Back to the Skeg

[John]

I have my skeg off, to replace the rudder. My question for those who have done this before is: how much did you prepare the surfaces before re-attaching the skeg? It appears that my skeg was pulled previously, and where re-installed, they went overboard on the 5200 ( they put it back on crooked to line up with the rudder, so they used a lot of 5200 to fill ). Should I chisel off all this 5200 to get to clean gelcoat? At the top of the picture, you can see the clean gelcoat, but on the port side, it is built up with 5200. It also seems to be concaved in at the center. This look familiar?A guy who owns a shop in the yard said I should leave as is, put slow cure epoxy on the whole thing, and reinstall the skeg ( with wax paper in between ) to resurface the whole thing. Then after the epoxy is fully cured, take it back apart and then re-bed and install with 5200.Not that I doubt him, he seems to be very knowledgeable and helpful, but I'm wondering if others went to these lenghts? I think he was concerned with the few spots where the gelcoat is cracked and suggested this for watertight(ness). That will be quite an endeavor, and with the weather here add weeks to the whole project.Or should I just lathe on more 5200, stick it all back together and not worry about it?Thanks all

 

[Royce]

Skeg

John, I could not really tell very much from your picture, but on mine after I cleaned the top of the skeg off, it was a smooth, flat surface. It mated well the the heel on the boat. When I went to reinstall, I first reinstalled the rudder, then the skeg and used my cars jack to hold the whole assemble up while I installed new SS lag screws. I did bed the joint in 5200. After checking for alignment and all, I glassed the joint over with alternating layers of mat and woven roving.Also, I installed a new bornze (Probably silicone bornze or naval bronze here) bushing in the bottom of the skeg where the bottom of the rudder bears on Good luck,Royce

 

[John]

Thanks Royce

The picture isn't good. It's basically the hull, where the skeg should attach. I have abou a 1/4 inch of hard 5200 on the hull. Sounds like you got it down to clean gelcoat on both the hull and the skeg before reassembling. I think I'm going to go ahead and chisel away at the 5200 to get down to gelcoat. I may need to then touch up the gelcoat before reinstalling with a sandwich of new 5200.Thanks,John