Ruddy rudder

I've made some more progress on getting the rudder back together with a huge amount of help from my favorite Yorkshire man.  Brian has a great workshop with some tip top tools and the knowledge to use them.
First I needed to mark up the rudder stock and tube for where the flange will sit, the position of the blade and the approximate position of each tang.

Marking position of blade and tangs

I took (nearly) everything to Brians... I did forget to take the bottom hinge bracket, the Stainless strips and the bottom of the skeg, so I'll have to go back another day to finish that off..

Brian doing his thang

After a lot of lining up, measuring and checking again Brian tacked the flange onto the tube.  I was feeling brave so asked if I could have a go at the welding.  I'd never tried stick welding before or welded Stainless so this was new to me.  The results weren't pretty but fairly robust.    

The 25mm Stainless stock was drilled through in two places to allow the 10mm rod tangs to pass through and be welded on the back side.  These holes were then used as a jig to drill into the rudder blade.  Once the tangs were hammered into the blade.and the stock hammered onto the tangs, all a good interferrance fit, the tangs were welded to the stock.. I left this for Brian to do :)

No seagull poop comments please.

The flange hadn't looked 100% square on the tube when I'd finished welding it but fortunately, back at the ranch,I could see the GRP on the boat had a slight slope on it, so more by luck than judgement, the flange fitted perfectly.

Glooping it up

I used copious amounts of Sikaflex to fill the big gaps (above) and attach the leading edge of the blade (Below).  I then strapped it up to set and will shape and epoxy it all back together over the coming week.

Stick the leading edge back on.