Repair of Rudder tube area

The next major issue regarding the rudder system was the wet and rotting wood under the nylon plastic plate at the through hull hole. The wood screws held in this part and allowed some water to get through the gelcoat and fiberglass in this area. I cut open the glass and took out all the wet wood.

#9	#10	#11	#12
Will need to replace this part	And grind out this mess	Mess from another angle	Chiseling out very wet wood

Next I had to create pieces of glass that would fit in the hole I made, and around the fiberglass tube in the middle. This was a bit tricky, but made possible with the use of a quilting tool seen in photo #20. I put layer after layer of glass tape and mat alternating every other layer or so to create a 1/2" thick filler made of solid glass in the region that was cut open. This new area will be sealed from water as the glass will not rot as the wood did.

#13	#14	#15	#16
cutting glass to size	Clean and ready to go	Begin laying glass	Still laying glass

The final step in laying and sealing the hole was to put a few layers of glass over the area repaired, just slightly larger than the hole cut. I had to grind out a bit of gelcoat to make room for this final seal.

#17	#18	#19	#20
Mixing more epoxy	sizing final overlapping layers	Finished, will cut out rudder post hole when dry	Very important glass cutting tool

After color matching some of the gelcoat, its extremely obvious that the boat's gelcoat needs some serious restoration.

#21	#22	#23	#24
Nasty gelcoat color difference	Re-Gelcoating in-progress

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