WindermereColvic
Well-Known Member
Went out for the first sail of the season t’other day (although not our first time out under engine only) and after about 1 mile motoring, 4 miles under sail and a quick 5 min motor of the buoy we stopped on for lunch, crew came out with quote of the day ‘Skip, why is their water above the floor boards?’. After asserting we weren’t sinking ‘too’ quickly and pumping the water I remembered that I had noticed a funny noise from the engine whilst motoring earlier, sounded to me like something round the prop, I tried a quick blast of reverse to clear it, but had basically decided to stay below 2000 revs and ‘do something about it later’, anyway after bailing about 5 buckets of water my mind conjured horrible images of the stern gland being ripped out of the boat as soon as I started the engine, so called for a tow into the nearest slipway (Ferry Nab for those who know Windermere). A little back ground info at this point; We have a traditional stuffing box stern gland, that should usually be greased with a turn of the greaser after every trip. The greaser had run out soon after we bought the boat late last year, and was proving difficult to remove and refill, but this wasn’t bothering me unduly as it had done no more than 4 hours under motor since it ran out. Or so I thought, however on removing the greaser to refill (with the aid of a strap wrench) its remaining contents had split into a solid mas, and a black substance resembling engine oil, which makes me wonder if the prev. owner had been greasing the gland, he was a good sailor, but not too hot on all things mechanical. Criky this post getting a bit long, so I’ll get to the point, fearing the stuffing box would fail we called an engineer out who could find nothing wrong, although to use his words ‘the engine was about to jump off its mounts’ in half ahead, with about 1.5” travel on the mounts, increasing with revs, but no abnormality in reverse. It was clear the shaft had been moving in and out, as dirt on its surface was arranged to show this. We had the boat lifted, but could find nothing round the prop, and cutlass baring has been given a clean bill of health. So..what to do, well although the shaft has a flexible coupling, we have been told it may be out of line, and we have been told that the thrust bearing may be shot, perhaps this is borne out by the fact that the problem does not occur in reverse, do any of these sound plausible? And the mystery of all that water still remains, running at 2000revs in dock the gland didn’t leek more than normal, ie few drops a minute, so perhaps a few existing pools in the bilges were moved around by the fairly lively sail? Or maybe the shaft seal only leeks when it’s been running a while?
Apologies for having such a rant when I suppose I could have built pointed the info, but this was supposed to be our holiday, and an introduction to sailing for some of the family, so I’m rather annoyed we had spend it in dock. Although on the bright side, I have been able to have a good nose at all the boats being launched down the slip and you would be astonished how many lil mobos and fishing ‘boats’ have been let go with the bungs out, I’m now a film believer in the ‘panicking man with a bucket’ bilge pump technique.
Advise what to do next appreciated, Matt.
Apologies for having such a rant when I suppose I could have built pointed the info, but this was supposed to be our holiday, and an introduction to sailing for some of the family, so I’m rather annoyed we had spend it in dock. Although on the bright side, I have been able to have a good nose at all the boats being launched down the slip and you would be astonished how many lil mobos and fishing ‘boats’ have been let go with the bungs out, I’m now a film believer in the ‘panicking man with a bucket’ bilge pump technique.
Advise what to do next appreciated, Matt.
