What I Found Inside the Stern Tube Changed Everything WHSE184

[00:00:01]Definitely the most interesting haul out that I think I'll have done.

[00:00:09]Cutting this one off means I'm fully committed in a country where I cannot get another one. So, Gecko will just be out of the water indefinitely.

[00:00:18]I just wanted to show you the old stuffing box. The lip seals are completely gone. I kind of had this old memory of it being really annoying. Why do I remember it being annoying? And this is why, because it is going to be annoying.

[00:00:36]We're here at the marina and the haul out time was scheduled for 2:45. It's 9:45 and I got a phone call asking if I could come bring Gecko into the dock right now. So, I told them to give me half an hour to get the boat ready, get the lines and the fenders set up, dig the dock lines out, and just kind of not be in a rush.

[00:00:56]I don't like rushing on my boat. I said to go to the jetty, which is right there. It looks like a dinghy dock. Um, and I couldn't quite get from them if it's the jetty on the right or the jetty on the left. Uh, I just sort of a language barrier. So, I've set up for a starboard tie, but I'm not really sure. We might have to pivot and switch. The swell comes into this anchorage and obviously you don't want to be going onto a trailer with a swell. So, if they want to haul me out sooner before the bad weather comes in, I'm all about it. We're on the dock and I just went up to the marina office to bring my account details. They are charging me $532 US for the haul out plus the splash.

[00:01:38]While I'm working on the stuffing box, I'm hiring their guys to just do a quick repaint of the bottom. I did it in Townsville, but the jack stands took some of the paint off, so I just want those spots filled in and then another layer put on the whole boat. Might as well do it while I'm out. They charge $18 a day for labor, which is why I decided to have them just do it because it's so cheap. And that way I can focus on the stuffing box. It's almost never that I pay people to work on my boat.

[00:02:05]So, when I'm in a country where I can afford to, it's really nice luxury. So, that trailer up there is what they're going to get pulled out on.

[00:02:15]And then this is just a whole little village down the beach here.

[00:02:19]And that's the mooring where I was. It looks like it's a it's a go.

[00:02:23]Everything's happening really quickly.

[00:02:25]Which is cool. They're getting the trailer ready over there. They said not to start the engine. Um we'll just throw them lines and they'll maneuver the boat in with the lines. My only concern is that there's a bit of a a surge on the shore, but I don't think there's ever really going to be a time when there isn't, which means that they'll slightly lift up and bump on the pads.

[00:02:49]They're going to drive the trailer up and down a couple times the ramp just to I guess there's a bunch of sand that got blown onto the ramp with the last wind. So, they're just going to make some some tracks for the wheels. So, they'll go up back up back to kind of dig the wheel tracks in and then they'll do a final pass and uh get the boat in place.

[00:03:11]Definitely the most interesting haul out that I think I'll have done to date. First time not in a travel lift.

[00:03:23]I don't know.

[00:03:27]The diver is going to check if the ones are just long enough.

[00:04:51]>> It went pretty smoothly all things told.

[00:04:53]Were I the nervous type, I think I would have been pretty nervous for that, but um you sort of have to trust that these guys have been doing a lot of boats and mine is pretty small, which does have its own unique challenges um just because the cradle is so big that they were saying it's they might even have to put extenders on the pads because my boat's a double ender, so it gets really skinny in the back, but um they managed to get it and now we're just coming into this this really beautiful grassy field.

[00:05:19]They're getting the jack stands ready and this is going to be where we are.

[00:05:25]Jack in place.

[00:05:35]All right, everything's out of the lines and I'm going to get my tools and take apart the shaft coupling, then start hammering the prop shaft out of the coupling. So, I need my my wrenches and sockets.

[00:05:54]What I did last time, which is what my dad recommended, is that you got a bunch of sockets. The prop shaft is 1 in and you just hammer them in to set the as they get hammered in the shaft slowly goes out. And just to make a little more light in the engine compartment, I took the front off. In Australia, I had fernaled the fan courtesy of Andy, which made such a big difference being in the engine compartment. I just put the fan upside down over the lads and it blew cool air on me. But, now I'm going to be sweating like a pig in the troll hole. First thing I'm going to do is just clean up down here. There's a lot of water under the engine and a ton of oil. Okay, I've cleaned up the bilge in here and now I'm going to take apart the prop shaft couplings. I have this undone now and to get Sorry, I thought to get the prop shaft off the coupling, I'm actually going to have to cut the stuffing box off because there's not enough room to get in here with the hammer to hammer it out cuz it's a tiny little gap. So, I brought the new stuffing box down because I need to make extra sure that this is actually going to fit and work cuz my backup plan was if everything went south, I was just going to put the old one on and deal with it.

[00:07:14]But, cutting this one off means I'm fully committed in a country where I cannot get another one. So, Gek will just be out of the water indefinitely.

[00:07:22]Looking at them side by side, it does appear that they're the same, but I'm going to make a couple more measurements first just to be sure. And I'm getting my calipers in here and I'm just going to double-check the measurement of the stern tube and the measurement of this guy and the prop shaft in this guy to make sure everything's going to fit.

[00:08:03]So, I'm at the phase where I'm trying to get the prop shaft out of the coupling and I cannot for the life of me figure out how I did it before. I was hitting it with the hammer, but there's not that much space for the hammer to fit and so then I was like, "Wait a second, I did this in French Polynesia." So, I went back to my YouTube videos and watched how I did it and I remembered the method that I used to get it out and it wasn't actually hitting. It was um slowly forcing it out. You get something between like I've done here, um this little guy, I think.

[00:08:33]Uh and then close this gap and then I took these longer bolts. Oops.

[00:08:40]As I'm sucking up. And then you basically just put these in and slowly tighten them up and as you tighten turning around and around and around, that slowly forces this into the coupling, which in turn forces the prop shaft out. I kind of had this old memory of it being really annoying. Why does it Why do I remember it being annoying? And this is why, because it is going to be annoying cuz I'm tightening it very, very slowly. So, luckily I was able to find some bolts that I think are going to work. I'm lining these up.

[00:09:10]Now you can see there's a bit of a gap between these two and then I'm going to get these bolts. Hopefully they fit. If I can get this started, that's perfect.

[00:09:21]Yep. As I'm turning the prop shaft, I'm just lifting it slightly so that you want to be really careful not to scratch it or damage it. If you get any scratches on it, then you're not going to get a good seal on the stuffing box and you're going to have leaks. Ooh, this is fun. I'm just going to go around and slowly tighten each of these.

[00:09:54]I'm just probably do that for the next hour.

[00:09:57]Bon appetit. It's a snack to keep you going cuz you're working so hard.

[00:10:03]I'm a fueling the monster inside the engine.

[00:10:07]>> Girl.

[00:10:09]We're doing well with our operation squeeze the prop shaft out.

[00:10:17]Good morning from the boat yard. This is by far the most chill yard I've ever had to date. Um being able to leave the boat at the end of the day and sleep in a room with air conditioning one is really awesome. Two, I'm able to leave my boat torn apart in work mode cuz I don't have to live on it. So, I've just sort of left all my tools out and the lockers open. Uh and the engine compartment open which is cool. My mom and I had a really fun night last night.

[00:10:43]Uh slept pretty not as well as I do on Geck but maybe better than I would have in the boat yard. Just going to keep working on getting the prop shaft out of the coupling. Yesterday, I just hit a wall at the end of the day. Um it's such an awkward position and my back was killing me. It's just a very slow process but I like to finish today. I'm just come back on board to make some coffee and to make some breakfast and then I'm going to get started. You know what's really funny is that I I actually really missed my boat yesterday when I left here.

[00:11:11]And I went into the hotel room. I was lying in my bed and in the air conditioning after having taken a shower. My mom's uh there's a little restaurant and she asked if I wanted to go get breakfast there with her and I I told her I want to go and make breakfast on Geck. Now that Dan's not here anymore, uh I'm allowed to drink yesterday's old coffee from the coffee pot.

[00:11:31]Not that he'd ever not allow me to do something but would always tell me to pour it out and make new coffee because old coffee is icky or something. It's been sitting out for 24 hours in the heat with the bugs. Um, but you know, this is how I roll. So, cold coffee from yesterday, let's go. Also, ironically, I told my mom the coffee at the restaurant was going to suck. Um, but you know what? This is delicious. So, no regrets. It's nice having my mom here.

[00:11:59]Um, yesterday she was my foreman. The bottom just needed a light scuff and I was like, I could probably rent all of that stuff from them for the same price that it would cost to just have them do it. It's really nice to have her down there just kind of advocating for me and Gecko while I was just in the troll hole um slowly turning bolts.

[00:12:21]It felt weird at first to not have Dan cuz him and I did that huge haul out in Townsville and it was just really awesome to do it together and um he knows Gecko so well.

[00:12:31]We both can go off and do our own things and my mom doesn't know Gecko so I just need to tell her a little bit more of how to do things, but you know, she's a smart lady and she knows a lot about boats, so I only have to tell her once. She can just do it.

[00:12:45]Back into my little cave and I just noticed I left my snacks from yesterday, so I still have some apple and rice cakes.

[00:12:51]Where my leg is now, that's where my butt is and then this leg goes under the Morse cables up by the engine and then my left leg goes under this and then on the other side of this thing and then it's not that high, so I'm just kind of squished in half.

[00:13:15]It the coupling just came off.

[00:13:19]The prop shaft. That's really exciting.

[00:13:22]So, all of these guys can come out. I'm going to clean up the coupling a bit. I need to clean up all the bolts that went through here. Unfortunately, I cannot replace the nylock, so I'm going to put some What am I going to do? I could lock tight them.

[00:13:35]Then I might never get them undone again. I also don't want them to come undone under where Things are happening.

[00:13:41]It's time to put on the new stuffing box. So, my old one, I bought it on the SVB website, which is a European site.

[00:13:47]And when I went to go back to buy it again, they didn't have it anymore. Um so, I had to buy the Volvo one. But, this one has um this guy, which is a portal for squirting more grease in. And it also has this tube, which is like a vent tube. So, you put a hose on it, and then it encourages the water to flow up into the stuffing box. Cuz one of the problems um that you can get with these sorts of stuffing boxes is that you don't get enough water flow in, and the water like everything gets too hot. Um so, this kind of allowed for a bit of an escape so that you don't get a pressure build up in it. And then really easy to service.

[00:14:23]Couldn't find one like that in the States. Uh so, what I ended up having to buy was this Volvo shaft seal, which is the exact same shape as the SVB one, except it doesn't have the little release vent. And it also doesn't have the servicing grease portal. So, to do this one, you have to do the thing where you get a straw. This is the part that goes around the prop shaft. You kind of squeeze it, and then you get the straw, and then you squirt it in. So, it's it's not as easy. Not as straightforward.

[00:14:52]I'm not happy that I had to get this one. This cost about $130. Editing desk Holly here, just putting this really quick interjection in because I know that you guys are going to get up in the comments. There are a ton of different types of shaft seals for sailboats. And the one of in my opinion the best ones is the PSS shaft seal. That is what I wanted to have for my boat.

[00:15:11]Unfortunately, the space between the back of the flange and where the prop shaft goes through the boat is about this long. It is almost exactly the length of one of the shaft seals that I currently have. And, not only that, but underneath the shaft, there's about this much space before it becomes bilge. So, despite the plethora of amazing products on the market, I am stuck with one option because that's the only thing that will fit in my boat. And, trust me, I looked into it so hard because I didn't want to have to replace this thing again, but that's where we are.

[00:15:41]So, that's why I'm doing it. On with the show.

[00:15:44]>> The way to install these properly and safely is that they come with this little plastic guy. This is to protect the lip seals when you're getting it into position cuz you're sliding the shaft in and out a lot. You have to get the shaft back in the coupling.

[00:15:59]Um so, you put the plastic in here and then install it with this on. And then, once everything is installed and in place, you pull this out and it's split here to make it really easy to get it off. The water comes in through here.

[00:16:16]Uh and it'll be water between here and the first lip seal. And then, there should be grease between the other lip seals um to prevent the water from escaping and to keep it cool. And this has two lip seals. So, basically, yeah, you just want to get grease. That's the first lip seal between the first and the second ones.

[00:16:36]I just finished putting everything inside that I don't want to get wet cuz I'm leaving all the stuff out of the lazarette. Started downpouring. I've left all the jerrys, fins, basically all the plastic stuff stays outside cuz that's pretty easy to dry. And then, all of my lines I've piled over here um so that I still have and then some stuff here. The boat's basically a work zone, which is fine cuz I'm not living on board. The saga of the stuffing box, let's talk with the hatches closed. Uh is that when I bought the new stuffing box, I looked back through all my old emails and I found the receipt of the stuffing box I bought in Polynesia. And I found all these conversations talking about how my stern tube diameter is 42 mm and the stuffing box he recommended to me was 43 mils, but it was okay. I could shim it out. And so, when I went to go buy my new one, um it was a 42 mil stern tube. So, I was really excited because I was like, "Huh, it's the right size."

[00:17:32]Then I brought it onto my boat, put it on to the stern tube, and I was like, "Wait, how did the stern tube suddenly shrink to 38 mils?"

[00:17:41]Had this whole moment where I thought I'd messed up. You can't buy a stern gland in Indonesia. I mean, heck, I can't even find stainless bolts here.

[00:17:48]And then I decided to keep watching my YouTube video of the install that I did in French Polynesia and realized that what's happened is the fiberglass where the stern tube comes out of has actually eroded away.

[00:18:03]And before I was able to put the stern tube over the fiberglass, which must measure 42 mm.

[00:18:11]Um but it's sort of been eaten away and I can't put it over anymore because there isn't any left, which might be one of the reasons why the lip seals failed cuz if tiny bits of that kept getting sort of crunched out and circulating through the water, it would just eat away at the delicate little lip seals. I called my friend uh Dave and Tracy and sort of asked him for advice cuz my dad was asleep cuz it's night time in Maine, so I couldn't call my dad. And they told me that yes, indeed, you can extend that fiberglass out and they gave me the name of a guy in Mataram, um which is just an hour away from here, who they had they had do some fiberglass work on their boat they said was really good. I have him coming tomorrow to fiberglass that stern tube. I could do fiberglass repairs on my dinghy, but I am not experienced enough to do this and this is a very big deal fix, so it feels really good that I can pay someone.

[00:19:02]The only problem with not cleaning up after myself is that I don't know where anything is. I've always thought like, "Oh, I wish you know, I I live for a month at a time in the boat yard pretty regularly and I always complain about how I have to clean up everything at the end of the day cuz I want to have a living space, but I've lost so many things in the last 24 hours because everything is everywhere. So, I just wanted to show you guys the um the old stuffing box. Kind of looks like a dinosaur.

[00:19:34]Um the lip seals are completely gone.

[00:19:38]Completely gone. That's why it was leaking so much. So, it didn't matter how much grease I stuffed in there. It was never going to be watertight.

[00:19:47]Oh, yeah. And the last thing I'm going to do while I'm inside my boat for the day is clean up these bolts. Just clean the threads as nice as I can. If I was in another country, I would just replace them because a good rule of thumb is to always replace all the hardware that you take out no matter how new and shiny it looks, but that's not an option here.

[00:20:07]So, we will reuse. I've just discovered a problem child bolt.

[00:20:16]It's threads are all messed up right here and flattened here. I don't really know how. It must have been when I was getting it out. It had a lot of Maybe it was the last one I got out and it had a lot of um tension on it.

[00:20:30]That doesn't make sense either. I don't know. I don't know if the threads are going to enjoy having a nut on them. So, I'm going to try to wind this down as far as I can.

[00:20:41]See if Sometimes you can fix the threads just by winding winding the nut down on them. If you have a thing of all thread, which is just a long stick that's all threaded and you're cutting it, you put a nut on first behind where you're cutting so that when you take the nut off, it fixes the cuz when you cut through the threads, it's going to just make a little burr on the edge and you won't ever get something threaded on. So, you always want something already on there to thread it off and that unburrs the burr.

[00:21:10]I don't know if that same thing applies for fixing threads that are damaged, but I guess if I had a little file, I could get in there and try to fix the threads, but I don't have one. When I was in Panama, I went to the hardware store and bought this really awesome socket set.

[00:21:28]It wasn't even that expensive because at the time I didn't have any money, but it has Imperial on the bottom and metric on the top and it is such a handy thing to have on my boat cuz European boat overhauled in the US, now in metric countries, so as I slowly replace things, most things are metric, but every now and then I get a stubborn little Imperial and then I can use this side for that. And these also hold I've never had a socket fall off. This is a really good holder system. One that's missing here is right there.

[00:22:02]So, anyway, that's cool.

[00:22:04]Okay, good news.

[00:22:05]This threads on. That's further than it will ever have to go.

[00:22:10]So, then that did a nice job of fixing the threads. So, yeah, you can see the threads are sort of not as smashed there. I'm debating I have to do some more research on this. I'm debating putting a little bit of thread lock on these because the nylocks are old, but I also want to be able to get it undone again because this style of stern gland is just not good and I'm fully anticipating in another 3 years having to replace it again. So, I want to be able to get them undone, but I also don't want them to come undone on their own. So, more on that later.

[00:22:52]We're getting ready to put Gecko back in the water. The hull is in the water.

[00:22:58]We're in the water. Okay.

[00:23:00]All right, I just burped it. It's really hard to tell cuz all the bilge water just sloshed under it.

[00:23:06]No, there is a drip of water. Oh, wow.

[00:23:10]Are they stopping? They're going We're going back out.

[00:23:12]>> Okay. We're getting out of the water.

[00:23:15]Thanks for watching part one of boatyard drama.

[00:23:19]Trust me when I tell you there is more to come. It got so much worse.

[00:23:26]Anyway, I put out new YouTube videos uh every two weeks on YouTube. And for my patrons, you guys get a snack on the weeks that I don't put out full-length YouTube episode. Thank you so much to my patrons for supporting me and making this trip possible. If you'd like to become a patron, my Patreon is patreon.com/windhippie.

[00:23:45]And for one-time donations, I have a PayPal, paypal.me/windhippie.

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[00:23:58]Patrons, I'll see you next week. And everyone else, I'll see you on YouTube in another two weeks.