Shafted by the Stern Post

One of the problems that has been encountered is the use of the Manecraft deep sea seal. After two years ashore, the ceramic plate has seized; this is common. What is not common is that a new seal is around £500 + VAT. If seizure happens at sea, it can rip the rubber apart, essentially giving a catastrophic failure, with sea water coming in. The only was to stop ingress is to tighten a cable tie attached to the seal. This means getting under the cockpit floor behind the engine. Almost impossible in an emergency I would say. I also really need two of them when cruising, one as a spare, so that is a grand  down already. So I needed to find a better solution. After much deliberation I decided to revert back to the stuffing box and gland which I am used to. This can maintained at reasonable cost, without specific parts, anywhere in the world. More importantly, failure is not catastrophic. What does worry me is that we have now discovered some soft wood in the sternpost.....