Hi, i have a 1997 Bavaria Holiday 35 with a Volvo 2030 engine, which i bought in late 2003 and as it was my intention to sail to the Mediterranean the following year and the boat would then have been 7 yrs old, i decided to have the saildrive gaitor replaced. But after reading the manual on the engine i decided to have a go myself and must admit that even moving the engine was not as difficult as it appeared, just a little logic and some bearers packed to the same height as those under the engine, plus some grease applied and once parted from the saildrive it slid out reasonably easy. Dismantling the saildrive and replacing the gaitor was also straight forward, then re-assembly was just a reverse of the removal. Then in 2011 my saildrive failed and needed replacing, but fortunately the reconditioned replacement had a new gaitor already fitted, so once again i did the job myself, and have also given Jim McGuinness a hand to replace the gaitor on his Bavaria, and neither of us have suffered any leaks, but saved ourselves lots of money!!
Regards
Ed Holmes
