Cutless bearing question

[mwardmoeller]

Hey, all. I own a 1977 Westsail and am repowering with a Beta. In preparation, I have pulled the shaft log and installed a new 4" cutless (in the freezer, warmed up the log and all's good).

I'm getting conflicting info, though. The cutless is about 5/8" proud of the aft end of the log as was the previous.

Bud Taplin at Westsail says leave the cutless as is and possibly use a pipe wrench to remove/replace in the future. A friend who works at a well-respected yard in Deltaville Va. says cut flush.

Thoughts as to what is the preferred course?

Thanks for any help.

[sailormed]

Cut flush, the part outside the strut is non functional.

[Dsanduril]

It's the internet, you'll get more opinions than you want. If it doesn't interfere with anything (and it sounds like the old one was proud and worked OK) then I'd leave proud as Bud says, to ease future removal.

[Searles]

I would leave as is ,its still a bearing ,recommended bearing length is 4times the shaft diameter as a minimum ,if you have prop boss clearance no reason to cut back .⛵️⚓️

[mwardmoeller]

Thanks, Searles et al. The shaft is 1" so am leaning towards leaving as is. Prop clearance is not much of an issue although the setup requires a low profile zinc. If anyone has a solid reason either way my ears are open.

Thanks Again

[Pete7]

Leave it, the last thing you want is someone taking a hacksaw to it and you end up with brass filling inside it. Been there and got the t shirt after some bright spark drilled the cutless bearing to fit the rope cutter bolts back on. Only he didn't take the shaft out or clear the swarf. Result 3 little indents in my shaft with burrs which promptly shredded the new cutless

Despite my best efforts to dress and polish the shaft it has cut down the life of new bearings, so plan to fit a new shaft during the Spring lift out.

Pete

[GordMay]

Have you asked the cutless manufacturer?