Saildrive seal replacement

matt1

matt1

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My first boat with a saildrive and as it’s now 7 years old Yanmar recommend replacing the saildrive seal and of course my insurers won’t pay out a claim if I haven’t followed manufacturer’s service schedules. Ugh!

Not thrilled at the prospect as it’s a big job and I can imagine it might end up causing issues.. (if it ain’t broke don’t fix it).

Boat is central south coast and I’m getting quotes of £2.5 - £3.5k does that sound reasonable?
 
OUCH! South Coast prices! Diaphragm kit approx £500 (2022), 2 people 1 very easy day.
I've now done 2, VP2020 on saildrive (120?) And Yanmar 4JE 56hp on a saildrive.
Both quite simple, VP easier as engine / saildrive smaller and lighter. Both took about 4 hours. Not difficult work methodically.
 
Yanmar used to say just inspect, but apparently they now say 5 years. They obviously want to sell more seals.
 
That is too high. Standard labour time assuming no dismantling of cabinetry is 16 hours - 2 fitters for a day. At £80 an hour that is roughly £1300 plus £500 for materials. so £2000 ball park.

Insurance is a bit of a red herring. Failure is almost unheard of and they can't refuse a claim for anything other than the consequences of failure of the component itself. So changing is for your own peace of mind and to avoid being forced to change it should you try and sell the boat.
 
I've spoken to Yanmar a few times about this as our boat is 9 years old. They admit they have never seen one fail. Spoken to people who've changed them and they've never seen damage on the one they took out.

I wonder if this will go the way of the VAG cambelt issue?

I "self insure" the fact I've exceeded the recommended interval and happy the boat won't sink because of it. Yanmar even have a leak detector alarm fitted in it.
 
I have an invoice that came with a used boat, dated 2023. Same job on a Volvo, total inc VAT = £2406. This includes a new clamping ring @ c£500 which is probably unusual.
This was on the Dart so not a traditionally inexpensive venue.

.
 
wonkywinch said:
I've spoken to Yanmar a few times about this as our boat is 9 years old. They admit they have never seen one fail. Spoken to people who've changed them and they've never seen damage on the one they took out.

I wonder if this will go the way of the VAG cambelt issue?

I "self insure" the fact I've exceeded the recommended interval and happy the boat won't sink because of it. Yanmar even have a leak detector alarm fitted in it.
Click to expand...
Mine is Yanmar, too. Bought in 2013. Shortly after buying the boat I wrote to Beneteau to ask for a copy of Weibull analysis or something similar to show the justification for their 5 year recommendation. Received a very patronising response that the Dealer will take care of the boat.

I then wrote to Yanmar and they sent me a litre of gearbox oil for my trouble.

It may be an eloquent solution for a boat builder but it’s a very poor design in terms of maintainability.

Having to remove ancillaries, slide engine forward and so on on a 5 year old boat seems ridiculous.
 
Skylark said:
Mine is Yanmar, too. Bought in 2013. Shortly after buying the boat I wrote to Beneteau to ask for a copy of Weibull analysis or something similar to show the justification for their 5 year recommendation. Received a very patronising response that the Dealer will take care of the boat.

I then wrote to Yanmar and they sent me a litre of gearbox oil for my trouble.

It may be an eloquent solution for a boat builder but it’s a very poor design in terms of maintainability.

Having to remove ancillaries, slide engine forward and so on on a 5 year old boat seems ridiculous.
Click to expand...
Revenue generation? A by product of the EU regulations and CE requirements that it only needs to be serviceable for 5 years?

Mine is Yanmar, 2007 launch, bought in 2018. No record of diaphragm replacement. Replaced in 2022 so possibly 15 years old. Evidence of some superficial cracking (1mm deep) in the diaphragm but still serviceable.

Previous boat had VP saildrive, diaphragm replaced at 7 years by first owner, on acquisition I replaced at 18 years, no visible deterioration.
 
Skylark said:
Mine is Yanmar, too. Bought in 2013. Shortly after buying the boat I wrote to Beneteau to ask for a copy of Weibull analysis or something similar to show the justification for their 5 year recommendation. Received a very patronising response that the Dealer will take care of the boat.

I then wrote to Yanmar and they sent me a litre of gearbox oil for my trouble.

It may be an eloquent solution for a boat builder but it’s a very poor design in terms of maintainability.

Having to remove ancillaries, slide engine forward and so on on a 5 year old boat seems ridiculous.
Click to expand...
It was not initially intended to have a fixed replacement life, but last indefinitely (as they do!). However when it was introduced in the US there was strong resistance based mainly on the experience of short life on Volvo stern drive rubber bellows so Volvo introduced the 5 year replacement to cover themselves. Even though it is unnecessary - catastrophic fare leading to sinking is virtually unheard of in the near 50 years the product has been on the market Volvo or Yanmar are unlikely to change while making huge sales. somewhat surprising there does not seem to be any aftermarket suppliers, although parts are discounted by many suppliers.
 
wonkywinch said:
I've spoken to Yanmar a few times about this as our boat is 9 years old. They admit they have never seen one fail. Spoken to people who've changed them and they've never seen damage on the one they took out.

I wonder if this will go the way of the VAG cambelt issue?

I "self insure" the fact I've exceeded the recommended interval and happy the boat won't sink because of it. Yanmar even have a leak detector alarm fitted in it.
Click to expand...

Just had mine replaced at 10 years but in all the excitement of another issue found I forgot to ask about the condition of the old one.

There was a report here of one member finding some evidence of water between the membranes.

John_Silver

Thread 'A salutary (saildrive) tale.........'

LoResP1010938 (1).JPG

When Stargazer was first launched (in 2010) Yanmar recommended biannual inspection of the SD20 saildrive diaphragm, plus annual testing of the water ingress alarm probe. No finite service life was given. Some time later Yanmar stipulated a replacement interval of five years. Which, to be frank, I took to be a creative revenue generation enterprise, concocted between their Spares Department and Dealer Network. Fellow owners and forumites confirmed my belief that 'no one's ever heard of one failing.'

Today, during the annual engine service, I finally had the 15 year old...
  • Like

On the insurance point the first bullet point of the general exclusions on GJW looks problematic

https://files.ripeinsurance.co.uk/gjwdirect/2025/updated/GJW_15369_Yacht_PolicyBook_26_05_25.pdf
 
Last edited:
Lucky Duck said:
Just had mine replaced at 10 years but in all the excitement of another issue found I forgot to ask about the condition of the old one.

There was a report here of one member finding some evidence of water between the membranes.

John_Silver

Thread 'A salutary (saildrive) tale.........'

LoResP1010938 (1).JPG

When Stargazer was first launched (in 2010) Yanmar recommended biannual inspection of the SD20 saildrive diaphragm, plus annual testing of the water ingress alarm probe. No finite service life was given. Some time later Yanmar stipulated a replacement interval of five years. Which, to be frank, I took to be a creative revenue generation enterprise, concocted between their Spares Department and Dealer Network. Fellow owners and forumites confirmed my belief that 'no one's ever heard of one failing.'

Today, during the annual engine service, I finally had the 15 year old...
  • Like

On the insurance point the first bullet point of the general exclusions on GJW looks problematic

https://files.ripeinsurance.co.uk/gjwdirect/2025/updated/GJW_15369_Yacht_PolicyBook_26_05_25.pdf
Click to expand...
That is only relevant if the boat sinks because the seal failed, which is virtually unheard of There is no routine maintenance of the seal other than visual inspection.
 
Did mine on Laysula earlier this year. Unknown age but we've had the boat ten years. You couldn't tell the old seals from the new once the old one was cleaned. Very straightforward and easy job to do. A good tip is to use several small containers to keep all your bolts in and mark each one. ( I used dog food trays ). Also take plenty of photo's so you can see where wires cables etc are attached. At the same time I took the opportunity to replace the engine mounts.

Yanmars have two seals with a water sensor between them, and the reccomendation in the manual was to replace the seals when the alarm went for water between the seals.
 
Laysula said:
Did mine on Laysula earlier this year. Unknown age but we've had the boat ten years. You couldn't tell the old seals from the new once the old one was cleaned. Very straightforward and easy job to do. A good tip is to use several small containers to keep all your bolts in and mark each one. ( I used dog food trays ). Also take plenty of photo's so you can see where wires cables etc are attached. At the same time I took the opportunity to replace the engine mounts.

Yanmars have two seals with a water sensor between them, and the reccomendation in the manual was to replace the seals when the alarm went for water between the seals.
Click to expand...
If ever you fancy a weekend in the Clyde doing another, Steve, I'll provide the tool kit, bacon sandwiches and coffee.
 
I changed the seal on My Seawolf 26 in 2022, as the metal retaining ring had developed quite a bit of rust. Turned out to be surface rust only.

The original rubber seal was from 1981 and perfectly good some 40years in situ!!

A new metal ring was eye wateringly expensive so I sent the original off to be cleaned up and recoated. Which wasn't expensive, though I cannot remember how much it was now.
 
PabloPicasso said:
I changed the seal on My Seawolf 26 in 2022, as the metal retaining ring had developed quite a bit of rust. Turned out to be surface rust only.

The original rubber seal was from 1981 and perfectly good some 40years in situ!!

A new metal ring was eye wateringly expensive so I sent the original off to be cleaned up and recoated. Which wasn't expensive, though I cannot remember how much it was now.
Click to expand...
That's impressive, will there soon be a leader board for longest in service:-)
 
You don’t say boat but we had our Volvo seal replaced last year by an engineer -nowhere near the price mentioned but maybe that’s a hamble yard -you could take up to Deacons and have an engineer of your choice do the job. If you pm me I can give details of an engineer we used after a lift out at endeavour quay
 
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