Replacing conventional packing in the water.
All, This ongoing thread brings another thought to mind. I'm sure many of you as well as I, have replaced conventional packing with the boat in the water. In the past, I've simply wrapped a rag around the stuffing box and worked quickly to remove the old from the cup and replace it with new. I have a theory, untested, that using bees wax instead of a rag would staunch the water completely, making the repair a lot drier and less of a strain on the heart. My theory does like this. I carry two toilet bowl rings aboard for use in the event of a small hull or fitting leak that can't be repaired on the spot. The wax is moldable in the air but hardens significantly when exposed to the cold of sea or fresh water. My theory is that it would act the same if used to seal incoming water around the shaft and stuffing box. That would then free one to unscrew the packing cup to take a bit more time to effect repairs without having to worry if the bilge pump will stay ahead of the flow. The wax could be removed at the last just before screwing the packing cup back on. As I've already said, this is just a theory but I don't see how it couldn't work as I imagine. I plan to try it next time I change packing except I just can't get the conventional Teflon impregnated flax with putty combination, to fail and I've been waiting for years and years and years. On another thought, granted there is a wire reinforced rubber hose joined to the stuffing box and stern tube but it is so much more robust in comparison to a bellows that I should think that its replacement could be measured in numbers of decades or more. As to 31% of the 50% of sinkings coming from packing gland leaks, I'd wager that there are a thousand of them for every bellows type, so of course the incidence and percentage of leaking would naturally be greater. Thoughts anyone on anything I've said above? Has anyone ever tried out my wax idea? Regards, Glyn Judson, E31 hull #55, Marina del Rey, CA