PYI Dripless Shaft Seal

[tomm...@rogers.com]

Am considering adding a PYI Dripless Shaft Seal this winter, but concerned that there isn't a ton of room between the stuffing box and the coupling.  I would love to get rid of the constant drip of water that comes from the stuffing box down into the bilge every time we go sailing.  I'm sure I'll discover that the bulk of the water in the bilge actually comes down the inside of the mast after I change it over, but that'll be another project for later.

Has anyone actually done this project? Any pictures to show how much space there actually is once installed?

Thanks.

Tom

[Geoff Cowles]

Tom

I had a stuffing box that I couldn’t tighten down to where I wanted it dripwise so I had it repacked and this cured the issue.  The new packing material is very durable and can be operated near-dripless.   I had some fleeting conversations with the boatyard about dripless systems and they noted only that they would have to look at the shaft carefully as it comes into the boat at such an acute angle to the hull you don’t have a lot of clearance between the shaft and the hull towards aft part of the shaft where it exits the boat.  This same concern was expressed by the surveyor when we bought the boat who noted it made it harder to do stuffing box maintenance.  I attached the picture he included in his report.

Water will come down the mast so it is prudent to keep the limber holes clear in the bulkhead between the forward and main bilges.  They are undersized in my opinion, especially if they are used to carry the lightning protection to the keel.   I was not racing the boat so I was not concerned about any mid-season adjustment of fore and aft mast position so I sealed the deck around the mast with spartite (Spartite Mast Seal Kit).  Frank is now racing the boat so he might have chosen to remove it.  A lackey like me can do the spartite install which has to be done after you are happy with the rig tuning.  It held for us for at least five years and definitely reduced the amount of water we were getting down the mast and into the bilge.  You just have to be a little mindful when stepping the mast but our haulers (Brownell) were very experienced so it wasn’t an issue. 

Geoff

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[Jeff Keen]

Hi Tom,

I have a PYI DSS on my J28.  It works well, but I'm not sure it's worth the expense.  To Geoff's point, I first would try repacking with quality Gore packing material, which doesn't really drip much, if at all.  (Gore packing for the rudder post is great too). This summer, I installed Spartite and that helped a lot with water in the bilge.  My ice box drains into the bilge as well, so that is going to be a source of water no matter what else I do.

Jeff

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[Capt. Steve]

On Fiona, Hull # 62, one of the biggest sources of bilge water was a leak around the seal on the manual bilge pump, located on the aft side of the cockpit.  I also found out the two stereo speakers leaked a lot.  I always assumed when I opened her up and there was a puddle of water in the hull just aft of where it drains down into the bilge, that it came from the shaft seal, but could never see any drips there.  Turns out, it was rainwater going through the openings in the cockpit walls.

Regards,

Steve

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Steve McClure

(251) 459-2441

stevemc...@gmail.com

 

[ArtandAlice Ahrens]

I just replaced the shaft log, and replaced the seal with old fashioned flax on Gone Away  Do not trust dripless, a friend almost sank his J-30 when a vent hose got caught in the shaft and damaged the dripless seal.  Failures of dripless seals can rapidly send a boat to the bottom.

Art

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[Ken Huston]

Used a pyi drip less shaft seal years ago on my Jeanneau sunrise…1984…in the Chesapeake…worked great ..sold the boat..it went across the Atlantic and back and didn’t sink…

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