[C38] Advice on Rudder

[Larry Malmberg]

Greetings and Hallucinations to all;
We recently competed in the Marina Del Rey to San Diego CA race winning our
PHRF class, First in all Catalina's corrected and First in Catalina 38's and
second overall corrected, pretty good for us.  LOL

Upon arriving in San Diego we got a knocking noise which turned out to be
the cutlass bearing.  To make a long story short we ended up in National
City at Knight Carver Shipyard and were pulled out.  Cutlass bearing, drive
line, prop etc were all taken care of and it's perfect including the rudder
repack, stuffing box etc.  While there and out of the water I wanted them to
drop the rudder and replace the bushings.  They could not get the bolts
loose and were afraid of breaking them.

Any advice on getting the rudder off on our next pull out?  We plan on doing
the Trans Pac in 09 and obviously I want the bottom etc. perfect.  Also, has
anyone added a grounding plate to their bottom?  If so, which did you use
and where did you put it and most importantly how effective is it?




Best regards,

Larry Malmberg
Hassle