Weeping skeg rudder

[Palmhoej]

Hello Cruisers Forum.

I bought a danish build Naver 29 last year. I took it out of the water for the winter, partly to inspect the bottom. Spring is here and i have found that my skeg is weeping:

Picture: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1HS...ynnUsaHHaQ90RY

When i pull or push you can see that there are water coming out of the cracks

Video: https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=hOIcNer6zII
Billed: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1cX...O9OJ40KXK0yUQY

This is no good and the thought of losing my rudder mid ocean sends chills down my spine. Here are my plan to fix it:

1. Unscrew the bolts that connect the bottom plate to the skeg. Once done, i should be able to swing the plate away from the skeg (plate still attached to rudder with bushing).

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Ma...-7GN4w8MJ-yPDo

2. Unscrew the three nuts that are on the threaded rod connecting the skeg to the hull:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1kR...FkfpBurGTbBohg

3. Pull off the skeg to see what the problem is.

Some question does arise: Is it possible at all to get the skeg off the hull (nuts removed) because of the old glue still holding on? Is it necessary to take the skeg completely off (my gut feeling says yes) or can i just grind down the cracks and epoxy them out (using some Sika two component i can't remember the name of) and retorque the nuts?

If it has to come off, my plan was to grind down the two connecting surfaces, put on some Sika, reattach the skeg to the hull (using torque wrench and new shims... maybe even a new pressure plate), wipe off the sika thats gonna pore out.

Any inputs on this will be appreciated.

Sincerely Kristoffer

PS. Sorry for any grammatical errors, english is not my first language.

[PDScott]

Kristoffer: Your proposed repair seems right. I'm no expert but I do think you may have to grind the joint at the hull to be able to get the skeg to come away. Not sure if you need to remove the bottom plate as it appears that the rudder will just come away from the rudder vertically. One thing to remember is to not damage the bolts in the skeg. You may want to remove the plate,reinstall the nuts partially then use a LEAD hammer to break the skeg free. Hope this works out for you and your English is far superior to my second language skills Peter