leaking rudder post - any ideas??

[Halifax Sailor]

So I have been fixing all the leaks in my boat, should be done in 2125. anyway, the latest and least expected one is as described below and i am confused.

have replaced motor mounts, new stuffing box, realigned everything and now can get 3500 rpm with no vibration out of yanmar ysb8. however, now i also have increased speed through the water, and now have water coming in through the space between the rudder shaft and the fibreglass post. Wheel steering so there is very little space between top of fibreglass and quadrant. Its a 1980 Mirage, didn't have the issue last year but this year i can go faster under power. Does not leak at all when sailing at any speed. Looked at putting 1/4 " Teflon packing but looks like space is only 1/8" maybe should there be a stuffing box on this or is there a way to place stuffing either around from inside or is there a way to place it through from the bottom when i pull it in the fall? also though of pounding some flax thin and stuffing it in from the top because it expands with water right?? doesn't leak enough to endanger the boat, does bother the admiral though so...............

[Captsteve53]

Not really sure on your vessels design, but not all rudder tubes have gland packing's as the rudder tube/post it self is brought up above water line, it would appear your rudder post is marginal in this respect and now moving faster under power is causing the stern to sit lower in the water combined with a larger/higher stern wave raising the water height,

Wouldn't be to hard once slipped to glass in a standard gland packing into place under the quadrant (means probably cutting down the present post some what),

Another move is to check if the quadrant can be moved up wards (need to check cable alignment if doing this) then just extend the present tube/post higher as it dosent sound like there's to much height wise required to make a water tight rudder post, i had to do this recently where a generator was fitted in the stern locker causing the vessel to sit lower in the bum, we did have to re mount the quadrant higher but the cable alignment was still ok(depends on your original set up, our turning blocks for the steering cables were on a movable self aligning pulley system ..

[Mirage35]

I haven't looked at it in detail - boat is new to me - but my Mirage 35 has a stuffing box at the top of the rudder post. A bit of water comes in through it as the boat tends to "squat" when motoring and that apparently puts it just below the waterline.

Sounds like yours may be a similar design.