Before I bought Latro, I had it surveyed to find any and all things that are wrong with the boat. This is a lot like a home inspection only a bit more thorough as it requires a sea trial as well. The surveyor goes through every inch of the boat, looking for leaks, malfunctioning equipment, missing equipment/functionality etc…

After the survey was completed on Latro, one of the findings revealed that the packing gland required replacement. What is a packing gland? The gland nut allows packing material to be compressed to form a watertight seal and prevent water leaking up the shaft when the tap is turned on. The gland at the rotating shaft of a centrifugal pump may be packed in a similar way and graphite grease used to accommodate continuous operation.

The previous replacement resulted in the wrong sized material and the gland nut being tightened too tight. This causes everything to heat up which could lead to scoring of the prop shaft and other very inconvenient failures at the most inopportune time. Below is a video showing how to replace it. Enjoy!