Inspect those hoses!

[FSS172]

A cautionary tale.... Getting close to relaunching, lots to do, budget already busted, it gets tempting to take shortcuts. The shortcut du jour was just to repack the prop shaft stuffing box. An external visual of the hose looked OK; it came with the fitting so was supposedly high quality, long-lasting gear right? And swapping it out would mean pulling the prop and shaft not to mention the contortions and gymnastics required to get at and work on the thing. On the other hand one of those dripless shaft seals sure would be nice.... spendy though... and I have the packing right here - slam it in and get on with the other stuff on the to-do list. Good sense finally prevails. How about just sliding the fitting forward on the shaft to take a look at the end of the log and just get a better idea of the condition of things. Loosened the clamps at one end of the hose and the watched the whole hose end swell up like a spongy balloon:

http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee297/amnesty172/stuff.jpg

Liner and jacket brittle and seperated from the core. Really ugly. Close call; lesson learned..... again.

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[pcford]

Yep. Bad hoses sink a lot of boats....maybe more so the structural problems...and a hose often just lets go precipitously.

[kingplanker]

The hose clamps in the picture look pretty tired too. I would replace them with AWAB 316SS smooth bore clamps or with something similar. I would also double clamp each end of the hose - if there is room. I like to write the install date directly on the hose with a sharpie so that there is no question of when last replaced. My 2 cents

[pila]

Dating the hose is a good idea, even if it's in the maintenance log. Nothing like having it in your face when doing maintenance. Good idea for all hoses below waterline.