[Public-List] Rudder stops and stern tubes.

[Kirk Little]

It's been nearly three long weeks here on the hard in Trinidad making up for 4 years of sailing and not hauling out onto the hard short of careening between the tides for bottom paint in Madagascar and 3 days on a trailer in Australia.  So this discussion about 5200 got me thinking about my stern tube?, that bronze pipe that threads onto the cutlass bearing housing and the stuffing box.  The first time I replaced the cutlass bearing 5 years ago the stern pipe came out with the housing and I thought nothing of it, just re-bed the tube and housing together with 5200 and no problems.  Even now when I took it out again it was not too much trouble to remove the old 5200 (chisel and sand paper) and re-bed it.  But the other folks here in the marina looked at me like I broke my boat when the tube came out telling me it should be glassed in and never removed?!  On the Alberg 30 there is probably half of an inch of glass there where it protrudes out so not a lot of surface area for epoxy/glass to lock it in, then there is just a bunch of pliable grey putty, so I just glued it back in with 5200 as before and suspect its fine but it did get me wondering if it should come out so easily or not, any thoughts?  

As for 5200, IMHO, it is the way to go for most things that you don't want to take apart on a regular basis (like a through hull), I can't ever remember it failing as a sealant or a glue.  Yes, it is a bit of effort to rebed later on but I've always managed to get everything cleaned up with the combination of steal brush, sanding, chisel, and even the grinder on rare occasions, but I'm always grateful that it holds on so well so I don't mind.  Some places well off the beaten path where it's impossible to obtain I've seen it traded amongst cruisers as if it was gold, even when sikaflex was handy.  One South African offered me a case of wine for an extra tube I was carrying when he had leaky spot on his steal boat near the mast where some wires were passing through.  

Lastly, I had my prop re-conditioned for the third time here.  And I hardly use it but about once a year I put the engine in gear without remembering to fully lower the tiller.  This allows the prop to actually hit the rudder when the tiller is hard over to either side and always puts a few nasty dings / bends in the prop blades.  The only rudder stop I can find is the cockpit seats against the tiller which do the job but only if you have the tiller fully down, am I missing something or is there some kind of rudder stop that should keep me from doing this over and over?  I couldn't find anything by searching the old list so any help or even links to old info is appreciated!  Sorry for the long winded questions, Thanks -Kirk #504.