Moody 47 (80s) Rust from skeg

T

Tracey Gibson

Member
Boat name
LIAHONA
Berth
Brunswick, GA USA
Boat type
Moody 47 (80s)
Cruising area
East coast USA
Looking at a 1985 47 and there is some rust around a screw in the skeg on the SB side. Is anyone familiar know how big of an issue this is? Is it a concern? What kind of repair would I be looking at? Rest of the boat looked pretty good from what I could see.
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That screw (or bolt?) is through the bronze shoe that contains the lower rudder fitting. The shoe is riveted to the bottom of the skeg. Frankly I have no idea what that bolt is doing there! Was there a nut on the other side? Possibly the skeg came slightly loose and someone put a bolt through to steady it? Whatever, there should be no other ferrous metal there so I would be pretty certain that the rust is coming from the screw/bolt itself.
If the skeg did need re-fastening, it is not a big job at all
 
I didn't notice anything on the other side. This was the only side with rust. I was wondering if it was the screw rusting. I found the drawings for this boat on this site and took a look to see what was inside. There isn't anything down that low on the skeg. The skeg support looks like it ends higher up. Doesn't mean rust couldn't run down to that point. I still can't figure out what the screw is for unless it is a drain hole.
 
Ah I see. I wasn't picturing how it was constructed. The skeg support I referred to above was actually the steel skeg stiffener. That's what I was thinking could be rusting. But now I think you are right that the bronze was possibly loose and they added the screw to tighten it up and now that screw is rusting. Probably reacting to the bronze.

Am I picturing this right that if you stripped them paint off the bottom part would be bronze and the fiberglass starts pretty much level with the pivot point?
 
Yes, I think you've got it. The line above the screw is the top edge of the bronze, the GRP skeg continues above it. The line below the screw is the bottom edge of the bronze, and below that is the lower part of the rudder blade. The rudders on these boats are semi-balanced.
I inaccurately called the part 'the skeg support bronze'. It's actually what takes the weight of the rudder, and contains the rudder's bottom bearing. If you were to scrape the paint off it you would see a line of rivet heads, maybe 5 of them, rivets which go through to the other side via a tongue on the bottom edge of the skeg itself.
 
Thanks. I saw the line above the screw and initially thought it was a crack but it's a joint instead and is normal to be there. It was raining when I took the pic so it looks like water is weeping out of places but it's just the rain running down. I think it's been out of the water for a while so hopefully there isn't any water weeping out anywhere.

At least now it seems that this isn't a big deal and shouldn't be that difficult to remedy. A bronze bolt/screw might be the simple solution. The more permanent solution would probably be to remove the rivets and pull the support off and inspect. I checked the rudder itself and didn't feel any movement but as you can probably tell I don't know a whole lot about it. I was mainly checking to see if I could feel any play in the bearings.
 
Hi Tracey
I agree with all Dick has said. The rivets holding bronze rudder shoe to the skeg are normally copper rods that are put through the hole and hammered over at each end to fix in place. I suspect this is a replacement for a rivet for some reason. The stainless has probably become passivated which allows it to corrode more like a mild steel screw.
Copper rod is easy to get from e-bay so best thing is simply remove the screw and replace with a piece of rod. Once you scrape the paint away around it you will easily work out if I'm correct or if there is another reason which may alter the way you deal with it.
Regards
Peter
 
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