At the last survey the lower pintle was loose and showing signs of wear although deemed fit for purpose. It was doubtful whether it would pass muster on the survey due next winter.
The boat was out of the water in Wells-next-the-Sea and I consulted widely over the problem of removing the rudder or gaining access to the bush holding the lower rudder. It was agreed that the only way would be to saw off the toe of the skeg, replace the tophat bush in a steel boot bolted through the remaining lower skeg after epoxing the sawn stub. An engineer friend (who was to make the new boot and bush ) suggested angle-grinding into the skeg toe and exposing the bush. If this failed then the toe could still be sawn off and nothing was lost.
I decided an expert opinion was required so I hastily joined the Snapdragon Association and had a long conversation with Mike Shepherd, the Technical Officer, who recommended either the vertical cut to remove the toe or a horizontal cut which would require bolting through from the bottom when replacing. It was not recommended or thought possible for the bush to be dug out from the side.
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In the event the bush was surgically removed through the side of the toe with a small angle-grinder and some drilling. To our surprise the bush was barely worn but had worked loose in the spongy inner core of the skeg. The new bush was fitted with two flats to prevent turning in the future. The hole was packed with fibre resin and made good with a resin coating.
With the benefit of hindsight four quarter inch drill holes to the bearing and a liberal injection of resin through an empty silicone gun would have held the bush in place - worth a try!
From Mike Ives (Sail No. 77)
TECH. OFFICERS NOTE
Some photos Mike sent show how it was done and you can see that quite a bit of the toe was removed, which was my concern with this method as it is bound to weaken it and new glassfibre does not adhere to old to give back 100% strength. I feel this could be overcome by grinding off the gel coat round the bottom of the skeg and the remaining part of the toe and then wrap right round with say three layers of mat and resin, smooth off and re gel.
Mike |
