water coming in bilge around prop shaft

Originally I thought my rudder was letting water in so dropped the boat in last night and searched around and found the water was comming in where the shaft comes in above the rubber piece thats clamped. So I put my hand around it and it had some play in it and when i moved it, it stopped letting water in. So does this mean I need a new shaft seal? and how hard are they to change? thanks

Older boats use wax packing material (wax rope) in the stuffing box. Sometimes it just needs a little tightening or you may have to replace the packing (easy 10min job). If you do have to replace the packing I'd recommend the Gortex from skidim. There are lots of DIYs on the web detailing the procedure.