11th April 2011 - In Hartlepool

Jeff's blog of his life living aboard a yacht, at anchor, in the UK, with his wife, a dog and a baby.

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Jeff
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11th April 2011 - In Hartlepool

Post by Jeff »

We made it to Hartlepool. Making the first step on this journey has reduced my anxiety levels. We didn't sink. I did still remember which way to move the tiller. The engine didn't fail. I remembered how to tie various knots.

It wasn't uneventful though!

The night before we set off we had a quick trip out of Whitby and back with some friends, during which we gained about half a litre of water in the bilges. I figured it was probably the stern gland (a supposedly watertight rubber gland which allows the shaft to go from the engine, through the hull to the prop) dripping. Turned out I was correct. It's not really a major issue we need to worry about. We won't sink or anything. But it really needs sorting, and that officially requires a lift out of the water. We may attempt to install a new one while in the water, which is likely to be a difficult and very wet procedure. But £130 just to be lifted out to avoid it makes it a very tempting option. I will consult my more knowledgeable colleagues on another web forum.

Leaving Whitby was emotional. My Dad came onto the pontoon to push us off, and I watched him get smaller and smaller as we went down the river Esk to the bridge. My Mum didn't come as she thought she'd not be able to cope. Instead she walked to a high point on the hills between Whitby and Sandsend and watched from a distance. Some good friends of ours walked along the pier as we passed, waving like loonies and Rose's parents, Uncle and Gran got themselves to the end of the West pier extension and looked down on us from there as we slowly motored out of the harbour.

Shortly after I went below and confirmed my suspicions. The stern gland was dripping.

No wind to speak of so we motored in the sunshine on a very very calm North Sea. A brief anchor and row at Runswick Bay saw our two crewmates, Adam and son Edwin, aboard for the rest of the voyage.

We made good time, even managed to sail for an hour despite the low winds and were ready to enter Hartlepool Marina Lock at its first opening after low water. The lock keeper informed us on the radio that they had a depth of 1.7 meters in the channel. We need 1.6 meters to avoid touching the bottom, so it was tight, but OK considering the lack of any swell. Unfortunately, finding the centre of the channel proved difficult, despite a sector light to help. We were in the white section of the light (the right one to be in) but the depth sounder was showing less than 1.5m and we slowly ploughed a trench through the soft mud towards the lock entrance.

About 20m before the entrance the depth increased substantially and I thought our troubles were over, but no! Just as the bow entered the mouth of the lock the stern suddenly shot over to starboard, threatening to clout the lock gate on that side. I increased revs substantially and managed to avoid the wall, but the correction I'd had to make now put us on collision course with the opposite wall! Swift tiller adjustment and much adrenaline solved this and we made it to our allocated visitor berth without further incident.

Chatting to some locals it turned out that on rare occasions (they think just after low water) the deep pool of water just outside the lock develops a strong swirl. No mention of this in the pilot book. Or of the fact that the channel up to the lock is extremely narrow and steep sided.

Some media for you:

Whitby Web Cam captures us leaving Whitby
http://www.whitbywebcam.co.uk/whitby-se ... ?si=233#im

YouTube video of us waiting for the bridge to open
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sk4Toed1Kc8

YouTube video of the leaky stern gland
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eE1VCo-yi40

Waiting for Whitby's Old Bridge to open
Image

The Whitby Web Cam (http://www.whitbywebcam.co.uk)
Image

Lunar wonders what lies ahead
Image

Rose wonders what lies ahead
Image

Rose's family wave from the pier
Image

Looking back at Whitby :(
Image

Collecting our crew
Image

Crew mates Adam & Edwin checking out the Tees shipping
Image
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Post by Discus »

Hey Jeff

Good to see your afloat and up in Hartlepool. Sorry to hear about the sterngland. Unfortunately, it sounds like it mayhave been damaged or become misaligned slightly. Anywhere to dry out alongside in Hartlepool or nearby to investigate further? Sorry, not much help as we are still on the old system!!!

Rob
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Post by Jeff »

Hi Rob. I took it off during engine alignment and put it back on when that was done, so presumably it's aligned OK so I guess it must have been damaged during the aligment :(

Unsure if there's anywhere to dry out around here. Certainly not in the lock controlled marina where we are now.

What do you think about "hot swapping" the existing one for a new one?
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Post by Discus »

Hi Jeff

By hot swapping, I presume you mean sliding the shaft back and popping a new one on while afloat. I know this can be done but having a slightly cautious outlook on life I probably wouldn't. My reasoning would be that I wouldn't want to rush putting a new one on a therefore risk damaging it and I wouldn't want to guestimate the amount of water that might come in. Having said that, if you could drum up enough bodies to go and stand at the bow, you could alter the boats attitude forward enough to bring the stern up high enough so as not to get significant water ingress. I have seen this done by someone trying to get a rope off their prop. I didnt think it would work but it did, can't remember the type of boat though (might work better with a boat with flat aft sections). Short answer - not sure what I would do.

Rob
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Post by Jeff »

Yeah someone else suggested loading up the front of the boat. Interesting idea. Ours is very tail heavy though so wonder if it would work for us. Plus our shaft comes out not all that far aft of the keel, and is quite far below the waterline, so not sure it would work. Worth a try when I next have some people over. I could stick the inflatable tender on the foredeck and fill it with water maybe.

Meantime - I just put a thin cable tie around the gland, near the vanes. Not very tight, but squeezing just a touch. Running the engine in gear now produces no leaks whatsoever!

But is this likely to lead to sudden, catastrophic failure of the whole gland? I can't see how it could really, being a water cooled device. What do you think?
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Post by Discus »

Hmmmm would that imply that the seal isn't damaged? Something strange going on there. I can't see that what you have done would lead to catastrophic failure but then I suppose that's the achillies heel of dripless stern glands, when they go, they can go and cause a bloody big leak!!! Suggest running up engine in gear for an hour or so, check for leaks and to see if the gland has got hot due to excess friction. If not, assume that the leak isn't going to get any worse for now and find somewhere to dry out en route to change the stern gland as a safety precaution. You may have to minimise motoring long distances though, just in case you spring a bigger leak although I'm not sure there is much scope on the Volvo gland to spring a bigger leak unless you rip a bloody big hole in it. Must admit, this is turning into a bit of an enigma
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Post by Jeff »

Chap on the other forum posted up a picture which might shed some light on it. He suggested it's possibly the vanes inverting as a result of my sliding the gland up the shaft and back without the protector on. Check out his cross section:

http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.ph ... ost2911687

Looking at how they're made though I'm not convinced they could invert. I wonder if they've just worn down a little at the tips. If so, my cable tie solution would result in them re-contacting the shaft all the way around.

Another thing I conclude based on that cross section is that the cable tie is highly unlikely to cause any major issue. It's not going to substantially increase the amount of rubber contacting the shaft and hence not going to result in much increase of friction.

Will take your advice, buy a spare and keep a close eye on it when motoring. If it gets noticeably warm I'll lose the tie and put up with the drips, then replace it when we next dry out. I do rather hate drying out though. Our Tempest leans right back on the keel. It feels like a very wrong thing to do.

Thanks for your help!!
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Post by Jeff »

UPDATE:

Another forum poster suggested I try inserting the installation protector and rotating it in an attempt to remove a possible small bit of dirt in the vanes. I've chucked the protector so I did as suggested but with some clean cardboard, with the cable tie mentioned earlier now removed.

Touch wood, we now seem 99.9% drip free, even at 2200 rpm.

As posted in the other forum, I'll get hold of a spare ASAP and monitor the existing one closely henceforth. Probably replacing it when we next dry out.
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Post by Jeff »

PS. Here's a cross section of the item in question (as posted by "misterg" in the thread linked to above):

Image

Engine shaft passes from the engine (which would be to the right in this picture) to the outside of the boat and the propeller, to the left.
Last edited by Jeff on Mon Apr 11, 2011 6:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by Discus »

Sounds like a result!!!! Still reeling from the descriptors. Shafts, lube, lips the list goes on. Just keep an eye on it and it probably won't cause any more issues. Perhaps it wasn't quite seated correctly. A toast to a dry bilge!!!!!!

Rob
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Post by Jeff »

Cheers Rob :)
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