It was still warm and light when I finished work tonight so I managed to crack on with a bit more. I finished of the repair to the rudder blade. The Resin mix had set well and I just had to file it to shape before slapping on some yacht enamel.
The lower bearing housing for the rudder stock needed some attention, I had snapped a stainless screw in it last year while working on the beach. I managed to get the old bit of screw out but I also notice some other bits of metal in the GRP. After some digging I pull out two broken drill bits and another broken screw. By this time the hole was getting quite big... some remedial action was required. I poked out all the lose bits and wiped it over with acetone, I then filled all four holes with a resin filler mix before reattaching the bearing housing with the screws into the three good holes. The idea being that the resin mix in these will set and take up any slack from previous wear. The nasty hole will be allowed to set before being re drilled. All the fun of the fair!
Having made good progress I grabbed some sand paper are roughed up the rubbing strakes followed by a coat of Sadolin,, it's amazing how simple things start to make the task look so much better.
My last job of the evening was to refit the rudder and reattach the tiller. A simple task which posed the problem of how do you know that the rudder is in central position while you are in the cockpit attaching the tiller? So here's my tip of the day... I wedged an old fender between the rudder and hull and hey presto the rudder stays in position :)
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