Newbie boat owner with newbie questions

I recently took possession of an old 22ft boat that hasn't been used for a while. It was originally wooden boat, but was fibreglassed. The original inboard has been removed and my intention is to replace it with an electric motor.

In the first instance I want to put the boat in the water with an outboard to test it with a 6hp motor.
First query I have is can I do this without the inboard propeller or does the propeller help to form a seal where the shaft meets the housing which will otherwise leak uncontrollably?! Photo below.

For the test with the outboard I won't be going out on any great voyage, just pottering around a shallow and sheltered bay/harbour area.

 

The prop does not form a seal. Inside the boat should be a stuffing box that forms the shaft seal, with a packing nut that can be adjusted to compress packing material.

 

thanks, that's exactly what I wanted to check. Stuffing box is in place inside the boat.

 

A fibreglassed wooden boat rings alarm bells for me. Why was it glassed? Due to holes, rot, warping, gaps in clinker or carvel planks, poor construction, corroded nails, and many other potential issues. Glassed wood boats usually end up having wet wood going rotten out of sight behind the glass. I wouldn't spend any money on it, but have cheap outboard motor fun with it, while saving for a better boat.

 

People often glassed wood boat bottoms for 2 reasons.

Failing wood bottom.

Or

They were trailering and did not want to deal with soak up/swell time.

The first you can check with no sole in place.

Be prepared for leaks with a working bilge pump and good battery.

 

thanks all, I have a bilge pump tested and ready to go and am fully expecting some leaks!

 

So.... having spent some time googling and youtubing stuffing boxes I went to investigate what I thought was a stuffing box in order to check packing etc, and am now confused! I seem to have some other sort of arrangement.

First photo is from above of entire
Second photo shows what appears to be a permanent rubber seal, surrounding propshaft inside metal housing
Third photo is face of metal part that is tightened against the rubber seal
Fourth photo is cap off a reservoir, presumably for grease

Wondering if anybody recognises this set up, what is it called, any ideas of the pros and cons vs a stuffing box?

 

Hmmm, a bit more googling threw up the photo below. Perhaps that rubber seal is flax packing just the other way round than I was expecting? If that's the case the packing looks in fairly good order on mine?

 

You have a compression sleeve type stuffing box with flexible mounting. The sliding cap compresses the packing onto the shaft (there is a shoulder inside the housing). If you tighten the two nuts until you can't easily turn the shaft by hand, water won't come into the boat. Fill the cup with grease and put the cap back on.

Examples of different types of stuffing boxes: Stern glands https://coxeng.co.uk/stern-gear/stern-glands/

 

thank you, that's exactly info I was looking for.

 

If I loosen the nuts and slide the prop shaft completely out of the boat am I likely to dislodge/disturb anything inside the stuffing box that will require attention prior to putting the propshaft back in? i.e is there anything in there designed to be held in place by the prop shaft?

 

Only the fibre packing needs any shaft to prevent collapsing inside. Damage depends what's on the inside end of the shaft: a spline or key way may slide out with little disturbance; a thread or rough section of shaft may disturb the packing. Looks like there is plenty of packing, so if it doesn't disintegrate, you could remove the shaft, plug the hole with a greased same sized short piece of shaft, and do up the gland compression to seal the hole. That is if the rubber pipe and hose clamps are still good. Rubber pipe, hose clamps, and gland packing are common items to replace. If just blocking the shaft hole, you don't really need to pack the grease cap on top, just grease the plug or short shaft used in the packing.
If anything there breaks, your boat will fill with water very quickly.

 

Thanks, I mean to remove shaft temporarily whilst boat out of the water. Would put entire shaft back in before going to water.

Reason I want to move the shaft is there is a seized pillow block bearing and a seized flange bearing on engine end of shaft. Will be easier to remove these with shaft out of the boat.

Plan would be to slide shaft out from stuffing box end, obviously no prop fitted, and no key on prop end of shaft.
When shaft is out remove the bearings and then slide it back in and fit prop.

So I guess if only danger is the the packing, if it collapses I could install new packing when shaft back in. Just wanted to double check there wasn't anything else that might be disturbed before I slide the shaft out!

 

You can remove it.
To restore watertightness to the hull I recommend you remove the stuffing box from the rubber hose and replace it with a wooden plug. Tighten the jubilee clip and you're done.

For a permanent installation at a later date you should do the whole package, replace the cutless bearing, the rubber pipe, use double stainless non-perforated clips and install new packing.

 

Have been taking a closer look at the reservoir thing below, which I reckoned was for grease, but I'm thinking it looks very dry. Boat hasn't been used for a long time, but even so I would have thought there would be more sort of residue. Is this for grease, or water?