I only tightened mine when she was in the water, I did not check the
packing. I did consider doing this though by diving with a mask and
snorkel and putting plumbers putty round the shaft before taking out
the packing.
My maintenance is not driven by the desire to "do things right" or to
look good (everything I do looks like crap) but by sheer terror of what
will happen if I dont.
Somehow, S2 seemed to be able to put in so much room around the engine
on a 28' boat that I could crawl into the engine compartment and
completely circumnavigate the engine befor crawling out again. Yet,
the cabin seems no smaller than other 28' boats with hardly any engine
access.