Rudder removal

This was, slightly unexpectedly, a stinker of a job.

I thought the shoe on the bottom of the skeg would present difficulties, but the silicon bolts actually came out readily, and the shoe was easy to remove.

The rudder head, however, was a different issue. I've come to the conclusion that this could only have been fitted by heating up the bronze casting (very considerably) and then pressing it onto the shaft. It was extremely difficult to get off, and I ended up damaging the thread and the nut with a sledgehammer.

Once I had got it to move slightly I could get a puller under it. With a lot of heat, this finally got it out. I now have a bit of an engineering challenge repairing the thread and replacing the nut:

A man is coming to look at it on Friday ... 

I can think of a few solutions. None of them will be cheap.

I also have the problem of getting the bronze rudder head fitting back onto the shaft. I will get advice on this. It might be worth getting it very slightly reamed. The rudder actually hangs by this fitting - the bottom of the stock is located in the skeg shoe, but it doesn't rest on it.

And, as it happens, all the bearings look fine ...

The rudder needed to come out for another reason, which was to allow clear access to the skeg for copper-coating:

Knowing what I know now, I might have passed on this ...