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wrote:
I know I musta asked this before but why does just about every sailboat
have an auto-bilge pump? Does this mean that almost ALL shaft packings
leak like a sieve? With most boats being hauled at least every two
years you'd think they'd repack em if they were a problem. Is it a
matter of access to the packing nut? I Cant be the only person who is
so lucky that in the 12 yrs I have had my boat that I have never needed
an auto-pump? 2 yrs ago, I repacked it but found the old packing that
was 20 yrs old was in great shape.
So.......if the problem is access to the packing nut being difficult,
why not put the packing gland on the outside of the hull so that
whenever she is hauled it could be tightened. It could even be
tightened by a diver. Maybe even have a backup on the inside. At
least eliminate the fear of a bad auto-switch causing boats to sink.

Most sinkings occur at the dock, most of those are caused by rain. I
have one hatch whose drain chronically gets clogged, so I make sure
its cleaned before big rain is expected.

The ironic thing is that while large boats may leak more, simply
because the have more possibilities of small leaks, they have so much
reserve that a small automatic bilge pump is more of a convenience
than necessity. Smaller boats have little reserve, and can easily be
taken down if a cockpit drain fills with a few leaves or some snow.