Shaft Log Problem!

[marshotel]

Hello Folks,
As you can see by my activity Im new to the group as well as my boat. I wish I could say that I have been having a great summer on my new vessel (Albin 36) but I cant. I had the boat pulled a week ago b/c the water feed to the dripless stuffing box flooded the motor due to the failure of the groco syphon valve (a $22 dollar gasket to blame). Ok, so we tackled that and it turned out better than I expected. My boating buddy is a VT farmboy and he's real good w/ diesels (lehman 135). We took the appropriate action and only suffered some loss of cash due to having her pulled and putting about 30 gallons of oil through her and a days wage for the boatyard mechanic. While she is out I asked the yard to pull the cutlass bearing housing and press in new bearings since the survey report indicated some play. Once they got the housing off they called and said they think the shaft log is damaged/broken. I suspected something may be amiss b/c under the stuffing box, there is an area where there is a fiberglass patch or a seam that has been seeping water since putting her in. I've kept a cautious eye towards it and installed an hour meter on the bilge to determine if she was really leaking bad, she wasn't. bilge was running less than 6 minutes per week.

That's the problem, now the questions.... Anyone had similar problems? Is this a known problem for the Albin 36? How major a repair is this etc.... If you can elaborate on my problem, please do. I need to decide what to do next. The boat yard wants to pull the shaft to investigate but I told them I would get back to them. HELP!~

Thanks - Todd

[Dudley]

pulling the shaft to inspect is is a minor expense compared to having the dripless system fail and sink your boat.

[jleonard]

That's a known problem. If you search the classic trawler section you'll find some info