Water in Skeg?

[backman]

My boatyard told me that when they hauled the boat that water came out of the skeg. They also told me there is "flex" in that skeg which probably led to water intrusion over time.

There was no water coming out of the keel; only where the skeg met the keel.

Any suggestions what to look for/what to be doing?

They also removed the fiberglass rudder and found there was no shoe in the skeg; just a epoxy/glass pad that the rudder had sat on. What should I be doing there - I am replacing the glass rudder w/ a stainless one...

 

[KBriggs]

my thinking is the skeg is filled with a filler material and is not 100 %water tight from there to the wet well its not uncommon for water to weep out of the skeg as long as there is no signs of delamination and you need a gudgeon bearing spelling may be wrong usually made of bronze should be sunk into the end of the skeg and bolted or some are glassed over hope this helps

 

[Toolate]

What kind of boat? Any way to post some pics so we can see your arrangement?

 

[backman]

What I have so far

It's a northern bay 36 and I didn't get any good skeg shots last week. You can see the lack of any bearing for the rudder in theses. Not thrilled about the rudder port either....

 

[backman]

Rudder port

Not happy, I would have expected better coring

 

[F/V First Team]

Replace it with something that works better

 

[Bill]

Travis do you have a picture of That shoe? Is it just a stainless cup with a flange welded to it?

 

[F/V First Team]

It's plastic, only metal on it is the four countersunk areas to fasten it down with

 

[KBriggs]

That looks like a cutlass bearing sleeve ,,
in the pic of the end of the skeg ,should be a gudgeon bearing and the upper bearing thru the hull should be a bronce rudder port stuffing box with a packing nut be sure there is a ground wire that connects the stuffing box bearing, rudder and gudgeon to a zinc

 

[Toolate]

Travis do you have a picture of That shoe? Is it just a stainless cup with a flange welded to it?

That is a custom made unit from Tides Marine (I believe- seems like Travis' go -to) and I am working on pricing one from them right now so will update when I get the quote if anyone is interested. Will be a week or so prob. All made of UHMW plastic which is bomb proof stuff if anyone is skeptical. Nice because it will isolate the rudder from other metals (I am making a SS rudder and keel shoe is Bronze).


Here is the link but not gudgeon bearings shown only tops- they make them though.
https://www.tidesmarine.com/tides-marine/rudder-bearings

 

[backman]

Confused - the rudder bearing and seal is plastic and the shoe i also plastic but held in w. a steel flange? I can get this from Tides?

 

[Eslang]

Not happy, I would have expected better coring

Larry,
That's solid glass back there. No core under the waterline on that boat. As far as the skeg flexing?? I doubt it.
Double check that

 

[F/V First Team]

Confused - the rudder bearing and seal is plastic and the shoe i also plastic but held in w. a steel flange? I can get this from Tides?

Only where the four fasteners go, that is dished out and has a metal countersink in the area to take the load from the fastener. Everything else is plastic and you glass the rudder port right into the boat. You set the skeg bearing (what you're calling a "shoe") with some hull and deck putty and fasten it in place with your rudder installed. Pretty straight forward really, everything self-aligns at that point and you're good to go. The rudder bearing and the shaft seal are a separate unit that screws into the rudder port and seals with a nice big fat O-ring. No packing, no electrolysis, no worries.