Shaft seal leak in the keys - struck a bamboo pole

I struck a partially submerged bamboo pole on the way in from fishing yesterday and my port shaft seal is leaking now.

Besides the leak, I can't see any signs of damage. Although the pole was large (~10' long, 5" diameter) it was pretty lightweight being hollow bamboo.

I have one spare seal left on that side. Question is - since the leak was caused by me hitting something, is it rolling the dice to replace it with my last seal or do I really need to get the alignment checked or even get the boat hauled to check struts, etc?

In other words, is it somewhat common for a debris strike to cause a shaft seal leak, or is it far more likely that the strike knocked something out of alignment and the new seal will just start leaking once I replace it? Since it's my last one, I really don't want to have it start leaking on my way back north without a spare seal.

This is a 2 3/4" shaft on a viking SF

I hit the pole at about 15 kts. I was just climbing up on plane. At the time, I really didn’t think it had hit the prop because I dove on the hull and saw a scratch in the bottom paint up on toward the bow, right where I thought I hit it.

no vibrations, no loss in speed at rpm, no visible (underwater) damage to anything I could see besides the scratch in the bottom paint.

I had a local yard take a look. Note I just had the cutlass bearings and shaft seals replaced about a month ago. Here was their take:

-the hose over the shaft log was the wrong kind - too stiff. They said the correct installation would be a silicone hose with a lot more give to it. The stiff hose would cause the seal to wear quickly.

-the shaft has a number of burrs and imperfections. These should have been filed down and sanded smooth when the new seals were installed. Also, the new seals should have been installed with a “red hat” looking thing that slides under the seal when moving it around on the shaft. It doesn’t appear any of this was done

-they think, most likely, the seal was damaged when installed, and the spare seal is suspect for the same reason, and/or the stuff hose accelerated failure

-hitting the bamboo may or may not have been the proverbial straw that broke the camels back, with the vibration from the strike translated through the stiff hose to the seal. Or, it was just coincidence and I noticed the leak because I was looking for it.

-if I simply replaced the seal with the spare, as I originally planned, it may have leaked the same or worse and I’d be out of spares

suggested course of action is to pull both shafts back, re-do the shaft log hose and put on new seals and new spares.

very frustrating

It leaks very little to none when stationary. It was dripping at first but it stopped all together overnight.

At idle speed, it leaks a noticeable but small stream at the bottom of the seal.

At cruise, it’s more of a spray than a stream, throwing water around enough to wet everything between the two stringers the shaft runs between.

I could try calling tides. Good suggestion. The guy who installed them is gonna be very defensive when I tell him what happened, so it’s probably best to have the best data possible.

I talked to tides. They said the only correct installation is with their hose. The black hose installed by my tech was definitely wrong

They also said the seal housing was likely an original install and well past it's service life. They recommend complete replacement of the whole system.