Can one replace the SD50 Upper Oil Seal in the water?

[solecollector]

I have a leak on the upper seal of my SD50. I'm not in the easiest of places to haul out and fix it. Is this something I can do in the water? I just replaced the engine mounts so moving the engine won't be ridiculously difficult.

[HeinSdL]

Probably this question has already been answered elsewhere but afaik: if it's the seal on the drive shaft from engine into the saildrive (a known weakness) then the boat can stay in the water. You do need to drain a bit of oil out of the unit though.

I have read of someone going for a sail with the saildrive disconnected from the engine and that person mentioned quite a bit of movement of the saildrive, so that's probably something to not do.