in late November I did the following;

- Replaced both stuffing boxes and their hoses.
- Converted to split couplings.
- Installed oversized rudders
- Replaced the cutlass bearings (done by the boatyard).
- Replaced the starboard heat exchanger (done by the boatyard).
- Had my props reconditioned while they were off.

I ended up using 1/4" flax for the stuffing boxes on the shafts as well as the rudders. It went in easily on the shafts. I had to flatten it a bit with a hammer to get it to go into the boxes for the rudders. I used four rows in both places. No leaks so far, but I will be keeping an eye on them.

Thanks to everyone here who gave me advice on things like drilling out a frozen set screw from the coupling and pulling the coupling.

Special thanks to Carl for fitting the couplings. The manager at the boatyard said that shafts lined up perfectly after he installed the new cutlass bearings.

Excellent news...except for the most important part.

How does it run???


If no leaks on the shaft stuffing box's make sure you have someone check the temperature of the box when your running.
No thermometer, inferred or otherwise needed...use the hand, it should not go anything past warm to the touch and I'd prefer it be closer to the temperature of the water.

If more then warm...back off on the packing.
A couple of extra drips don't bother me in the least.



For the rudders...snug them up til they don't leak yet turn easily with some resistance.

Congratulations!! Its a great feeling to finally have her in the water!

Let us know how she ran and send a few pictures.

Carl wrote:Excellent news...except for the most important part.

How does it run???

Everything was smooth, no vibrations. I did the 20 minute run from the boat yard to my slip at 2800 rpm and my GPS showed that I was doing 20 knots.

I plan to check the temperature of my stuffing boxes later this week.

Peter

Great to hear. A lot of us got in late this year. Not a good start with whole shut down thing. Now enjoy her.

After all of the complications I ran into I am happy to have her in before July 4th. I was also pleasantly surprised at the reasonableness of my yard bill considering how many times they jumped in when I got stuck on something.

Last year my wife broke her wrist at the end of March and had it in an external fixator until early June. Even though I got in at the beginning of May I didn’t get much use out of the boat. On top of that I ran into ignition system problems on both engines which took me until late August to sort out.

Hopefully I am off to a better start this summer.

Congratulations Peter-
I hope all the fussing with mechanical stuff is behind you and a great season lay ahead.
Best,
Stephan