I've got the
rudder out of my
boat for the first time in her 17 years of
service (9 to me).
It's nice to see that the bearings and
steering gear all look to be in tip top shape despite the tens of thousands of miles, much of it in rough
weather. The
gear itself is oversized like all of this kind of thing on Moodys so not under much stress, and I like that.
However, the lip
seals were shot and sea
water had seeped through and had been standing in the cofferdam around the
rudder shaft. This has caused a
plywood bulkhead to swell up and pop its
paint -- not good. Now I'm drying that out so that I can put a coat of
epoxy on it.
I guess the accumulation of lip seal seepage is inherent to boats with cofferdams around the rudder shaft -- so what do you guys do?
Pump it out regularly? I can't even see what's going on down there without unscrewing the lazarette floor and lifting it all, and that after clearing out the entire lazarette :headbang:. So I have not been paying much attention to what is going on down there, which I understand now is not right.
Any tips?