Rebuilding the Rudder and Skeg . . .

[SabreKai]

To do or not to do, that is the question....

I have a skeg mounted rudder on SD, which happens to have been put together in such a way that it is not ever going to be removable. The bottom socket for the rudder shaft is welded to the skeg and the rudder quadrant is welded to the shaft.

I am currently doing a refit which will have a new engine, new bearers, shaft log and prop strut installed. New through hulls, new cockpit drains and a bunch of hatch relocations. Possibly an extension to the deckhoust so I can have a small aft cabin.

So, should I bite the bullet and grind off the quadrant, remove the rudder, and rebuild the skeg so I can unship the rudder if required and put the whole mess back together?

What say you all?

[cwyckham]

One could argue that it is currently removable. You just need a grinder or hacksaw to do it. It's obviously up to you, but I assume it's a steel shaft and quadrant, and there are welders all over the world to put it back together for you wherever you end up. If you're in a place where you can haul the boat and drop the rudder, you're in a place where there's a welder around.

Seems like a lot of expense to do it up front just in case. I may be pretty naive about it, but you'll want to think about the scenarios where you'd want to remove the rudder. If you're in such an out of the way place, you'd probably want to use jury rigged system to get you somewhere more civilized, anyways. Do you have an emergency rudder set-up? You may be better to spend your time and money on a quickly deployable emergency rudder instead. If you already have one, I think you're covered.

[Samantha ann]

Why? Do you have to? If not don't