cutless bearing housing

[Novachris]

Hi.
i have a long keeled yacht and the cutless bearing housing is held on by two bolts to the back of the keel,the boat is on the hard but is going back into the water pretty soon,this morning i noticed a drip of water at the bottom of the CB housing, hopfully condensation dripping down, but if its not and i have to remove to reseal the CB housing do i remove the two bolts and unscrew the housing then i can reseal the thing and nip it back up? is it that simple?

second question, where could the drip be coming from?
thanks in advance.

 

[Athene V30]

If it is anything like the cutless bearing on my Cutlass the 2 bolts are covering over and squeezing down the 'string' stuff that the grease is squeezed into. Gradually after renewing the 'string' I tighten this up over the following months. You should (I understand) have a drip as the water cools the shaft.

I would guess the drip you currently have is condensation.

 

[Tranona]

Depends on how the stern tube is installed. Water will obviously get inside the stern tube, but should not be there if the boat has been out of the water. If the water is coming from the stern tube to hull join this may mean water is in the hull and the sealing of the stern tube is failing. There are different ways of attaching the bearing housing. It could be that it is just screwed onto the stern tube and the two screws lock it in position. In that case it is just a question of unscrewing cleaning and resealing with a polysulphide sealer. It can be difficult to unscrew so you may need some heavy duty Stilsons to shift it. Some housings are through bolted so you need to look inside the hull for any fastenings. In most boats there is very little or no space around the stern tube so unlikely to be any significant amount of water there.

 

[Novachris]

If it is anything like the cutless bearing on my Cutlass the 2 bolts are covering over and squeezing down the 'string' stuff that the grease is squeezed into. Gradually after renewing the 'string' I tighten this up over the following months. You should (I understand) have a drip as the water cools the shaft.

I would guess the drip you currently have is condensation.

thanks for the reply..I should have made it a bit clearer...The cutless bearing housing on the outside of the boat..not the sterngland,which is inside the boat and is a pita to get at.

But hopfully it is condesation, but i dont want to have to lift back out if it is a leak..so might as well bite the bullet and re seal.

 

[alahol2]

Hi.
i have a long keeled yacht and the cutless bearing housing is held on by two bolts to the back of the keel,the boat is on the hard but is going back into the water pretty soon,this morning i noticed a drip of water at the bottom of the CB housing, hopfully condensation dripping down, but if its not and i have to remove to reseal the CB housing do i remove the two bolts and unscrew the housing then i can reseal the thing and nip it back up? is it that simple?

second question, where could the drip be coming from?
thanks in advance.

Yes, in theory it could be that simple. In practice, if it's like mine, one of the nuts will be under the stern tube and near impossible to touch. I eventually managed to get the nut back onto the bolt using a combination of U/Js on a long socket extension. A lot of fiddling in a very confined space but usually do-able.