Closed Captions [cc] corrected. Encounters with dripless shaft seal, a faulty seacock, another sail cover revision, installation of a galvanic isolator and troubleshooting a Raymarine wheel pilot.
He is like an old Cowboy 🤠 he is my hero! He is ready to pull the trigger yet he has a huge compassion on his duty not to kill. Big up to you Sir. God bless you. 🙏🏼⛵️
We always wait in great anticipation for your next video, as you are our very favorite. I absolutely love the poetic sailing wisdom you bestow and I have watched some of your videos (especially the one on nautical terms) over and over. We are new to sailing, and sail our beautiful 1972 Ranger 23" Tall Rig at a lake just outside Kansas City, Missouri. Thank you for your videos and please keep them coming!
Hello Christian; I am getting into sailing in my sixties when many are bailing out - throughout your videos I am impressed with your consistent calm approach to problem solving at sea or in port. I just got back from Italy; in Bologna (old city centre) there is a jazz walk and Thelonious Monk has a star on this walk - cool.
I always enjoy your videos. Thanks for the explanation about your dripless shaft seal. I have one on my boat. It was on In-Tuition when I purchased her about 5 years ago. It has never been a problem, and I just burb it after any haul out. And every once in a while, I burb it for good measure 😂. But I always wondered why I didn't have a vent line of any kind... now I know. Thanks! 😊
As a (sail)boat owner I feel this video so much. And now you gave me something else to worry about and leaving a couple of questionsmarks, with the galvanic isolation and anode in the heat exchanger. I thought the only thing I need is my anode at the end of the prob and I be good. Grrrrr.
Dear Christian: you did some sailing' books recommendations years ago and it was awesome. I ended up reading Vito Dumas' "Alone through the roaring forties" because of that. I was wondering if you could please do more book recommendations in some future video if you like the idea. It can be sailing themed or not. It would be nice to get inspiration from someone who loves books like you. Nice video by the way! Can't wait for the following one.
My sailboat is named Something Else, because there is always something else that needs fixed... Friends have said I should name the boat something else but it already is. Thank you for the video I appreciate you for sharing your sailing experience.
I'm sailing through Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Matruin series of sailing novels (audio version voiced by Patrick Tull), for the third time. 21 titles British Navy during the Age of Sail, said to be the most accurate fictionalized sailing history. I am hypnotized by the sailing life portrayed within these wonderful books, but only as far as a ship that has enough size to carry at least 18 guns and some livestock. No cramped bilge thanks.
So pleased that I have a wise sailor such as you Christian to share all these pearls of experience. My father thought me so many things that I am grateful for but he was not a sailor.
The carbon shaft seal face is much more noble than the ball valve guts. The short hose provided great continuity via the sea water and the valve become the sacrificial piece. That’s my guess as to what caused it’s pre mature failure. Shaft zincs tend to disappear faster for the same reason with that PSS seal. I have one and so far not using the vent hose hasn’t caused any issues. If you ever have to loosen the stainless collar the set screws are actually two screws per hole. So once you remove the visible set screws you’ll find two more underneath that are actually holding the collar in place the upper two are used to lock the bottom set. They recommend only using the locking screws once so order a set before you do anything. Great seeing you again!
Christian, I've had 16 boats in 50 yrs, only one with a Dripless packing. The old school packing glands have been around for over 100 years!! I never had a bit of trouble from those!!-------Mikey, Belfair, Wa
it's always such an event when you post up another installment of your sailboatlife.....kinda like sitting comfortably, and chuckling over "Sailing's Quirks and Foibles" with a good friend......Glad you didn't sink her Christian....take care .....OnWard.......
Thank you for the video. It is always a treat and always enjoyable to watch someone else deal with the endless sailboat maintenance and upkeep issues. Why is it that one otherwise "simple" project leads to three others?
Hi, Mr. Williams... My name is Tiago and I am a begginner sailboat aprentice from Brazil. I discover your channel and absolutely love it. I also made a small research about your life biography and became very motivated about your life history. My previously experience is only on racing cars and go karts but I am absoluetly loving sailng and all that "boat life style'. I would like to meet you one day, specially sailing. I've beeing "sailing with you' through your long videos and I thank you for sharing your sailing experience with us. I've got a project on my mind for the future similar to what I have with cars, with is a "professional sailboat" (let me explain). It's a boat not just for tourism chartes, but mostly for people who wanna study about the sea like divers, students, photographers. I kind of "charter" for people thata wanna learn and produce works about sea life, promoting that ocean literacy so important. THANK YOU for your channel Mr. Williams. And good winds!
Another great video Christian, thank so much for this entertaining look at some basic maintenance. I’ll stick to my flax packed shaft seal. Simple to maintain with a couple wrenches.
Wise decision on the isolator. After years of replacing zincs for seemingly no reason my prop was ruined while providing a good ground for a new dock neighbor. Also glad to know that about the shaft seal I am having the same issue. Hose will be removed!
A few years ago I installed that same galvanic isolator upon the advise on many experts. It has made zero difference. But really enjoyed this video because I have had every problem you showed including thinking my boat was going to sink because of a failure of my dripless seal. Another thing I installed at the recommendation of a lot of other people! I added an extra zinc on the shaft to act as a kind of belt and suspenders approach to keep pressure on the bellows. Don’t know if it actually helps but it doesn’t hurt and is easy to do. Those little set screws on top of each other just seem a bit wimpy to me. My boat, an I36, is similar to yours, but I was never able to get the wheel pilot to work in any kind of sea state. I had to replace it with a linear Drive unit, which cost a fortune. Glad you had more luck.
Always a pleasure to see one of your video appear on my feed. And they never disappoint. Personally I would have gone with an isolation transformer, totally isolating you boat AC power frm theMarina AC power via induction.
Yet another timely video! Thanks, Christian, checking my heat exchanger zinc! I already dealt with my leaking locknut that damn near sunk my boat because 1. I accidentally shut off the auto bilge 2. Should have addressed the extra water I saw in the bilge the previous week to see where it was coming from when the auto was on. Gah!
I think the issue with the dripless shaft is that the cooling water tube exerts a side load on the seal assembly. If your prop shaft stern tube (where the shaft passes through the hull) has enough clearance to allow water to flow in from the outside, then the tube could be a vertical vent tube only and would not require connection to a thru-hull. The top of the vent tube has to be higher than the boat's water line (on a heel as well) to prevent flooding. Another option is to connect the vent line to a simple thru hull fitting which sits above the waterline with the boat at rest. Here are the installation instructions from PSS for their dripless seal : Low speed boats: (Under 12 knots of boat speed under power and no bearing in the shaft log): Using a ⅜” (8 or 9 mm) ID “underwater rated” hose (not provided with the PSS), connect the hose to the hose barb fitting installed on the carbon and secure the hose with two(2) hose clamps. Run the hose to a point in the boat at least two (2) feet above the waterline, making sure that the hose does not apply any load on the carbon part of the seal. Keep the hose as close as possible to the centerline of the vessel so the top of the vent hose is never below the waterline, even if the boat heels. Secure the hose in place with the necessary fittings that insure it will not pull free and drop. This hose is now a venting hose that will help ensure that no air is trapped in the seal.
I was driving to work the other day., Thinking about. Life after the army. And I remembered one of your old RU-vid videos from a couple years ago. Were you or drinking a bunch of wine as you seil Across the ocean Half buzzed, And I thought to myself. He must have died out there because RU-vid hasn't recommended me a video in a long time. And then the other day randomly. RU-vid recommend me a video. And I watched a couple of them again. And I thought this content is so much better. Then a lot of the others seil Boat content. ' really like the analogy of expert skier."
I am also replacing a seacock valve where the ball is stuck in the open position. From what I can see of your video, it seems to be the same brand. I installed a vent hose on my PSS120 and I will look into replacing it with a plug for simplicity and prevention. Thanks, Richard
My previous PSY shaft seal had no accommodations for a vent. I didn't burp the seal often enough and that made the shaft overheat and get brittle. The end result was a broken shaft. Fortunately, the shaft zinc kept me from losing the prop. The replacement shaft seal had a vent hole and I installed a vent line. I got new shaft ($$) and never had any problems since. Lessons - don't rev up too much in reverse - that makes the prop cavitate and sends bubbles into the log where it replaces the (cooling) water inside the seal. Burp the seal often. Burp anytime you hear any squealing. I think a vent is a good idea so you don't need to worry about burping. Just run it up to near a lazarette where you can see it. Thanks for the great video.
Oh Christian, This PSS dripless story is so timely. Discovery (E-30+) was launched early August and went on it's first shakedown sail. Yep, the vent line that was simply laid up over a shelf fell down and tried to sink us.
Fresh water Rinse layup and Emergency Bilge Pump. On Starlight 1989 Beneteau Oceanis 350 has a Volvo Penta engine M2003 28hp anyway I was the second owner, so after I purchased the boat I was doing the shakedown cruise and ran the engine for about an hour and the overheated alarm went off , could not find a problem, cutting too the chase lots of growth and calcification of the tubes in the heat exchanger. Had too take the entire unit clean it and put it back, never wanted to do that again figured was not the use rather the extended, layup with saltwater, also the corrosion factor of the elbow, had to replace that. So as a solution I cam up with this manifold I constructed with brass and bronze fittings and ball valves for each connection, from the thru hull , to the manifold, ball on the thru hull and on the manifold did the same at the on end valve to the sea strainer to the engine, next thru hull, pressure fresh water, and at the other end again valve to a run to the bilge. This allows me to turn on the fresh water, backwash the thru hull, then shutoff and run the engine for 2 minutes on fresh water before shutting down the engine for the night or an extended time. It also in the final configuration allows me to bring to bear as an emergency pump, on my main bilge the engine, if there is a major leak in the boat that bilge pumps cannot handle for whatever reason, (lightning strikes) etc. I often use the fresh water system when she is on the hard, and I need to run the engine, like changing oil, etc. I have 100 gallons of water on Starlight, you should see the looks I get in the yard with no hose, on the hard, yet engine running and water from the exhaust and prop shaft running out. In 20 years have not had any overheating issues or had to deal with the heat exchanger or the elbow, which is notorious on Volvos..
@Christian Williams That's the same system that Seadoo's use for the shaft seal, it runs dry as well and they do 8K RPM but it's stainless against graphite.
You remind me of my boat/car mechanical efforts. Fun how things just don't add up, like that ball valve not closing! Means to me the ball valve itself is bad??
I just bought a 45-yr-old wood sailboat that hasn't been hauled out in over 10 years, and the automatic bilge pump only goes off about once an hour ... I could be smug about that, but I know your problem has a simpler solution, thanks to the plastic hull. And of course no matter what the material, a leaky hull will not get better on its own.
I've had PSS Shaft seals and what I don't like about them is the need to haul the boat if there is a real problem. I like the old fashioned and reliable stuffing box and using teflon coated packing. They are much more reliable and one can replace all the packing with the boat still in the water. So they drip a little and are supposed to. So what. It's a boat!
Thank you for all the great wisdom and humor. Id like to sign up for the Christian Williams school of sewing and sailing. Or if you know of someone who could make me sail covers. Thanks again, Mark
I noticed a lot of fittings are without waterproof coverings. In my experience all electrical connectors are subject to deuteriation over time if not enclosed with a waterproof covering.. Just an observation.
The pneumococcal vaccination for seniors is quite effective and lasts for life. I dream of a catamaran with outboards on both sterns to avoid shaft holes.
