Duffy Electric boats....?

Now that the batteries are working, I'd like to address the leaking packing gland. This is an ElectraCraft LSR 18 which seems very similar to the Duffy boats most of you have. What size packing should I use?

The propeller shaft is 1" and when I measured the packing nut and divided the difference by 2 I ended up buying 1/8" packing but it feels way too loose. I'm thinking I need 1/4" packing but would appreciate comments.

Hi Ted, have a close look at the stuffing box, a mobile phone with the torch on helps, there could be a stamp in the metal telling you what size to use. It could be 3/16th or 5/16th also.

Congratulations on getting it done, Ted. That's certainly a good price for AGM's. I hope that 85Ah is sufficient to meet your needs. Unfortunately, that capacity is too low for my boating.

Good luck, and have fun on the water!

Regarding the packing material, ElectraCraft wrote (I don't know if this applies to Duffy boats):

We use 1/4" packing material for the drive shaft
We use 5/32" for the rudder packing material​

My boat had a table that we removed, anyone have suggestions for a nice looking plate to cover this hole?

It turns out that deck plates are common and come in standard sizes. This was easy to find at West Marine. I’ll try to ask harder questions from now on.

Ted, you're learning through experience like the rest of us did. You just happen to have a gang of mates to help you along the way.

After re-packing the shaft packing gland I found another leak. The plate below the rudder packing gland is broken, see video. I've reached out ElectraCraft to get a new one.

In the meantime, does anyone have experience with Flex Sealer or Stay Afloat? I'm looking for a temporary fix since the local boat mechanic is booked weeks out and the replacement seems like a big job. Our lake is small, you can't get more than 5 minutes away from our lift and the bilge pump easily keeps up so I'm not worried about sinking.

With Mr. Boatbuilder head on, I would pull the boat out and do a proper repair.

As a regular boat guy, Meh, I can live with that. Do it in the winter unless it gets bad. We're on a lake for heavensake.

I used JP Water Weld and it fixed the leak more easily than I expected.