30 Pilot II rudder mounting

A member has a diver report of a loose bottom mounting for his rudder on the skeg. He plans to haul and correct, but we are looking for somebody with previous experience with rudder removal, how the upper packing works, and how the bottom mounting at the skeg is arranged.

pilot 30 rudder

hi,

attached is a pic of rudder bottom bracket. sorry, not my boat so can't get you the top.

At the fellow owner's suggestion, I went down to my lift-kept 30 Pilot II and watched the bolt head as my wife turned the wheel, and sure enough it turned with the rudder. So now we think the arrangement is a bolt running through the unthreaded hole in the skeg and into the threaded hole in the enlarged section of the rudder's bottom section. He says the diver reported no bolt, just a hole; so, either somebody didn't put thread locker in there or his bolt snapped off. He is now going to haul the boat and get it fixed.

OK, the boat was hauled, and a new 2-inch stainless 7/16 bolt was installed with washers above and below the skeg.