Not many things will ruin your day on the water like losing
a propeller shaft. We once backed down under
power to spin some grass off the props and had one of the shafts slip out of
its coupling. Thankfully, there was a
zinc nut on the shaft that kept it under the boat, but it wasn’t in the boat,
and there was a large hole in the hull where it was supposed to be. These types of things are typical for
delivery trips, but not really something you ever want to happen if you can
help it.
So the Shaft Retention Collar from PYI seemed like cheap
insurance. And they were easy to put on,
even with my ridiculously tight bilges.
Getting a picture was tough, though.
There isn’t much room to swing a camera, much less a wrench.
I placed them right up against the couplings so any movement
would be apparent. If the shaft comes
free, it will slide back until the collar hits the shaft seal. Ideally I want enough space between the
collar and the shaft seal so the shaft can completely exit the coupling. This would let the prop freewheel,
drastically reducing the pulling force against the collar and letting the helmsman
know something was wrong.
Unfortunately, I don’t have that much room. I will only know if the coupling has failed
by making visual checks, or until the collar lets go too, probably making the
collar pointless in my case. I should
have had the shafts through-bolted to the couplings the last time they were
pulled, but didn’t think of it.
The shaft seals are new and quite a bit bigger than the ones
we had during the delivery fiasco. Looking
at the picture above, I suddenly realized that if I do lose another shaft I’m going
to have a hell of a time getting a plug in there.
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