PSS shaft seal and engine movement

[Jim Hardesty]

water was pumping in faster than a garden hose

This is the reason I've not "upgraded" to the PSS shaft seal.  A failure of the dripless seal can be major, packing is just more dripping.   Good old gortex packing for me.  But then Shamrock is in fresh water and a small sponge under the shaft log holds the drips till they evaporate and little or no water goes to the bilge. 
Just my 2 cents.
Jim

[MarcZ]

I'm looking at Lasdrop Gen II - they eliminated bellows using a spring.....

[Craig Illman]

For people concerned about the PSS set screws, check out Mainesail's PSS installation procedure. He shows installing an extra collar between the seal and the coupling. They can be found at a nominal cost on Amazon.

http://www.pbase.com/mainecruising/pss_shaft_seal

That said, I'm with Jim Hardesty, I like the simplicity of the Gore packing on a conventional stuffing box and might have switched out the PO installed PSS on my C30 when it came time to replace the bellows and other moving parts.

Craig

[Noah]

I have a traditional stuffing box using GTU for the past 3 years and have a virtually dry bilge. Barely any moisture around the shaft/and stuffing box (only underway) and stuffing box and shaft remain cool to touch. With the risk of jinxing things, I have a "perfect world" situation now and see no reason to go the dripless shaft seal route, with its possible issues and safety concerns.