Wellcraft Boat Owners Forum

I am going next Sunday to look at a 87 St. Tropez that appears to be in tremendous condition. In the add for the boat it mentions it has dripless shafts. I am assuming it must be some sort of bearing set up in place of wadding? Can anybody tell me about this? Is it a good thing? What maint. in involved with these?

I had PSS dripless shaft seals on a twin inboard boat and absolutely loved them!

On the PSS models you simply had to burp them on occasion, especially if in sandy bottom areas. I think the bellows were good for quite a few years. The boat does need to be hauled if the need to be replaced.

what is burping them?

You pull the bellows away from the stainless steel rotor and water rushes out. It flushes any debris that may be in the bellow and/or debris between the carbon flange and the rotor.

There are other systems out there but I am only familiar with this one.

I had the dripless shaft/bearing on my Catalina 30' sailboat, it was a very nice setup and design. Plus I personally felt better knowing that I didn't have the "packing/wadding" a stuffing box!

Thanks guys. If I get this boat I have a huge learning curve to overcome going from a 22' pontoon to a 32' cruiser!

Sounds like the perfect jump! We just sold our 20" foot pontoon and bout a 94 Martinique 3200
And we just had the old fashioned wadding replaced on Sea J's gear shafts

Does anyone know the diameter of the shaft log on a 87 Portofino? Thanks