Rudder question - filling inspection holes

[wind dancer]

I just pulled my boat for bottom painting, zinc replacement, and to replace my prop.  I noticed some streaking on my rudder, which I ignored when painting the first coat, but when I came back the second day there was more streaking, so i decided to drill a half dozen 1/4" holes to check it out.  Four of the holes were bone dry, but I got about a tablespoon of water out of two of them. 

I know I'll need to replace the rudder at some point, but it's not in the budget right now and the steel inside the rudder appeared intact and rust free (I know where there is water, there's rust. . . ).  Anyway, my question has to do with filling the holes I drilled.  I filled them with git rot, in the hope that it would flow downward through the rudder and fill any gaps there might be.  It mostly drained out of the holes (too viscous and there were no gaps for it to flow down through), so after several hours of drying, I filled the holes with Marine Tex.  Is the Marine Tex going to play well with the not-cured Git Rot?  Also, will I have problems with it sticking to previously painted areas?  I plan on sanding the Marine Tex down and repainting over it -- I'm just worried about making the problem worse.

The water seemed to come from the top of the rudder where the rudder stock enters the rudder.  I also coated that with epoxy (Git Rot since that's what I had) in the hopes that it would limit water ingress.

I guess the good news is that bottom is in decent shape, the prop shaft is straight and the zincs still had life in them (I replaced them anyway, of course).  Gotta look on the bright side. . .

[Jeff Kaplan]

jay, on my '86, i had the same problem. prior to my replacing the rudder 2 seasons ago, on advice from gerry douglas, i put a liberal bead of 3m 5200 around the post where it enters the rudder, and it worked to keep water out for that season. marine tex is great stuff and it will work  in the holes you filled. as you said you are going to do, definately sand the areas clean of paint, rough up the surrounding surface so the tex will grab, over fill the holes and sand smooth the next day. btw, my old c27 was named "wind dancer"....jeff

[wind dancer]

Thanks for the advice, Jeff.

I'm going down to the boat this evening to put the prop on, I'll sand the marine tex down and put a bead of 5200 under the washer on top of the epoxy I already laid down.

Jay

[Craig Illman]

Jay - Where are you hauled out?

Craig

[wind dancer]

Craig,

I'm hauled out at the Everett Marina.