I have a crack in the skeg on my 367. Looks like an old repair that's coming apart. The crack is about 6' long horizonally in the middle of the upper half of the skeg. Is the skeg solid fiberglass and should I just grind it out and fill it with epoxy?
Thanks,
Mike
Tried to attach a photo but the system says the upload folder is full. Photo is 100k.
I'm not sure where your crack is, but the bottom of the skeg on the 365 has a bronze casting to hold the rudder hinge and protect the skeg. It's pretty solid. Sometimes you can see what may look a crack, but is just the seam between the two pieces where the bronze bolts onto the fiberglass. This is what it looked like on one boat. See the water stain where water is leaking out of the gap? There is another post earlier with pictures of the filler ground out so you can see the bolts that are buried inside. It's under broken Skeg at this link if posting a link will work. http://www.pearson365.com/forum/index.php?topic=1155.0
(http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab16/daveanddella/Polaris%20Rigging/0EFF57C8-44AA-4801-8ACC-50692E89378A_zpsrjcykeas.jpg) (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/daveanddella/media/Polaris%20Rigging/0EFF57C8-44AA-4801-8ACC-50692E89378A_zpsrjcykeas.jpg.html)
(http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab16/daveanddella/Polaris%20Rigging/8664742D-113A-4EDE-A073-D1F0911EA65C_zpsnl3kitnb.jpg) (http://s845.photobucket.com/user/daveanddella/media/Polaris%20Rigging/8664742D-113A-4EDE-A073-D1F0911EA65C_zpsnl3kitnb.jpg.html)
If it's not there, you might see if someone has an IR cameras, they can sometimes show more of what is going on inside.
The skeg is hollow, or supposed to be. In your case it may have water in it. I suspect that the water when in the form of ice did the damage from expansion.
The top of the skeg is covered with fiberglass which mimics the shape of the hull. I noticed while pressure washing the rear area that water puddled in a low depression. After cleaning I went to remove that puddle of water and found it was gone. I found that the skeg cap was apparently porous and the water had passed through it. I like you, had some tell tale damage showing on the exterior of the rudder skeg down low. I sounded the skeg skin and determined where I thought the "bottom" was and drilled a 1/2" hole. My initial drain hole yielded approximately 5 gallons of very salty water. I suspect that water entered either from above through the porous cap or through exterior cracks. I ended up drilling several more holes to truly find the bottom and completely drain the cavity.
The repair consisted of grinding down the exterior and re-glassing the "shoe" in place and re-glassing the top cap. It has been 9 years and no issues. Yes... I would look into the possibility of water in your skeg especially in your climate.
Hope this helps.
Dale
The gudgeon is the same on the 367 & 365 - the skeg is similar on both for the gudgeon up, but the 367 has an extended skeg to match the longer rudder.
http://www.sailingseadragon.com/gudgeon.htm
For what it is worth
Garner
Here's a picture of the crack. Looks like the outside of the gudgeon shown in Garner's pictures. I'll check for water content but at this time of the year I don't want to be doing a lot of drilling and epoxying. If everything goes right, it appears that I only have to grind this out and epoxy over the gudgeon. Does that seem right?
Thanks for your responses,
Mike
https://www.flickr.com/photos/mcelroy_groton/17428355082/
I had the same problem a few years back, and found the skeg full of water. Curious, I took the skeg foot apart. Here are the pictures:
http://s1261.photobucket.com/user/barrylab1/library/Rudder%20Skeg%20Work?sort=3&page=1