A problem with old Westerly Centaur rudders they leak after a number of years

After sanding off the surface paint and getting back to the original surface apart from a few places. It was time to drill a number of holes in the rudder blade to let the water out which had collected inside the blade void.

A lot of dirty and foul smelling water came out of the void

This area is the cause of the problem, it is the area between the rudder shaft and the fibreglass blade which over the years becomes delaminated from each other 

So in order to sort this problem out we have to grind back the fibreglass and re-laminate the shaft to the fibreglass blade.

 

Refit on a Hardy Bosun, Removing the paint off the area between the rubber fendering and the wooden rail.

Having sanded off the old paint off the area between the top rubber fendering and the wooden rail, it is now time to remove the paint at the underneath the rubber fendering and the top of the wooden rail which can not be removed with a sander.

This part of the job is the part that takes the time as you have to carefully remove the old paint with a sharp blade and then sand the area with fine sandpaper.

This area as a long stargaze in this area which will have to be removed and re-gelcoated and then the whole blue strip will be polished 

It is a long job removing the old paint, however, it will be worth the time when the blue strip is polished back to its original colour 

 

Now its the turn of the decks to get sanded back and the final filling before they get their final coats of Hi-Build rpoxy primer to seal the decks before they are deck painted

Starting at the bow sanding back the previous coats of hi-build primer with a lead light at deck level check where the low spots are so that they can be filled and then sanded back  

The deck are a lot smoother now that the hi-build primer is sanded back and it shows where the low spots are 

Once this is sanded back then the final filling can be done and the decks can be ready for their final deck paint coat.

 

The final two areas of hull fairing done with fine filler and now ready to paint the hull.

Finally the last two areas of the hull have been filled with fine filler and the hull just needs a good degreasing and a few fair dry days and we can start painting the hull

Just looking for a good few days and set up the staging round the boat and then we can start painting the hull her new orange coat

 

Getting to grips with the Morgan Giles 30 top and bottom jobs

A new and improved bow roller so that the bow roller will not stop rotating when under load when lowering or raising the anchor. 

The cutlass bearing with its new insert refitted to the outboard end of the stern tube, it will just need the bolts measuring up and ordering and this job can be ticked off the list of jobs to do.

Because of the type of cutlass bearing casting there is enough of the insert to be used as a replacement should the need arise.