Voyagers Rudder
Hi Neil -
The reason I opened-up the aperature was so that I could swing the correct sized prop. The previous owner compensated for the too small prop problem by changing the gearing in the tranny to spin the prop faster. As a result, Voyager didn't motor very well & made lots of cavitation noise. My Perkins 4-236 is so powerful that I could easily spin the prop right up into cavitation mode. I installed a larger, fixed 3 blade & it motored wonderfully. Using this arrangement, I motored 1500 nmi from Chuuk to Kwajalein against 20 - 25 kt headwinds & steep chop. It was miserable, but it was miserable at 6kts! Since then, I have gone to a feathering prop. It doesn't motor quite as powerfully, but now I get an extra knot of speed on all points of sail - even at the top!
The fiberglass hull is in good shape. The only place I've had any problem is water intrusion into the deck & cockpit floor, causing the balsa coring to rot & become soft. I've become adept at "skinning" the affected area, digging out the rot, building it back-up & then putting the origional skin right back on over the repair.
My upper & lower rudder posts are connected by welded structure, and so, are bonded. All the structure in my rudder, the hinges & the rudder shoe are all stainless, and home-made. As such, all this hardware is pretty much impervious to anything. If you want to make the rudder hinges, let me know & I'll tell you the process I used - It was easy! Your configuration with the continuous rudder post is completely different than mine. I don't think I have any more pictures of the rudder, but I'll look.
Hope this answers your questions
Rick
S/V Voyager
Reliance 44 #3