Shaft Alignment

[IslandGirl43]

Last year when I had the boat out of the water I noticed the port side shaft was sitting very low where it comes through the hull and looked to be rubbing. When I had it back in the water I decoupled it and raised the engine up to where it aligned. I assumed over 30 years the engine had settled some. This year when I had the boat out of the water the port side was nicely centered but now the starboard shaft was sitting low and rubbing. When I got it back to the marina I decoupled it and was surprised that the engine needs to be lowered for proper alignment. I’ve always heard that the shaft will go to the proper spot once it’s decoupled. Seems strange it would drop lower? Wondering if I need to dive the boat to check to see if it’s centered or still sitting low?

[Pascal]

I m No expert in alignment as I ve always left this to pros. That said, depending on the boat is blocked, the hull can be slightly off the hichbia why alignment is always done in water

When I repowered my 53, because of the large weight and balance change over 3 months, we had to launch the boat without the shafts as they would not even fit (plugging the holes) and let it sit over a week end for the hull to regain its shape. Then we installed the shafts and finalized the alignment after the final launch.