We managed to remove the old rudder from the boat today. It's not actually as hard as I thought. We rigged a line from the two stern cleats under the rudder. Once Sue removed the last screw holding the cap on the rudder post she could ease the lines while I wrestled the rudder to the ground. As you can see in the pictures below, this thing is seriously cracked. Also, plenty of water poured out of the rudder post when I turned it upside down and that ain't right! You'll also see in the picture that this rudder has been banging up against the hull. I'll make sure we put in proper spacers when we install the new rudder to fix this. Finally, there is a fiber tube in which the rudder post fits. When you look up from under the boat you can see a space between this fiber tube and the fiberglass hull. Don't know how far up this space goes but I'm thinking I should find a way to re-glass this space. Is it a lot of trouble to turn the boat upside down to get the glass to set right?
I had hoped to put in a new through-hull today for the head. I ground down the figerglass on the inside of the boat that was there to support the pipe stem to create a flat place for the nut that holds the through hull to the boat. The problem is that the existing hole is not perpendicular to the outside of the hull. So, when I try to put the brass through-hull fitting into the hole it fits but the flange leaves a large gap on the outside of the hull. This thing will not sit right unless it sits flat against the hull. Now what? Anybody got a hole straightener?
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