Rudder, to grease or not to grease

[roland stockham]

Hi all, I have a thransom hung rudder with three substantial bronze bearings. Rudders is solid teak, traditional 'barn door'. When out of the water it is rather stiff, back in the water less so as the buoyancy of the wood takes a lot of weight off. It does fee up some with use but still seams to have some friction in the bearings and this takes a while. I am guessing the underwater bearings are intended to be water lubricated and it may be that water does get into the top one after a while and that's why it frees up.

I am wondering about fitting a grease point to the top bearing and pumping white grease in. No sign of there having originally been any means to grease it and I don't remember seeing one on similar boats. anyone got a a similar setup that has a grease point? Can anyone see potential problems? Anyone now why they don't seen to fit grease points?

PS lifting the rudder up to grease the bearings directly is not practical