leaking rubber hose in stuffing box

[newboatowner]

Greetings to all.

After one of the best sailing seasons that I can remember, I have now started to find wear and tear from all that hard sailing.
I noticed that the rubber hose in the stuffing box of my Catalina 30 is leaking a bit and it appears that it is deteriorating behind the hose clamp nearest the packing gland nut. I believe that the wrong material was used by the PO when the hose was installed.
The question is this - can I add another hose clamp right behind the first one as a temporary fix until the boat is on hard? I want to simply finish this season without the boat sinking. I may be doing an overnight sail this week and I really don't want to think about this problem as I motor out of the harbor.

 

[The Garbone]

You could try. You could also get on of those clamp on leaky pipe patches from Home Depot or some such and give that a try. Of course it is a risk with any temp fix. I replaced the shaft log hose on our 78'. The problem was a proper Buck Algonquin hose would not fit between the log tube and hull slope. I had to use exhaust hose with no wire to fit. I am not thrilled with it but that is what the factory had and I did not want to grind around the log to make the thicker hose fit.

https://svknotaclew.wordpress.com/2014/05/03/shaft-logs-and-other-bits-plowing-forward/

 

[Alan Gomes]

You could try. You could also get on of those clamp on leaky pipe patches from Home Depot or some such and give that a try. Of course it is a risk with any temp fix. I replaced the shaft log hose on our 78'. The problem was a proper Buck Algonquin hose would not fit between the log tube and hull slope. I had to use exhaust hose with no wire to fit. I am not thrilled with it but that is what the factory had and I did not want to grind around the log to make the thicker hose fit.

https://svknotaclew.wordpress.com/2014/05/03/shaft-logs-and-other-bits-plowing-forward/

I guess it depends on the year of one's 30 as to whether a proper Buck Algonquin hose will fit the shaft log tube. I had no problem replacing the old hose on my 1987 C30 with one.

 

[newboatowner]

I was wondering about the clearance issue. The hose that is on there now is definitely not as robust as the Algonquin. There is not much space between the log tube and the hull and it appears that the PO used flimsy hose.

I was told that shrink wrap may work as a temporary repair. There is no pressure on this flow of water and I will try to reinforce it with another clamp and perhpas a piece of rubber. So near to the end of the season and to pull the boat at this time would be a bummer. I guess sinking would be worse.

 

[SEMPERAVANTI41]

If you can wrap this around the tube, I think it would last easily till haul out.

http://www.attwoodmarine.com/store/product/emergency-rescue-tape

I think the same product is available as electrical tape. I repaired a drain hose 3 years ago, still no leaks.

 

[newboatowner]

I have learned a good lesson about boat repair. For every action there is a reaction and from what I believed was an matter of a simple correction to the transmission/shaft coupling turned out to be a real storm. Apparently the PO had trouble aligning the shaft so he jury-rigged it. I thought that I was a smart one and attempted to do it right. Right!!! The shaft was so misaligned that I had to turn back to the marina and see what was going on.

It appears that the original motor (an Atomic 4) was replaced with a Universal M18 and the shaft alignment was impossible to do without some serious half-ass modifications. I now have to replace the engine mounts and hope that I can get this whole unit where it should be.

The original problem with the rubber hose remains the same and I hope to be able to hold out until the boat is pulled.

The moral of the story? Do the best you can prior to the boat being put in the water, make the necessary repairs as the season progresses and hope that it does not sink in the interim.

Thanks to everyone for their comments and help.

 

[jrowan]

I'm with ya' there mate. I've got a stuffing box packing nut so corroded that it will not come off without a blow torch heat applied. I'm afraid of the heat potentially melting the packing hose, so I've waited to mess with it further until she's on the hard. Tried to tighten the packing & made whatever packing was left leak a whole lot worse. To make matters even worse, when I tried to move the boat from the slip to haul it out, the transmission cable was so seized up from the corrosion caused by the leaking packing on it, that it won't go into gear. Lubricated the hell out of every fitting which usually works. But this time I forced the trans shifter level just a wee bit too much & stripped the handle assembly off at the bearing. Ouch.
So now I have to repair & or replace the whole shifter handle assembly, the shifter cable, the packing......When it rains it pours.
BTW, you would think that someone would have made an emergency rubber boot that you could install around a shaft packing assembly to prevent your boat from sinking in an emergency. I tried various tape, plumbers putty & an assortment of items to try to stop my packing from leaking until I can haul her out when the trans. is fixed. Nothing works.
So I replaced my pump, float switch & wiring to make sure that the pump works well until I can haul her out properly. Double checking your pump is important anyway, as this is the only thing that can save your boat from sinking from a leak. Good luck with your repairs, as mine are ongoing as well.

 

[newboatowner]

Thanks for the kind words.
I purchased flexible mounts from West Marine and installed them yesterday. It was surprisingly easy due to the fact that the old ones were shimmed in and all it took was to lift the engine a few inches and make the replacement.
The hardest part of the job was the alignment. I have reviewed many U Tube videos on the process and tried to duplicate the steps. In my case, however, the coupling on the transmission side was something unusual. It was as if the coupling was broken in two places, 180 degrees from each. I tried to attach a picture to this reply but I don't know how to do it. ]

Someone suggested it looked like it was balanced. Anyone ever see this before?

 

[peter_ms]

You can buy split couplings. This is likely what you have