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When it is raining, my dodger is ok to keep the rain out with the hatch still open.  If I close the hatch quickly I get about a quart of water dumped on me and the galley floor.  Anyone else have this issue?

I actually have a custom canvas cover that snaps over the companionway that we use without the criboards.  The doors were for keeping the cool air inside without lifting the boards.  I decided that I have so many projects that for now I will make some crib boards out of styrafoam and use those with the canvas for now.  That will insulate well and take away the annoyance of lifting up the heavy crib boards to enter and exit.  I'd like to make nice doors eventually but after designing them, sourcing wood, and making them fit perfectly I think that time will be better spent on other projects.  The styrafoam will not be yachtie but it will be effective.

Thanks Ron I'm leaning towards the 75 all around set up, these bushings brand looked similar to the ones I have, assume they are the originals.

Update: I sanded the whole rudder down and epoxied the dried out blisters and then did 3 barrier coats.  Also ground out around the other problem areas and epoxied.  I successfully executed the graphite pad injection method to remove the slop in the rudder tube, it has zero play now, moderately difficult using epoxy graphite in a caulk gun while down in the aft lazarette.  No issue getting the rudder back out, I waxed it with regular collonite before the epoxy and let it set for 2 days.   I now have 12 black graphite pads around 3" each that the rudder stock rides on. Tef gel on everything so will be easy to drop rudder if I ever have to again.

I'm looking at all the options and came across these from Go2marine.  Has anyone used them? Anyone have additional comments on using Vetus 75 in rear and 50 in front?  Thanks!

That makes sense, thanks!

I have recently relocated the boat from NY to Louisiana and am in the process of installing reverse cycle air conditioning.  Does anyone have drawings of doors for an mki? Would like to use them while in the slip with the AC on.  I have time at the moment to build them, so I shall make that attempt instead of buying from a vendor.  Thank you.

The rust is coming from a crack in the layup I discovered at the lower part of the rudder post, where the rudder forms a right angle and extends forward.  I hit a big partially submerged log a few years ago, that may have been what caused the crack.   I ground the crack out a bit and a little more water is coming out.  I also cut the old aluminum emergency tiller cap off and can see some wet gunk down in the bottom.  I guess I should drill some more holes closer to the shaft for a core sample there.  Also, when water gets on the tiller cap, the through bolt is not waterproof, if that water gets down the shaft where is it supposed to go?  I’m not positive what the prognosis is at the moment or what to focus on next.  I could potentially remove all my below deck AP stuff and have them move to to a spot where I can fully drop the rudder, but not sure what that is gaining me at the moment.  Thanks for all your input.

Lazy bone:

Re: rust stain

Do you feel the rust stain is an indicator of a compromised rudder?
Compromised shaft to rudder joint?

I drilled 3 small inspection holes in the lower part of the rudder and the foam was bone dry.

If the blisters are fluff compared to the rust can you elaborate what is wrong and how to fix?

I was personally more concerned with the blisters than the rust drips.

Thanks! 

Ok

#2- think anyone has done this without dropping rudder? My emergency tiller cap is stuck on there, and I'd have to remove quadrant and Edson bronze tiller for below deck autopilot.  And I'd also have to bring the travel lift over and hang in the slings to do this as I cannot dig a hole here.  I also don't want to epoxy my rudder into place....  I believe Ron was a big believer in the plastic/Mylar sheets slid down below the emergency tiller cap to fill the gap.  Heard of anyone else doing that successfully?  I don't want to go jamming things down there that I can't get out either...

I had a neighbor in the yard take a look and he thought the blisters were in the paint and the fairing and the white I'm seeing is Gelcoat on the rudder.  Said to sand and epoxy with fairing thickener (easy to sand compared to silicia etc).  So that's good, I guess.  Any thoughts on the play in the rudder bushing? Any new techniques besides the 2 I have found (plastic sheets, vs drop rudder, wax shaft, fill with epoxy)?

To make the question more specific, does anyone know what the hard white material I was able to get down to with my knife is? It looks clean and hard, is it possible the blisters were just in the paint and barrier coat? I'm having trouble finding the layup of the rudder, I assume there is foam behind this hard white layer.

This was the first year in my 7 year ownership where the boat stayed in the water for more than 8 months (it was just hauled after 16 months since last haul).  I was wet sanding the bottom and found maybe 50 blisters on the rudder, most are the size of a pencil eraser.  If I pick at them I get down to a hard white material below layers of paint and gray (barrier coat?).  I also have had the rusty rudder stain from the post for a while.  I know don't see any recent posts on the topic so thought I'd ask advice.  It sounds like Catalina does not do the recast anymore, so I will have to fix.  I also have some play in the rudder bushing.  I saw the 2 fixes as sliding plastic sheets down there or dropping rudder and waxing and filling with epoxy.  I may not be able to drop rudder at this yard. 
Thanks

Hi- I think Noah and I and one other are the only ones to tackle the below deck.  It's a huge job, I will not sugar coat it.  For me it was worth it as the boat performs very well in hard weather 10 foot seas with 25knts. I fiberglassed a large shelf on the port side behind the fuel tank.  The tiller arm for the AP can be at whatever angle you want so long as it's in a flat plane. Mine is probably 30 degrees.  Drilling the rudder post for the tiller arm is not for the faint of heart. They do not advise using the quadrant.  It's a big $ project.  Are you plannng multi hundred mile passages?

I had saw the front engine mounts wobbling against the fiberglass the other day.  I torqued down the bolts a bit, but they didn't bite that well.  Checked today after a short motor sail and one of the bolts had jumped out into the space below the oil pan.  I'm a little surprised that these mounts aren't through Bolted or bolted into some kind of sleeeve.  I've seen some people taking about shoving toothpicks in the hole but that sounds pretty iffy to me.  Is this an epoxy drill and fill situation? I'm in the Bahamas at the moment so I don't mind a quick fix for the time being but I'd prefer to just do it correctly for another 10 years