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Hey guys and gals, sorry it took so long but thank you for the replies. I ended up sticking with 410 since that's what we used previously and was available online.

Hi, After grinding away a few layers of biaxial on my skeg, I've rebuilt it with glass and now need to finish it off with an easy-to-sand epoxy. The area is relatively small. I think previously we used 410 but that was years ago and now looking at all the alternatives I'm a bit confused about...

Thanks, all, for your replies. I've been traveling back to the UK since posting this so apologies for not answering each comment. I hadn't realised that Delrin was a brand name and was Acetal, but it sounds like Delrin coud be the way to go. I will go for 3mm thickness.

Just spoken to my man here. We can and should get it turned locally in case there are any problems. I'll buy a block of material in the UK to take back with me. My question about thickness remains. Assuming I use Acetal, I'll be creating a top-hat bearing. There was a Teflon spacer of 3mm...

Hi John. I'm in Indonesia, not India, and I'm returning to the UK next week, so I can pick this up.

Hi, Having now removed my rudder I am looking to bore out the worn casting to a wider diameter and fit a bearing over the rudder pintle. @vyv_cox pointed me to his article in which he had to do something almost identical (see his photos of the finished bearing). I'd like to replicate this idea...

UPDATE The blow torch did the trick. Thanks to everyone who replied, and especially to those who said we needed to get hotter. Inside the casting we can see where the epoxy glue bonded onto the painted surface of the fibreglass, which is what was causing the problems. OK, let the bronze...

A couple of people said we weren't getting the bronze hot enough... (Notice the missing spacer in the rudder, for those who asked) By the time the visible epoxy glue was bubbling, we inserted our special steel V plate into the gap and gave it a few hard whacks. The good news is we were able...

Sure. See attached.

This will have to be removed when we eventually remove the bronze from the rudder, but taking it off now doesn't help. There's a gap between it and the bronze, no pintle.

Originally, Oyster. And then us when we refitted 12 years ago. Funnily enough, I've been speaking to another Oyster 435 owner who did his own refit and had exactly the same problem. He said it was an absolute **** of a job, as we're finding out. When we eventually put it all together, we will...

This is an excellent idea, @penfold , thank you. I will consider this next.

My apologies, I stopped getting updates for this thread and one been busy tackling this. One thing I have done is shave (chisel) away a section from each side of the skeg, just above the join. We were hoping this would give us better access to the gap between the bronze and the fin of the skeg...

If we go this route then rather than routing from underneath, which would be tricky, another idea is to create a vertical slot in the skeg and dove-tail the bronze plate into position.

Yes, I was thinking of using a hydraulic jack to push the casting upwards but will try the hammer first.

My concern is going too hot. We could damage the bronze or even ignite the glass inside. Any thoughts? Here's the stock, showing the top on the deck, where it comes through the deck inside the lazarette, and the bulk of the stock before exiting below.

I think you've pretty much nailed it. Since this is a ten year procedure, glassing over the bolts isn't so much of a big deal. This time the trick will be to NOT epoxy glue the bronze casting onto the skeg and rely on the bolts alone. I didn't consider straps though. Do you mean vertical straps...

Thanks for this, he has a similar setup to us. However there are two crucial differences: his rudder stock is much shorter, and his bronze casting is loose! You notice at around 07:00 how the casting drops away from the skeg? That's how he was able to fit the rudder in the first place, by it not...

I have drawings of the rudder and understand how it's all put together. My problem is removing the bronze casting because it's been epoxied into place.

This is correct. I can't release the epoxy holding it in place. The bronze has worn away so the rudder has lateral movement. It needs a bushing, as per Vyv's article. This is correct. The skeg extends into the bronze and was epoxied in place. It may be possible to cut the bronze where you...