We stripped our ST6000 planetary gear headed from San Diego to Cabo San Lucas. I replaced the gear while anchored off Cabo in 4' rolling swell. No problem - very obvious what to do once the linear drive is open.

We replaced the original plastic gear set with a newer bronze set - that was December 2001 and it is still working perfectly after another 8,000 miles.

The attached picture shows the stripped sun gear. We had to leave an anchorage very suddenly when the surf came in - it was getting dark and was quite windy. Set the autopilot to drive while we put up the main - forgot to unlock the wheel. The ST6000 is supposed to have a clutch that slips in those circumstances - ours did not slip and did strip the gear.