14 years,18,000 hours, not a drop of water. It’s tough, I’ve proven it.

My name is Bruce K. McGowen. I’ve been a commercial lobster man for 36 years,fishing off the coast of Maine. My fishing vessel the Bonnie Lee is a fiberglass 35’ Duffy Hull, powered by a 250hp Cummins diesel. My gear is a 2.5 x 1 turning 1 3/4 stainless steel shaft with a 2 6x 28 4 bladed wheel.

A day on the water catching lobsters in the Bonnie Lee goes a little like this: You start for day at dawn hauling up traps in which the lobsters crawl into,It usually takes 8 to 10 hours to haul 250 to 300 traps in which you cruise in the vessel in the vessel from trap to trap, removing the legal lobsters for resale. This process is done six days a week,rain,shine or wind, seven months of the year.

In 1998 I was tired of the leaking inside shaft stuffing boxes so I decided to replace mine with a shaft tube and a dripless seal called a strong seal from Tides Marine in Deerfield Beach Florida, USA. This was an unknown product in my area of the state of Maine. There was a dripless kit being used by some of the other fishermen but it wasn’t working out so well, seems the seals weren’t lasting very long. Hearing that I decided I would try the strong seal kit. Boy, am I glad I did!

Fast forward to may 2013, I decided to re-power the same fishing vessel The Bonnie Lee. The strong seal that I put in from Tides Marine was still the same seal that I put in back in 1998, that seal was 14 years old and had 18,000 hours on it without a drop of water or any problems with it performance at all, as a matter of fact If I hadn’t been re-powering my vessel I would still be using the same seal again this year. I couldn’t be more pleased with the performance and quality of the strong seal, truth be known the only maintenance I ever did on this seal was to occasionally check to make sure the water was getting to the seal as needed. This was a matter of pulling the hose off of the nipple on the seal while the engine was idling in neutral. That’s it. Just a terrific product. you simply can not beat this seal kit that Tides Marine has on the market.

Take it from me–Bruce K. McGowen: It’s tough, I’ve proven it. That’s why the updated sure seal is going back into my fishing vessel The Bonnie Lee once again! Thanks again Tides Marine. Give the good folks a call and let them help you keep the water on the outside instead on the inside.

Thank you Mr. Strong and Mr. Cox.

Best regards,
Bruce McGowan Vessel Bonnie Lee

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