Thursday, February 5, 2009

Bronze V. MARELON®

and new stuff V. old stuff. RJ over on the Westsail 42 rebuild had opted for MARELON® thru hulls. This certainly seem the way to go as they have been around for some time and meet all Certifications etc. They are appearing in more and more boats. I have no logical disagreement with this technology, its just that when it comes to basic boat stuff I'm old fashioned. I love the heft of bronze and its been around since .... the "Bronze Age".


I may change my mind a few years into the "Marelon Age".


A larger discussion is the choice between the old style stuffing box and the PSS Dripless Shaft Seal. I come down firmly on the side of the old style stuffing box, especially for cruising sailboats.

3 comments:

builder said...

Is that a shaft zinc on the inside to the right of the shaft log?

Whats that for?

We have had a PSS shaft seal on our cruising sloop for over 10 years without any problems.

The Incredible Hull said...

I knew that I would get some grief on my opinion of the PSS shaft seal. I have thought long and hard about it but I just can't bring myself to make the leap. The Zinc is my cunning method of keeping the shaft in the boat due to the absence of an engine.

builder said...

No grief on PSS shaft seal, in our case, space was too cramped to put a conventional stuffing box. I'm indifferent to be honest.

Brilliant on the "shaft stopper".