Rudder shaft

[Cheechako]

Your boat is fine. If you want to strengthen that arrangement, cut a piece of exterior plywood to a wedge shape, place it between the tube and hull and glass that to the hull and around the tube. Rawson built many boats that way and mine was like that. The Rawson is a full keel type with rudder attached to the keel. So it doesnt need much more up there. In addition yours appears to have a bearing block at the deck supporting the shaft also. So your rudder is supported what...3- 4 places? 2 on the keel, one in the tube and one at the cockpit sole?

[snotter]

The pictures below illustrate a project I did on my boat while it was out of the water for an insurance survey. The project involved replacing the 32 year-old rudder bearing on my Morgan 41 O.I. I had to grind out the old rudder-post bearing, using a dremmel. I replaced the bearing with an off-the-shelf Buck Algonquin rudder post bearing shown below. The Buck Algonquin was too long so I had a local machine shop cut the post down on a lathe and re-thread (tap?) new thread so that the new bearing was the same height as the old bearing. The glass work utilized a mat/woven roven layers (6 pairs in all totaling in 13 layers)The surveyor whetted out in epoxy. I tapered the whole before glassing using a rotary drum sanding bit chocked up in my drill.

The surveyor approved of my process (he was the one who suggested I grind out and replace the bearing after I asked how I could get rid of an annoying drip that the packing box wouldn't stop) and was impressed at how much stronger the new bearing is compared to the old. Plus, the new bearing doesn't leak a drop when under power and the hydraulic ram is pushing athwart the post. You got to love a good surveyor.

[Suijin]

Definitely need gussets for reinforcement. I would simply go with 3/4" marine ply sealed with epoxy and be done with it.

That said, you need to find out what is going on under that failing bog. Clearly water is migrating from the surface of the tube along a seam and to the cracks, given the discoloration. I'd grind it all off to find out what's under there, and would plan on relaminating that area with roving and cloth. If you're lucky it's only leaking when underway and the rudder is under stress and you can do the work at the dock.